Rattletrap Competition
Welcome to the Trojan Museum Trust Website, I hope that you have enjoyed your day at the Lakeland Motor Museum and have enjoyed learning about Rattletrap and the Swallows and Amazons.
Here are the answers to our short quiz:
- The Three Pigeons were used by the children to send messages back to the Amazon’s mum at her home by the lake. The children were camping high up on the fells and by having three homing pigeons they could send a message a day for three days before one of them had to go home to collect the pigeons. The pigeons were trained to always fly to their home pigeon loft and could have a tiny message attached to their leg.
- A Mortar is basically a very tough iron bucket in which you could place hard objects which you then crushed and broke up by pounding them with the Pestle. The children were collecting rocks which might contain gold then pounding them to get the gold out.
- Hammers and Chisels were used by the children to break bits of rock away from a rock face.
- Motoring Goggles were used by the children to prevent bits of rock going in their eyes when they were hitting them with the hammers.
- The Bicycle was used in two ways, firstly they pushed it up the steep hill loaded down with their camping gear, using it like a donkey or dromedary to carry the loads. Secondly they rode the bike down the hill when they went to collect the pigeons.
- The Large Biscuit Tins were used to store their food. In the 1930’s there was no such thing as plastic food boxes and so tins were used instead. Biscuits often came in large tins and so these were ideal to keep food safe and to keep hungry mice or hedgehogs from eating the children’s tea.
How did you do? Some of them were a bit tricky as the children didn’t always use things for their normal purpose.
If you want to read the full story about how the Swallows, Amazons and D’s used all these objects then do get hold of a copy of Pigeon Post by Arthur Ransome. Your library should be able to get you a copy or you can buy a copy by clicking the link below to the Arthur Ransome Trust’s website, where you can also find out more about the other books that Arthur Ransome wrote.
To find out more about all the things that Trojan made then do please explore this website.
Have a fun rest of your day,
The Trojan Museum Trust Team
Buy a copy of Pigeon Post here.
