Coppicing for roundhouse
A big effort from the volunteers, with fabulous help from Natural England, produced a huge load of coppiced hazel from the beautiful Ebbor Gorge NNR for the new Iron Age […]
The final countdown
Only 147,840 tesserae left to make!
Beastly infestation
An infestation of beasts has been noted hovering around the longhall. Blame appears to be due to a group of itinerant wood carvers. Pest control have unhelpfully informed us that […]
Floor recipes
Work on the top dressing of the Saxon longhall floor continues, with a recipe of clay subsoil (sieved), sand, lime, hay, milk and eggs (sometimes just the whites if we […]
Thirsty Viking boat
As winter approached, the Viking trading ship, ‘The Walrus‘, was looking quite dried out after a long summer. A touch of linseed oil worked wonders. Elsewhere the top floor coat […]
Starting at floor level
The top coat of the rammed earth floor is being developed in the longhall. Recipe: 2 barrows of sieved clay subsoil, one barrow of sand, 2 buckets of lime, an […]
Carnyx calls
Round the back of an industrial estate, the unlikely strains of an Iron Age carnyx (based on the 1816 finds from Deskford in Scotland) could be heard entertaining passing high […]
Carvings, gallows and stone
More carvings are underway for the Saxon longhall, based on manuscript images. To inspire quick work, a gallows has been erected against the Roman building to punish laggards. It will […]
Monty Python 50th celebration
In honour of the 50 years of Monty Python silliness, and of one of the best films ever made. Thanks to Richard Barwell for the painting. Needless to say, he […]
Health and safety gone mad!
Stringent new rules have been introduced for lunch breaks on the Viking boat. One volunteer (name witheld) said, ‘its health and safety gone mad. I blame Brussels… and leeks’. The […]
