Saxon hearth dance
Ancient Saxons built raised wooden hearths inside their longhouses. Legend has it that before the final layer was laid inside the frame, a special ‘hearth dance’ had to be performed […]
Author Archives: richardbrunningswht
Tegulae and imbreces
The lovely Roman tiles are going up on the building and have already withstood several gales. Tegulae are the flat ones and imbreces are the curved ones. A clever system […]
wattle, sprocket and daub
Wattle Sprocket and Daub are of course a well know firm of solicitors, but they are also what has been going on recently at Hands on Heritage. The roof and […]
Lake of Excalibur discovered
John Leland, the 16th century expert on Arthurian legend, identified the bridge between Street and Glastonbury as the place where King Arthur’s sword Excalibur was cast into a lake. Archaeological work […]
Wattle and daub
While some of the group were on stone shovelling duty, the rest experimented with wattle work on the Roman and Saxon buildings. Interesting solutions for how to wattle a triangular […]
Topping out!
The Carpenter’s Fellowship have done a great job of putting the main roof timbers on the Roman and Saxon buildings. The smoke hood of the Saxon hall was topped out […]
Saxon hall takes shape
The Carpenter’s Fellowship have been busy erecting the oak walls of the Saxon longhall. There were several delays with poor ground conditions and the discovery of bits of car and a […]
Its the tops!
Hurrah! The cob has finally reached the top of the wall due to a wonderful effort by the HoH volunteers. Thanks also to Mark Lunnon for some great cob mixing […]
Its a frame up!
The Carpenters Fellowship are steaming ahead with their work on the Saxon longhall frame.By the end of October the frame will have arrived at the Avalon Marshes Centre and the […]
Higher and higher
Cob layer number 4 has gone up on the Roman building and we are now above the bottom of the windows. 2 more lifts should see us to the top […]
Avalon Archaeology 'Hands on Heritage' 