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 […]
Category Archives: Roman
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 […]
Sprucing up
A big push was made to tidy up the site for the July open day. The longhall was fitted out with the new furniture and the ceiling in the Roman […]
How to close a hypocaust flue?
We are experimenting with a hypocaust system in our Roman dining room. We have 8 flues which take hot air from under the floor, up the wall and out under […]
Hardie but no Laurel – how to make Roman tesserae
Trials have begun on making tesserae for the mosaic floor in the Roman building. Stone (recycled from a Roman building) and tile are cut into rods by a tile cutter […]
Pink to white
The gable end of the Roman building was smeared pink from the red ochre lines by a tarpaulin was supposedly protecting it from red paint. Now re-limewashed, back to white.
I keep a knocking but i can’t come in
The third door of the longhall was offered up this week and the line of the hinges marked out for mounting. Meanwhile table trestles were being made and a mass […]
A hunting we will go
The hunting scene has been finished – a fresco replica of a mosaic design from East Coker villa in Somerset. Very similar scenes are depicted on Roman villas as far […]
Boiled or raw linseed oil?
Linseed oil is derived from flax seeds and has been used to treat wood for thousands of years. The boiled variety is often preferred now because it has a much […]
Roman tortoise discovered on the moors
Last weekend a rare Roman tortoise (Testudo testudo) was spotted on the Somerset moors for the first time in over a thousand years. The slow moving beast was seen advancing […]
