Form 4 go back in time at Butser Ancient Farm

Date: Saturday 12 January 2008

On Thursday the two Form 4 classes visited the Butser Hill Ancient Farm in Hampshire to support last term’s History topic on the Celts and this term’s on the Romans. The reconstructed Celtic roundhouse and Roman villa give a wonderful insight into the life of Celtic farmers in 300BC and Roman farmers in 300AD.

Olivia and Sebastian take up the story…

When we got there we went to a roundhouse and saw how dark it must have been for the Celts in their houses. It was very interesting to hear that one of the reasons the Celts had fires in their roundhouses was to smoke the bugs out of the thatch. Bugs are a tasty meal for birds and birds destroy the thatch in getting the bugs out.

Our first activity was making a fence from wattle. We used hazel branches because they were the second bendiest tree. To do this we worked in pairs. This kind of fence lasts up to six or seven years and during this time the hazel trees would grow back again.

Then we had lunch in the round house. It helped us think what it might have been like for the Celts living in it all the time.

The second activity was jewelry-making with copper wire. So we could bend the wire we were given pliers. We had the choice of making a torc, ring or pendant.

Then we went into the Roman villa and learned lots of interesting facts about it. The Romans used quite a lot of flint as well as wattle and daub, and they used slaves to do the dirty work.

After that we did some spinning and made mosaics. When we did the spinning it was very smelly because we were using wool straight from the sheep. Also it was very sticky from the sheep’s lanolin.

Overall I thought the trip was absolutely brilliant because it felt like we were all going back in time to a Celtic village and a Roman villa.

Many thanks to our wonderful hostess and guide, Morian (and her lovely dog Moss) for giving us such a perfect visit.