A truly ancient experience
A new residential facility
Huge timbers prepared by hand will form the foundations of the new Viking Longhouse facility.
Anyone meeting the Centre’s management team can’t help but notice their dedication and pride in the project. It’s evident in everything they say and do. And this was particularly the case when our conversation came round to the topic of what is looking to be the Centre’s most ambitious construction project to-date – a Viking Longhouse – a building which will act as a residential facility enabling volunteers, visitors and young people to stay overnight and for weekends.
Anyone meeting the Centre’s management team can’t help but notice their dedication and pride in the project. It’s evident in everything they say and do. And this was particularly the case when our conversation came round to the topic of what is looking to be the Centre’s most ambitious construction project to-date – a Viking Longhouse – a building which will act as a residential facility enabling volunteers, visitors and young people to stay overnight and for weekends.
The facility is the brainchild of Manager Luke. He says: “We wanted a building to accommodate pupils and our starting point is always archaeology. We were thinking about Vikings and so we took a research trip to Denmark to look at reconstructions there. Off the back of that trip, we came up with an artist’s impression of the building. The finished result is a combination of our need for a facility of a particular size and our constant aim of finding archaeological evidence so that we can reproduce an authentic replica.”
Once completed, the Longhouse will measure 24 metres in length and seven metres in width, tapering to five metres at each end where it will house two porches. The building will provide accommodation for up to 30 pupils in the open-plan sleeping quarters and ten adults in a separate teachers’ area. It is designed to be as authentic to Viking times as possible whilst combining modern facilities. Luke adds: “Visitors will sleep on sheepskin mattresses placed on top of wooden planks and the main hall will feature a raised platform housing an open fire. There will however also be flushing toilets and a modern galley style kitchen so that food can be prepared to hygiene standards.”
Left to right: ICM Chief Executive, Dr Alistair Somerville-Ford; the Lord Lieutenant of Dorset, Mrs Valerie Lane-Fox Pitt Rivers; and Centre Manager, Luke Winter.
During his opening speech, Dr Alistair Somerville Ford spoke passionately about the Centre’s work. He said: “The Ancient Technology Centre provides a unique opportunity for young people to find out how people lived millennia ago and also to learn about and practise some of the skills which were needed by our ancestors to provide food and shelter for themselves. Children can derive far greater benefit from the hands-on learning approach provided by the Centre than they can from simply reading textbooks about the nature of society thousands of years ago. I hope that by holding this event it will promote greater awareness of the Ancient Technology Centre and highlight the tremendous work carried out here.”
The Centre is so popular amongst visitors that there is already substantial interest in the new facility, before the building work has even begun. Pascale explains: “As soon as we revealed plans for the building we had interest from groups wanting to place advanced bookings, which we’ve already started to take.”
Understandably, the team is hopeful that the creation of their new landmark project will also raise some much-needed revenue for the Centre. As Luke adds: “We’ve got so many more ideas, but at the moment we just don’t have the funds and space to accommodate them. We hope that the new building will address this, as well as giving us the opportunity to employ more staff. We’d eventually like to be able to subsidise schools that currently can’t afford to pay for our activity days… and it would be nice if we could hold more public events.”