A truly ancient experience
An ethereal charm
A 300-year-old grain store houses all of the tools used by staff, students and volunteers whilst on site.
When you visit the Ancient Technology Centre for yourself, it’s easy to see why it’s so popular amongst children and adult visitors alike, with many coming back time and time again to take in its charms and participate in the range of activities on offer. We were lucky to be taken on a tour of the ‘village’ by Anthony and were fascinated and amazed by the sheer scale of the building work achieved.
Venturing into the Centre can best be described as stepping into a period film set. A pathway overgrown with wild and diverse plants and bushes leads you to a hand-woven gateway behind which sits the impressive buildings and gardens that make up this ancient village reconstruction. Each building varies in size and age, the first of which is described by Anthony as a: “‘Bender’… believed to have been a type of shelter in which people would have lived in our distant past. We recreated this using sticks woven together and tied with hazel and covered in foliage,” he explains.
Tutor Anthony Brown points to the large plot that will house the Viking Longhouse.
The oldest structure on site is a 300-year-old grain store rescued from Sixpenny Handley and re-built by Centre staff and volunteers. Most impressive, however, is the Earthouse, created combining Iron Age roundhouse evidence with a Neolithic wood henge style. On its outward appearance, you’d be forgiven for thinking the Earthouse is a modest structure, consisting of an innocuous wooden door which appears to have been built into the side of a hill. Step inside, however, and you are greeted by a hugely impressive space. A total of 21 oak pillars of immense proportions hold the roof up whilst wooden cladding covers the walls. Wooden benches circle the room in layers, looking into the Centre where a fire can be lit. At the top of the roof is a huge skylight, which Anthony tells us can be pulled back to let visitors view the stars at night. It is here that the Centre holds its popular musical and storytelling events throughout the year and as we stand in the room we can almost feel the atmosphere that must radiate during these events. “We hang oil lanterns and light the fire which creates a ‘moody’ ambience, perfect for the storytelling. Performances can last up to two hours so we have an interval during which we serve mulled apple juice,” says Anthony.
The site houses a variety of reconstructed Neolithic, Iron Age (Celtic), Roman and Anglo Saxon buildings.