Butser Ancient Farm facts for kids
Butser Ancient Farm's reconstructed Iron Age village.
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| Established | 1970 |
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| Location | Windmill Hill, Hampshire |
| Type | Archaeological open-air museum |
Butser Ancient Farm is a special place in Hampshire, southern England. It's like a living museum where you can see how people lived long, long ago. It's also a place for experimental archaeology. This means experts try to rebuild old homes and farms. They learn how ancient people built things and lived their daily lives.
At Butser, you can explore different types of old buildings. These include homes from the Stone Age, Iron Age roundhouses, a Romano-British villa, and an early Anglo-Saxon house. The farm helps archaeologists understand life in Britain from about 400 BCE to 400 CE. This time includes the Late British Iron Age and the Roman period.
The farm started in 1970. In 1972, Peter J. Reynolds, an experimental archaeologist, became its director. It first opened on Butser Hill. Later, it moved to different spots. Since 1991, it has been at Bascombe Copse on Windmill Hill, Hampshire.
Butser Ancient Farm is open to visitors. It also hosts many events throughout the year. The famous archaeologist Mick Aston said that most drawings of Iron Age villages are based on Butser's work. He said it completely changed how we think about ancient economies.
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History of Butser Ancient Farm
Butser Ancient Farm was started in 1970. The idea came from Collin Bowen, an archaeologist. In 1972, Peter J. Reynolds became the director. The farm got its name from its first location at Little Butser. This was a part of Butser Hill. An old farm from the Bronze and Iron Ages was found there.
In 1976, a second area opened. It was called the Ancient Farm Demonstration Area (AFDA). This new area was made for visitors and schoolchildren. It helped keep too many people from visiting the main experimental site. The first Butser Farm site closed in 1989.
In 1991, the whole project moved again. It went to Bascomb Copse on Windmill Hill, Hampshire. This new spot is between Chalton and Clanfield. It is about 5 kilometers from the first site.
The farm has many reconstructed buildings. These include roundhouses from before the Romans. There is also a Roman villa. The 'Longbridge Deverell House' was the first large roundhouse built at the new site. It was one of the biggest in Europe at the time.
Peter Reynolds passed away in 2001. His partner, Christine Shaw, then ran the farm. She helped finish one of Peter's projects. This was a Roman building. It was the first full-size copy of a Roman villa wing from Sparsholt. The Discovery Channel helped pay for it. They also filmed a TV series about its building.
In 2006, a new team took over running the farm. Simon Jay and Maureen Page now manage it. They run the farm as "Butser Education CIC."
Around 2006, the 'Longbridge Deverell House' started to fall apart. This led to new plans for all the buildings. Experts looked at new information from 20 years of digs. They decided to build things in new ways.
The new roundhouse replaced the 'Longbridge Deverell House'. It is based on a house found at Little Woodbury in Wiltshire. Building started in February 2007 and finished in December. A visitor center was added in 2013.
Exploring the Buildings
Butser Ancient Farm has many different types of ancient homes. Each one shows how people lived in different time periods.
Stone Age Houses
The Stone Age area has two buildings. They are based on discoveries from Durrington Walls near Stonehenge. These houses are made of wattle and daub. This means woven branches covered with mud. Their roofs are made of wheat straw. One house, Durrington 851, has simple furniture. This furniture matches what archaeologists found at the dig site.
In 2019, work began on the Horton House. This house is based on finds from Horton, Berkshire. It was built with the help of the original digging team. The roof rafters go into the ground. This makes the large building very strong. Pine wood was used for the main frame. Ash and hazel make up the roof timbers. Reed thatch covers the roof. One end of the house has a woven wall. The other end uses split oak planks.
Bronze Age House
In 2021, Butser Ancient Farm started building its first Bronze Age house. It is based on discoveries from Dunch Hill. This project works with Operation Nightingale. This group helps injured military people by involving them in archaeology. The Operation Nightingale team dug up the house in 2020. Then they helped rebuild it at Butser. The house was finished in October 2021.
Iron Age Roundhouses
Inside the Iron Age area, there are six roundhouses.
The biggest one is the Little Woodbury roundhouse. It is about 14.5 meters wide. It needed about 12 tons of oak for the frame. It also used 4 tons of ash and elder for the roof. About 7 tons of thatch were used. The walls needed 1.5 tons of hazel and 20 tons of daub.
Two houses are based on finds from Danebury Iron Age Hillfort. One is CS14, made with woven willow walls. The second, CS1, has oak plank walls. This house has furniture like those used in the Iron Age.
The Moel Y Gerddi Roundhouse is from Harlech in North Wales. It is built like the Little Woodbury Roundhouse. This house also has a back door. In 2009, the inside posts rotted. They were successfully replaced without taking the house apart.
Two houses are based on the Glastonbury Lake Village. They were built to be very light. This is because the ground around Glastonbury was marshy. House M59 and M74 have thin willow walls. They have reed thatch roofs.
The Iron Age area also has grain pits dug into the ground. There is an Iron Age toilet. You can also see a 9-post structure and bread ovens.
Roman Villa
Butser also has a reconstructed Roman villa. It is based on the western part of Sparsholt Roman Villa. This villa was dug up between 1965 and 1972. The building has a working hypocaust system. This was an ancient heating system.
In 2017-18, the Villa was updated. The walls were repainted with old Roman colors and patterns. A copy of a mosaic floor was put in the main room. This took over 120,000 tiny pieces and 1000 hours of work. The villa also has Roman-style furniture.
Saxon Houses
There are two houses based on finds from Chalton Saxon Village. Chalton A2 was built in 2017. It is made mostly of English oak, sweet chestnut, and hazel. All the wood came from local forests. The roof has woven panels. Wheat straw thatch was laid on top. The wooden beams were shaped by hand. They are fixed using special wooden pegs, not nails.
Chalton A1 is still being built. It will have different types of walls. There is also a small Saxon workshop. It shows how Saxon woodworkers built things. It also shows a shingle roofing style.
What is Experimental Archaeology?
Peter Reynolds from Butser Ancient Farm helped create experimental archaeology. This is a way of learning about the past by trying things out. Since 1972, Butser has done many experiments. Peter Reynolds focused on farming and daily life.
More recently, the farm also studies how buildings were made. Every building you see at Butser is an experiment. They are built to test ideas about old discoveries. They also test different building methods and materials.
Experts look at things like roof shapes and how to thatch. They also study materials like wattle and daub, wood planks, and turf.
At first, the experiments were about Iron Age buildings. Now, the farm studies buildings from many different times. These include the Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman, and early medieval periods.
Butser on TV and Film
Butser Ancient Farm has been a location for many TV shows and movies.
In 1986, the Doctor Who episode "The Mysterious Planet" was filmed there. An episode of the BBC Television show What the Ancients Did for Us was also filmed at Butser in 2005. This show looked at old British inventions.
Butser has also been in other history shows. These include Mystic Britain, Digging for Britain, and Britain’s Pompeii.
The farm has also been used for movies. These include Horrible Histories: The Movie - Rotten Romans, Britannia, Arthur and Merlin, The Four Warriors, and Gladiatress.
In 2021, Butser Ancient Farm started "Butser Plus." This is a platform with documentaries about their experimental archaeology projects.
See also
