Yay, yet another Fab activity organised by the lovely J - she really seems to find blinding days! We travelled in convoy with T, M and S and despite a weeny bit of hard braking coz I nearly missed the turning we arrived in one piece to an utterly blissful scene. Round houses rising out of the landscape like sharp wooden hills,
acres of oil-seed rape all set against a dramatic hillside. We really did feel cut off from the modern world it was just so beautiful. We started the day by sitting in the roundhouse and having a brief talk about life for the ancient Celts. Maureen who did the talks was fab,she coped extremely well with all the different ages and all the kids got the opportunity to answer questions and make observations about how modern houses compare to roundhouses. T noted that they didn't have cupboards or windows! It was 
quite smokey in there and we were all glad to get out into the fresh air but not before the kids sampled the must haves of Celt day to day life. Naturally T climbed into one of the beds! We also got to feel the weight of the chain mail used at the time, turn a mill stone and look at a loom and boat. Maureen also explained the significance of the animal skulls that adorned the front of the round houses and the house god/goddess carvings they had in the house. T seemed very pleased that he knew about gods and goddesses!!!
The view from the Roman villa - now that is a des res!
acres of oil-seed rape all set against a dramatic hillside. We really did feel cut off from the modern world it was just so beautiful. We started the day by sitting in the roundhouse and having a brief talk about life for the ancient Celts. Maureen who did the talks was fab,she coped extremely well with all the different ages and all the kids got the opportunity to answer questions and make observations about how modern houses compare to roundhouses. T noted that they didn't have cupboards or windows! It was 
quite smokey in there and we were all glad to get out into the fresh air but not before the kids sampled the must haves of Celt day to day life. Naturally T climbed into one of the beds! We also got to feel the weight of the chain mail used at the time, turn a mill stone and look at a loom and boat. Maureen also explained the significance of the animal skulls that adorned the front of the round houses and the house god/goddess carvings they had in the house. T seemed very pleased that he knew about gods and goddesses!!!Then we were off to make clunch..........Clunch being an ancient form of cement/mortar/building stuff. either way it involved big ole' mallets made from trunk and branch junctions of holly trees and chunks of chalk.
The kids were given a mallet and a chunk of chalk and told to gently (yerrrright) bang it until it was powder. Naturally the kids took the this task with great gusto and soon there were little piles of chalk building up on the treestump tables. Maureen encouraged them to do as much as they could as opposed to stopping after one chunk so we had a good pile by the time all the banging had stopped. She then swept the chalk into a bucket and told us all we could wipe the chalk dust on to our faces and be scary Celt warriors!!!
The kids were given a mallet and a chunk of chalk and told to gently (yerrrright) bang it until it was powder. Naturally the kids took the this task with great gusto and soon there were little piles of chalk building up on the treestump tables. Maureen encouraged them to do as much as they could as opposed to stopping after one chunk so we had a good pile by the time all the banging had stopped. She then swept the chalk into a bucket and told us all we could wipe the chalk dust on to our faces and be scary Celt warriors!!! Naturally we all obliged so a group of slightly paler home edders were seen queueing up for the next stage of clunching!!!
The next stage of clunching was the mixing of the clunch. Which involved very specific amounts...........chalk, handfuls of dried mud, straw and enough water to make it squelch. then each child was handed an blob of clunch and told to squidge and squeeze it until it was less wet and sticky and shape it into a ball.
They then went to the back of the queue with their handful of gunk to get on with the shaping. Once back at the front again they were led to a framed corner which will eventually be a forge to press the clunch into wet earth or on top of more cluch to create a series of flat pancaked clunch lumps.......apparently fab foundations............obviously was gonna take a lot more days of clunching!! Not a great activity for those, who like T don;t like to have dirty, sticky hands, especially as they were told to clean them by dipping them in a bucket and wiping them on the grass!!!!! Ah well where there's muck there's brass! "Who has the baby wipes?" was the cry and those of us who didn't willingly handle a pile of mud just laughed!!! So after a good session of clunching it was a wee bit of wattling before lunch. 
Again I would love to see teachers faces as the staff of Butser gaily hand out HOOOOGE long hazel rods to small people - oh not a safety goggle in sight! the curve of down struts was already set up for them to practice on so it was just a case of weaving the flexible branches into place. Maureen reckons that the fence should last about 6-7 yrs about the time it takes for the hazel tree to grow back the 
branches to the right size. clever int it? T, S and M had a grand time and once they had been shown how to do it they were allowed to do a couple at the other end of the fence by themselves (well T and I obviously helped a bit!!! ) It was a glorious day but still a bit parky when the clouds went in front of the sun, that being, we sat on T's picnic rug and gossiped while the kids played house in one of the roundhouses. Did you know that the roundhouses didn't have holes in the top for the smoke????? Hmm did you???? We didn't but they most certainly did not have holes or the door way would become a draw and the roof would burst into flames. The smoke filtered out through the thatch, making the thatch uninhabitable to insects and therefore uninteresting to birds. No hole, no nasties.....With hole...no roof!!!!
They then went to the back of the queue with their handful of gunk to get on with the shaping. Once back at the front again they were led to a framed corner which will eventually be a forge to press the clunch into wet earth or on top of more cluch to create a series of flat pancaked clunch lumps.......apparently fab foundations............obviously was gonna take a lot more days of clunching!! Not a great activity for those, who like T don;t like to have dirty, sticky hands, especially as they were told to clean them by dipping them in a bucket and wiping them on the grass!!!!! Ah well where there's muck there's brass! "Who has the baby wipes?" was the cry and those of us who didn't willingly handle a pile of mud just laughed!!! So after a good session of clunching it was a wee bit of wattling before lunch. 
Again I would love to see teachers faces as the staff of Butser gaily hand out HOOOOGE long hazel rods to small people - oh not a safety goggle in sight! the curve of down struts was already set up for them to practice on so it was just a case of weaving the flexible branches into place. Maureen reckons that the fence should last about 6-7 yrs about the time it takes for the hazel tree to grow back the 
branches to the right size. clever int it? T, S and M had a grand time and once they had been shown how to do it they were allowed to do a couple at the other end of the fence by themselves (well T and I obviously helped a bit!!! ) It was a glorious day but still a bit parky when the clouds went in front of the sun, that being, we sat on T's picnic rug and gossiped while the kids played house in one of the roundhouses. Did you know that the roundhouses didn't have holes in the top for the smoke????? Hmm did you???? We didn't but they most certainly did not have holes or the door way would become a draw and the roof would burst into flames. The smoke filtered out through the thatch, making the thatch uninhabitable to insects and therefore uninteresting to birds. No hole, no nasties.....With hole...no roof!!!!After lunch we moved onto the Roman villa where we all got to 
have a look at the failings of Roman architecture in chilly old GB. Roundhouse - very snug, Villa - very chilly, great in the med not so great in good ol' blighty!! We then got to try our hand at spinning with wool from the sheep on the farm. The younger kids were offered mosaics to do but stuck at the spinning for the same length of time the older ones did......at which point all the kids buggered off to do mosaics whilst us Mums stood around attempting to spin......not much changes then!!! The final activity of the day was chalk carving. We were given a chunk of chalk and a sliver of flint. First the kids were told to dye the chalk by rubbing a dock leaf on it and then scratch our their picture. Maureen suggested something to bless a house and explained that Celt gods and Goddesses usually took familiar forms. T decided to carve a rather lovely spider and I did a goddess. She then casually mentioned that you could also dye your chalk yellow by using dandelions which T did round the edge of his spider. We finished the day by walking down to the gift shop drinking in the breath taking scenery. Britain at its best, proper rolling hills and wandering sheep. T came back to ours for Coffee and we set the world to rights whilst the kids went bonkers in the garden. Just a wonderful day!
have a look at the failings of Roman architecture in chilly old GB. Roundhouse - very snug, Villa - very chilly, great in the med not so great in good ol' blighty!! We then got to try our hand at spinning with wool from the sheep on the farm. The younger kids were offered mosaics to do but stuck at the spinning for the same length of time the older ones did......at which point all the kids buggered off to do mosaics whilst us Mums stood around attempting to spin......not much changes then!!! The final activity of the day was chalk carving. We were given a chunk of chalk and a sliver of flint. First the kids were told to dye the chalk by rubbing a dock leaf on it and then scratch our their picture. Maureen suggested something to bless a house and explained that Celt gods and Goddesses usually took familiar forms. T decided to carve a rather lovely spider and I did a goddess. She then casually mentioned that you could also dye your chalk yellow by using dandelions which T did round the edge of his spider. We finished the day by walking down to the gift shop drinking in the breath taking scenery. Britain at its best, proper rolling hills and wandering sheep. T came back to ours for Coffee and we set the world to rights whilst the kids went bonkers in the garden. Just a wonderful day! The view from the Roman villa - now that is a des res!