March Edcott Activities 2011

Our March volunteer weekend saw more cob being added to the new oven by Bex, Nick H,and Zsuzsi and a new outdoor firepit constructed for the coming summer by Alan, Nick R, Richard, Jake and Zac. A drum of charcoal was created in preparation for the iron smelting session planned for May - plenty more will be required so this may be a frequent task this Spring. Chrissie's birthday provided the opportunity to celebrate with a treacle tart after a hard day's work.
Ann spent both days binding off the edges of seams on tunics for our stash of period costumes. There are plenty more to finish so all help is very welcome.
Earlier in the month Richard and Marc had supervised the lifting the new chicken coop up onto its sturdy base.
Repair work was undertaken on the roof edge over the old cob oven, the winter rains having badly eroded the cob strip below the thatch. Wattling was added in preparation for a thatch to be added, lined with cob to prevent sparks catching the edge alight. Following the success of the heather thatch on the chicken coop, the material was used again on the roof of the small wood store beside the oven. Richard now hankers for the same treatment for his bodger's shelter where the winter has taken it's toll on his brushwood thatch.
Still too early to plant out in the vegetable plot that was worked down last month.

February 2011 Spring Clean

Early spring clean for the structures and garden, together with the construction of a new and larger bread oven beside the hand mill. The workshop floor was lowered to allow for more headroom now that the back wall has been lowered to allow a better angle to the roof for thatching. During January Richard and Marc have been working on a new chicken coop, the original looking rather battered. They investigated using heather as a roofing material and the results are rather splendid, with the site now having heather, brushwood and straw thatch roofs - experimental archaeology in action.
Volunteers enthusiastically threw themselves into making cob for the oven and to decorate the slimmed down mill base - Aimee, Knowle, Marc, Skip, Charlie, George,Dom, Nat, Polly,and Aleric. Jill, Phillipa, Zsuzsi, Nick, Aleric, Suki and Megan set-to to prepare the vegetable plot for the new growing season. Chris kindly undertook repairs to the forge bellows. Ann continued on making tunics in the warmth of the ger. Aleric enthusiastically investigated skinning and dissecting the grey squirrels culled by Escot Estate to clear the way for the reintroduction of Red Squirrels on the estate land. Richard assisted volunteers with their pole lathing aspirations as well as, with Nick, fine tuning the ins'tree'ment. Mary and Vix kept the young occupied - no mean task. Faye made a spoon and bowl from start to finish over the weekend as well as assisting with general building work. Many thanks to all for their efforts.

August Pottery Weekend 2010

Skip Greenwood has led a kiln firing weekend - building and firing over the two days. Assistance from numerous volunteers - Nick, Jake and Chrissie; Rachel, Chris and Ben and Rhiannon (round and round she went, grinding flour and baking bread...); James and Liz with Toby and Josh; Maddy, Jonas, Richard and Kate. As the firing continued through the night both kiln and kiln watchers had to stoke up on fuel.

Winter 2009

The workshop building now has its main roof timbers and an enlarged area for our new blacksmith's forge. The forge area is thatched but the remainder is awaiting drier days and is therefore temporarily covered with a very un-Saxon tarp. The new forge, complete with a hand operated bellows, has provided many happy hours of hammering for Matt and great interest from passing members of the public.

Richard has created an authentic bodger's 'hovel', with a brushwood roof on its steep A-frame structure. His heavy duty pole lathe fits at the mouth of the hovel with viewers held at a safe distance behind an fence. Spured on by this construction, Richard and Richard 2 also reinforced the roof extension to the sunken hut, ensuring that the earth oven was kept out of the worst of the weather. Poorly supervised children have proved to be a menace, causing damage to fragile walls and roofs, resulting in a rash of fences and obstructions that seem to be having the desired effect.

Eve has, periodically with other help, been tanning our second boar skin. The first, Boris, now hangs as a door skin on the sunken hut. Ali, Leah, Anthony and Kevin have ably worked at a multitude of activities. Annie and Ann have continued to expand our costume stash, attempting to master the drop spindle but consider that they are a VERY long way off weaving their own spinning.

Small craftwork sessions with volunteers attending above and beyond our monthly sessions have resulted in a considerable number of items for sale to the passing public. A trip to the International Living History selling fair in the Midlands has resulted in a considerable quantity of suitable fabrics for costumes and accessories, samples of arrow heads, garment fasteners, a new bucket and a wealth of information being acquired.

Our most unwelcome arrival has been the rain - our ancestors coped with dank clothing and only the option of a smoked filled hut to dry out in, making central heating and chimney flues all the more appreciated.

Summer/Autumn 2009

This season has seen the earth oven being fine-tuned. A carved oak door with twisted, hand forged steel handle was created by Richard and Matt and greatly improved the thermal properties of the oven - numerous successful baking sessions as the proof.

Improvements were made to the outdoor woodwrighting area, with a wooden fence built to keep the public at a safe distance from the (very) sharp edged tools on view.

On sunny days the tent has been raised to show off the small craft and household items the group have accumulated. On one of our very wet weekends four brave souls risked camping in Suffolk (in a downpour, with one of the tents missing its outer roof covering - don't ask, let's just say we'll check our tents more closely before camping again). The trip was in order to visit the West Stowe Anglo-Saxon village development to view the building construction techniques used as well as the small domestic items. A very impressive site with a purpose built visitor centre, complete with interactive displays and a fully stocked shop. New publications on construction methods/designs and on costume were purchased to add to our library. Alan, Ann, Annie and Chrissie admitted they really enjoyed the visit but paled if the M25 was brought into the conversation.

The sunken hut has had its thatch reinforced with a turf topping giving it a wild look and the internal fire pit is now located beside a wall, complete with an ornamented clay fire back to protect the wattle walls.

Pole lathe work continues apace with bowls of increasing quality being produced.

Spring 2009

May 2-4 - Lots happened - the sunken hut is finished, complete with a turf ridge; 'Weena' allowed some of the public to view her brood of five chicks; our new cob bread oven was fired up but proved to still need further drying out before we will be able to fully bake loaves in it; charcoal was created; timber was harvested the A-S way - axes not chainsaws; greenwood working skills were learnt by four German scouts who spent a day with us; Nick spent considerable time taking pictures that will hopefully make their way onto this site; costumes were sewn and several were modelled during the three days we were open; Boris the Boar's hide was hung as a 'door' in the sunken hut; a high-rise chicken hut (away from prowling badgers) was almost completed and lots of cooking took place.

We were visited by hundreds of Escot Park visitors over this Bank Holiday weekend and while many were from far flung places, some even over from Europe and we hope that we may see some attending as volunteers in the future. Our displays of artifacts grows each month and knowledgeable visitors add to our sources of information - Roger Bourgein kindly let us know of a new publication on wooden bowls and particularly the technique of using a pole-lathe to make them.

March and April saw us concentrating on pottery - Skip kindly attended both sessions and guided us through the processes of digging, preparing and forming clay in March and a spectacularly successful firing in April. Skip specialises in ancient techniques of making and firing pottery. An enclosed bonfire firing technique was used, resulting in a considerable number of small items making it through the process in one piece. Further work was also undertaken on the sunken hut, the bower for the spring/trough and costumes.

February 2009 Weekend

Thanks to the snow arriving on Dartmoor Dave Budd, archaeological blacksmith, was unable to attend the blacksmithing weekend. Fortunately Matt Kent got out his 20th century portable forge so that some forgework happened and Dan, James and John got a taste for whacking metal. We shall try to book Dave again for a summer weekend, when he will be unlikely to be marooned on the moor.

Meanwhile Richard continued thatching with assistance from Leah and Roger - just the ridge to complete. Ji continued with woodwork and hurdle making. Eve removed Boris the Boar from the tanning pickle barrel and stretched him out on a frame to dry. Kevin, Ali, Antony and Arwen slaved for various people, kept the fires burning and put in sterling work to prepare the ground for our new storage container. A wide range of food was produced with help from Maddy and Polly, with several stews incorporating pheasant, rabbit, venison and squirrel.

Roger, Tracey and Luke doubled our chicken population with their kind donation of 'Leah' and 'Maddy', already in egg laying mode. Tracey has prepared a willow frame for the small oven planned for the sunken hut. Maddy began work on a large wooden bowl and sack full of split willow spars was prepared to anchor down the last of the thatch.

Despite the snow, plenty of food and two warm fires ensured that the 'crew' stayed warm. Next month sees us moving on to clay and pot building.

The Hut really looks the business - Jan 2009

Thanks to the hard work by Alan and Richard, the sunken hut is looking great. The walls have been filled and the thatch is on up to the eaves - only the ridge to do now.

Richard has also been busy beautifying the village well - a professional cobbled area and a hidden soak away are now in place and the willow bower is tied in and trimmed, ready for the new Spring growth.

A new notice board is in place beside the gateway and Ji has finished one of the two massive village gates.

What with metalworking and pottery sessions planned for the first quarter there is plenty to see and do so why not join in? Small woodworking, costume sewing and calligraphy are other topics some of our volunteers are involved in so it is not all heavy work.

Autumn Progress 2008

The sunken hut now has earthen walls heaped against the wattle and the village spring is being cobbled as I type. November and Decembers volunteer weekends proved very successful. We shall have a break in January and will resume our weekends in February, starting with a demonstration of ancient metal smelting and working. There may be an opportunity for some to have a go though a charge will have to be levied to cover expenses.

The Spring will see us expanding into a pottery theme with the March weekend seeing the manufacture of vessels and April will include a firing session. As ever, the weekends are the first in each month unless stated otherwise.

Best wishes to all our friends and colleagues for the holiday season.

2nd and 3rd August 2008Volunteer Weekend

The August dates are Saturday/Sunday 2nd and 3rd August. The sunken hut is almost completely 'wattled' in no small part due to the sterling efforts of Year10 Work Experience students from The King's School, Sidmouth College and Exeter College. Their efforts were greatly admired by the 1,000 or so staff and pupils that have visited us in June/July.

On August 2nd we shall push forward to complete the last few (and fiddly) bits of wattling and the thatch. As usual there will be several small tool tasks underway - making trenchers and individual bowls and spoons amongst them. The last weekend saw the costume group create a young girl's outer dress - Chrissie was again our willing model - and the intricacies of the Lucet were mastered (despite the instructions putting left for right!) (don't know what a Lucet is?No well equiped Saxon woman is without one - come and find out).

As well as continuing the work of the previous day Sunday 3rd August will see a short workshop on making Penannual Brooches in sterling silver (free tuition but a charge for the silver used) run by Ann Bruford, a professional jeweller. Places will be limited with the tools and metal available determining numbers. If there is too great a demand another workshop will be run at a later volunteer weekend.

Don't forget to bring a lunch/something to cook over the fire, work clothes and sturdy footwear (not open toed if sharp/heavy tools are to be used(swimsuit for the swampwalk?)It may be hot so don't forget a hat. As usual drinks are on us. We would appreciate an email if you are interested in coming, especially if you were thinking of camping over on the 2nd.

Thatching - Summer 2008

Thanks to the generosity of local master thatcher, Mark Turbitt, we have acquired some suitably 'aged' reed for the roof of our sunken hut. We now have a sizeable mound of reed protected by tarp and Mark has offered to provide instruction on how to attach it, using hurdles as a base layer. Saturday 7th June sees this work beginning so let me know if you are interested in joining us for the weekend.

Interest in the site is increasing as visitors to Escot Park catch site of people working away and new volunteers are always welcome. Further weekends are also planned for early July and August - keep checking for further details.

Escot's May 2008 Volunteer Weekend

The May weekend was a great success. Both days were well attended and resulted in the sunken hut work moving on at a pace. Lots happened and the 'settlement' visibly moved up a gear.
Ashley, Megan, Jess (1), Jake R and Steve, all new t0 the project, began laying the wattle walls with an impressive eye for detail. Harvesting, trimming and laying the rods took a lot of effort and their work was spectacular.
Ji, Kevin and Nick W have begun preparing the main gate timbers and are now on the lookout for an authentic style of door hanger. Jess(2) laid into the timbers with a gusto on the Sunday.
Daubing went down well, especially with the young people who were interesting shades of buff through to black by the end of the day. Tall Ally daubed throughout Sunday, barely pausing for breath.
The prickly task of weeding the hedge plants took place - thank you Nick R for organising this as well as the daubing.
With Annie and Ann working on prototype clothing designs the end of play on Saturday saw Alan modelling the mens' underclothing - the promised photo is included on the blog for all to admire. Snigger, snigger.
Annie, Michelle and Eve's help with the catering was much appreciated by all. Such an event is not complete without good food and our new reproduction ceramic pots were christened on the Sunday in the embers of the new fire pit. The pots had been created for us by the London potter Caroline Gregory and were greatly admired. Caroline undertook research at the Museum of London and the British Museum and produced cooking pots, a spouted pot and a funerary urn.
Eve impressively took on the smelly and sticky roll of village tanner and devised a system to process the latest wild boarskin harvested from the Escot herd - Boris the Boar's aromatic skin now floats in a vat of salt and vinegar awaiting its reincarnation as a trophy for the village shaman.
The Saturday night camp was well attended by the young, kindly overseen by Michelle and Ji but perhaps as the weather warms up we may be able to tempt the elderly to risk a night under canvas (or at least in a hut).
There are plans afoot to create a Facebook account so that all the photos taken can be shared by the group - we will let you know when it takes off. In the meantime we are uploading some images from the weekend here on the blog.
Don't forget to write in the 7th and 8th of June in your diary for the next Escot Village Weekend.