The Bronze Age Build Blog - Session 10

Our Bronze Age Project co-ordinator Trevor gives the latest update on the Bronze Age build as the remainder of the roof rafters are raised and we prepare for the thatching to begin!

Our latest three day assault on the Bronze Age roundhouse was rather like dancing: two steps forward, two steps back.... Happily, this particular form of the Tango ends with four steps forward. 

We had finished the previous building session with the central post and four main rafters in place. Those are the main structural parts of the roof, so you could say that the roof’s main skeleton was in place, ready for us to attach more bones to. Most of those bones are in the form of rafters – long timbers that slope from the top point of the roof, down and outwards until they meet the walls. Together, all of the rafters will make a roof in the shape of a cone that will support the thatch that will keep the inside dry and warm. Conical roofs are a distinctive – and I think quirkily charming – feature of roundhouses. We have six on show in the Iron Age area.

The first thing to be tackled last Wednesday was the question of how to attach the rafters to the roof skeleton so that they would make that nice cone and not fall down (a very important consideration!). We also had to do this safely – given that we were building much of the roof four or five metres off the ground. Answer – scaffolding. Now it wouldn’t be surprising if your first response was that this is ‘cheating’. It was mine. But then I reminded myself that we have no direct knowledge of how Bronze Age roundhouses (or any other prehistoric buildings) were built. Occasionally at Butser we are asked things like ‘how did people get up on a roof?’ Almost certainly, they used something like a ladder. After all, if you can build a house you can build a ladder – so why not some form of scaffolding? In fact, our central post was such a great aid in getting the first phase of the roof up that I can’t help but wonder if it wasn’t actually a prop for a scaffold or ladder!  But not steel like ours, I’ll grant you – this the Bronze Age, after all.

I had a certain idea about the way the rafters could be attached at the top of the roof that is a little different to anything in our other roundhouses. The idea came partly from a desire to try something different in the name of experimental archaeology, but also because our rafters are very heavy and I wanted more robust support. The timber we have is larger and heavier than we need, so it was a belt and braces approach. The long and short of it was that, while it works structurally, it made a roof that was going to be nightmarish to thatch. So, one step forward Wednesday morning, one back Wednesday afternoon! 

Thursday and the team created a more conventional (by Butser standards!)  system for building our roof. To the delight of all, this involved cutting some fresh, green hazel from our little thicket and twisting strands together to make a strong, flexible hoop. This is secured to the main rafters near the top of the roof and the remaining rafters are then attached to the hoop (in a roundhouse you can’t get all of the rafters – nearly 20 in our case - to meet at the apex without creating a very messy roof). So, by Wednesday afternoon, one step forward. Actually, I reckon two is a fairer assessment! I should point out that nobody was more delighted about the fresh hazel than the goats, who got all of the leaves that were stripped from the rods – they love fresh hazel!

Friday saw a truly titanic effort to get most of the remaining rafters stripped of their bark and installed (if we leave the bark on it eventually peels off and falls on peoples’ heads. Very annoying.)

I do not have enough praise for the Operation Nightingale team or my colleagues, Sue and Phelim. A few weeks back I made a commitment that, by the first week in September, we would have an ‘RLO’ (roundhouse-like object). We are there two weeks early. A few tweaks and it is on to the thatching. Bring it on!

To support our Bronze Age Roundhouse project with Operation Nightingale and discover more behind the scenes footage of the build head to at www.butserplus.com where we are releasing weekly video episodes about work and projects at the farm. Thank you!

The Bronze Age Build blog - Session 9

Butser team member Phelim shares an update from the latest session on the Bronze Age project as the veterans and volunteers carried on the walling job, tried out cordage using Lime Bast and raised the first posts and rafters for the roof!

After the fun and games of the hunting and cooking of the previous session, the last session of the Bronze Age project returned to important work of building the Round House. Life though is never normal at Butser Ancient Farm and Trevor spent most of his day being interviewed and filmed for the BBC’s “Digging for Britain”. This series had followed the excavation at Dunch Hill on Salisbury Plain that had uncovered the house and was eager to follow the reconstruction. While filming has been taking place through out the project so far, this time Butser had the privilege of having a number of people from “Digging for Britain”, including Dr Stuart Prior, Reader in Archaeology at the University of Bristol and one of the presenters of the programme. The general rule is that filming means your task takes at least twice as long as normal so while Trevor was miked up and in front of the camera the rest of the team got on with building the earth and clunch walls.

Thursday promised rain in the afternoon so the morning was taken up bashing chalk to make the clunch for two of the walls. To define clunch, as used at Butser, it is a mix of chalk, water, straw (or other fibre) and sometimes dirt to make a form of concrete. This is sometimes called cob, cobb or clom. (To confuse matters cob, cobb and clom do not need to have chalk added and clunch can refer to large “bricks” of limestone used in building – hence the need to define what we mean at Butser by the term.) As you need to let clunch dry before you build too high, not as much wall was built as we would have liked, but slow and steady wins the race. The other task was taking the bark of the posts that became the central post and the main rafters. As a basic measure the central post had to be approaching 6 metres or about 9 ft 8 inches tall. This of course makes health and safety a priority, especially as the Farm is open to the public. But more of that in a moment…….

The other activity on the Wednesday and Thursday was led by the wonderful Kat. A number of weeks ago Claire had led a team into the woods to harvest the bark from the English Lime or Lynden Tree, with the aim of making Lime Bast. This is rope made from the fibres of the inner bark. The bark was split into two groups, one was put in fresh water and the other put into salt water to see if there was any difference in the quality of bast produce. The process is called retting. Collins English Dictionary defines retting as the “present participle of the verb” ret. Ret is, according to the same dictionary, a transitive verb defined as “to moisten or soak (flax, hemp, jute, etc) to promote bacterial action in order to facilitate separation of the fibres from the woody tissue by beating”. There will be no surprise to anyone who has been down to the Bronze Age area while this retting process was happening that the word ret comes from the same Germanic root as the word rot. You can only imagine what the smell of retting/rotting bark and stagnant water was like. We have been wondering what the water could be used for, but an internet search suggests that the Norse Men, Saxons, Iron Age and Bronze Age Brits, Romans and others, up to the modern day, who regularly made Lime Bast did the retting in moving water meaning that the cellulose gunk that it produces would have been washed away thereby avoiding the smell that retting something in still water produces. By the end of Friday the bast was hanging to dry in various houses ready to be made into cordage and rope.

Friday came, with the promise of more rain. That day also came with excitement as we were going to, drum roll please, put up the central post (as well as do some more wall building). More bark was stripped off poles and by lunch time Holly had arrived and was ready to film the work. Little did we know how things were going to go. 

As the post hole is not exactly central it had been decided to add a couple of bits of wood to act as artificial crotches. Some of us looked at the post chosen and questioned whether it was actually too tall. We were assured it was not, it had been measured and the angle created when the main rafters were put on would be the needed 45 degrees. Carefully the pole was lifted into the hole, and clunch, which sets like concrete when it dries, was poured in to hold it in place. The team then went for a well earned lunch break. We were sat down, enjoying the food provided, when Trevor came in and spoke the dreaded words “I think the post is too tall and we need to take it down and cut some off”. This then came the afternoon activity.

How difficult can it be to take a post out of the ground? With health and safety in mind a lot of discussion went on to decide how to get the post down safely. In the end it was decided to try and lift the pole out. The clunch acted like quicksand and every time people pulled the clunch created a vacuum. This meant that the clunch had to be dug out, the hole widened, and a slight ramp excavated to allow the post to come out. Then it was laid down, the excess cut off and then re-erected. All this was being filmed but how much of the footage will be useable could be an issue as some of the language spoken is not suitable for a family friendly site like Butser Plus. The suggestion was that Holly cuts the sound and either speeds it up with the music from Benny Hill playing in the background or turns the footage to black and white, and adds captions like an old Charlie Chaplain, Harold Lloyd, or Buster Keaton movie.

The final task of the day was the raising of the four main rafters. These were rested on the crutches and then connected to the lintels with timber locks. The next stage will be lashing the rafters together at the top, connecting them properly to the lintels, and putting a “collar” on to rest the remainder of the lintels on. Due to the fact that we have not connected the lintels properly we are currently not able to let members of the public down to the Bronze Age house, we don’t expect them to move but it is better to be safe and not risk someone getting hurt. It is nice though that people can actually see something that is starting to look house like rather than a wooden copy of Stone Henge.

To support our Bronze Age Roundhouse project with Operation Nightingale and discover more behind the scenes footage of the build head to at www.butserplus.com where we are releasing weekly video episodes about work and projects at the farm. Thank you!