Butser Volunteer success!

A couple of weeks ago we were excited to be invited to the East Hants Volunteer Awards 2019 following the nomination of our regular Wednesday volunteer team for the award of small team of the year!

Members of the team donned their finery for the awards presentation, joining a hall full of inspiring volunteers and nominees. After hearing about some of the wonderful volunteer projects going on locally it was time for the small team award....After a drumroll, the winner was announced...The Butser team had won!!

We're delighted and very proud of the team and all they do here at Butser. See below for a video of Jorge talking about why he volunteers.

Many thanks to East Hants District Council and Community First for organising the awards ceremony and to Strong Island Media for the brilliant video. 

Samhain adventures this half term

At Samhain it's believed the veil between the worlds is very thin, it was a time for communication with the ancestors and the spirits of the dead. Spare places were laid at the table during the Samhain feast so that the ancestors could once again join with family and friends. Others could also slip through this gap in space-time - the faerie, hobgoblins, elves and other mischief makers - this is the root of Halloweens mischief night and our trick or treat tradition.

Bonfires known as 'Samhnagan' were lit on hilltops, often the burial grounds of a communities past, with all other fires in the community put out and rekindled from the Samhnagan fire. Although our Samhain festival may now be sold out there is lot's more to do at Butser to connect with this special time of year. This half term we are open from Monday to Friday (22-26th October). Each day we'll have storytelling, a Batty trail following Pippi the Bat around the farm as she learns about ancient beliefs, hands on talks. demonstrations and more. Please see below for a breakdown of what's happening each day;

Monday 22nd October -

• Batty trail - follow the adventures of Pippi the Bat

• Handling session - Samhain, skeletons and all that spooky stuff! 11am

• Ancient storytelling at 11.30am and 2pm

Tuesday 23rd October

• Batty trail - follow the adventures of Pippi the Bat

• Ancient Storytelling at 11.30am

• Make your own pinecone bat to take home at 1pm - 3pm

• Flintknapping demonstrations

Wednesday 24th October

• Batty trail - follow the adventures of Pippi the Bat

• Handling session - Samhain, skeletons and all that spooky stuff! 11am

• Spooky storytelling with Fayes Fables - an interactive performance in our roundhouse following the next adventures of Fairy Bigtoe from local theatre company Fayes Fables.

• Flintknapping demonstrations

Thursday 25th October

• Batty trail - follow the adventures of Pippi the Bat

• Handling session - Samhain, skeletons and all that spooky stuff! 11am

• Ancient Storytelling at 11.30am and 2pm

Friday 26th October

• Batty trail - follow the adventures of Pippi the Bat

• Handling session - Samhain, skeletons and all that spooky stuff! 11am

• Ancient Storytelling at 11.30am and 2pm

• Chalk carving - carve a spooky ghost to take home from 1pm - 3pm

• **Evening event** Museums at Night - After-dark Tour 7pm - 9pm (must be prebooked)

There'll also be much more going on each day on the farm, from the build of our new Saxon hall, flintknapping, milking the goats and more! We hope to see you there!

Eco for life at Butser

Looking out for the archaeology of the future....Plastic waste is one of the biggest environmental challenges that we face today, when we think about what the archaeology of the future will look like, plastic waste will be one of the main things left behind by us for future generations.

A plastic bottle will take over 450 years to decompose and some scientists think that some plastic will never fully decompose. This is particularly worrying as it is estimated globally an astonishing one million bottles are bought every minute. The UK alone purchase 38.5m plastic bottles each day, accounting for around 40% of litter by volume found in our environment.

Here at Butser we are making a conscious effort towards becoming more eco-friendly. With the planet accumulating more and more plastic and other non-biodegradable items it is more urgent than ever to make a change now. We decided to get in touch with Eco for Life, a fantastic local company from Chichester who sell 100% Plant-based bottles. Not only are they completely biodegradable and can be used as a valuable soil supplement, but they are also reusable for up to 12-18 months, simply wash out and reuse! Even the information on the bottle is lasered on with high grade ink made from plants!

As always we are over the moon to be supporting a local business and even more so for what they are promoting and the difference they are already making.

Here's a video of the process behind the bottles;

Warrior Camps

Over the summer we, once again, ran a series of Warrior Camps at the farm and are pleased to announce that the new recruits passed their warrior training with flying colours!!

Each day involved a series of outdoor adventures at the farm, inspired by the old; making and cooking over a fire, building a raft, hunting for clues, constructing a shelter and much more!

Our Warrior Camp 1 was aimed at children aged 8-14 and our more advanced Warrior Camp 2, for those aged 10 - 14, involved a chance to stay overnight at the farm! All under the expert tutorage of Keith Page MBE and David Norris.

We’ll be running more warrior camps next year so keep an eye on our website for the date and ticket release!

Wildlife Watch - The Striped Lychnis moth at Butser

Dark Mullein Flowers

Over the years Butser Ancient farm has become a site of great environmental importance. Situated amongst forests and fields, with our ancient farming methods and wild hedgerows we have attracted various wildlife and rare species. One of these rare species being the Striped Lychnis moth which has increased in number greatly over the past few years in particular due to our Dark Mullein, a tall wild flowering perennial plant, with yellow flowers and purple stamen. The striking caterpillars feed on the yellow flowers and can be found throughout July and August.  The fully grown larvae crawl off and find a safe place to pupate in the ground nearby and emerge the following spring. 7 Striped Lychnis larvae were found at Butser Ancient Farm in 2017 and there were 78 in July 2018 so let’s see if we can keep this upward trend going!

If you have a passion for wildlife and want to encourage Striped Lychid moths into your garden follow these tips!

1. Do not cut Dark Mullein plants between May and September.

2. Leave unmanaged areas for wild flowers to flourish

3. Disturb the soil periodically or cut areas in the winter to stop them getting overgrown.

4. Shake seed out from the old flowers in the autumn or winter.

Striped Lychnis Moth caterpillar

If you live locally to the site you could collect seed with permission and grow it in your garden, visit the Butterfly Conservation website  or contact Fiona at Butterfly Conservation for more advice;  fhaynes@butterfly-conservation.org

Mosaic project update!

Week 8  of the Butser Sparsholt Mosaic project - an update from projects coordinator Trevor Creighton.

We are two months into the Butser Mosaic project and everything is going well and gathering pace. As we move into week 9 we should have ‘squared the circle’ by completing the decorative corner patterns around our central, circular designs. These four…. let’s call them ‘corner pieces’ (although, as they are around a circle, that’s a bit dodgy)…. consist of two separate ‘motifs’. One we’ll call a lotus and the other a scallop shell.The two motifs are diagonally opposite each other in the original mosaic. One recent head-scratcher was figuring out which one goes on the left and which the right as you walk into the room. There are a few photographs of the orientation of the mosaic in the original excavation but, on close inspection, a couple of these appear to have been reversed when printed into the reference books! Fortunately, we were able to reference the monograph – the book, published by the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society – authored by David E. Johnston and Johnathan Dicks. This features beautiful illustrations by David Neal, including a plan of the villa with the orientation of our mosaic. Interestingly, David Neal, along with Stephen Cosh, produced a four-volume survey of Romano-British mosaics with hand-painted copies of the majority of known examples. One key reason for doing this was the inadequacy of photography to accurately record detail…. now we know why.

We have also had two new recruits join the team: Linden and Richard, both keen field archaeologists. Now they get to experience what it’s like to lay the things they dig up!

Once our scallops and lotuses are complete we will have laid around 4 square metres of mosaic. We have done a few back of the envelope calculations: about 35,000 tesserae laid and 500 kg of mortar mixed by hand and laid (ouch). The next phase is to move on to the 4-strand guilloche. Here’s a photo of the mock-up version…. only 2 square metres of that to lay!

Here's a video showing our progress!

Summer of Science and Sorcery draws to a close

As our Summer of Science and Sorcery draws to a close we're looking back on all the fun, crafts, demonstrations and experiments that have happened this summer across the farm.Here are a few photos from our themed activity days to share, we'll add more as they come in!Awesome Earth - July 31st 2018

Fearsome Fire!

It's been great fun at the farm this summer as we explore ancient crafts, skills and knowledge through our Summer of Science and Sorcery.Heres a few photos from our Fearsome Fire day last week - we had blacksmithing, fire-lighting, charcoal drawing, bead making, cooking and more!Thanks to Eleanor Sopwith for the fantastic photos! Next Tuesday we'll be celebrating powerful plants with a range of activities from 10 till 4. Normal admission applies.