creative activities
Let your creativity bloom with these hands-on activities to make something special. Promoting manual dexterity and fine motor skills, these activities give all participants a souvenir they’ve made to take home with them.
Chalk Carving
Discover ancient rock art and make your own! Use a flint tool and foraged resources to carve and colour ancient designs into a piece of chalk. You’ll learn about ancient beliefs, art, and symbolism, as well as local geology and safe use of natural materials to explore creativity.
Time periods: Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Saxon & Viking
Availability: Year round
Cordage
Learn ropemaking, one of the most vital ancient crafts, used to build roundhouses and Viking longships. You’ll work with natural fibres to create your own strong piece of cord — a bracelet, bookmark, or keyring — and learn about the valuable properties of everyday materials in nature all around us.
Time periods: All
Availability: Year round
Jewellery
Work with wire and pliers to create your own piece of jewellery inspired by ancient artefacts. You’ll learn to work safely with tools, and discover not only how jewellery was made, but also what it meant, who wore it and why, and the symbolism of different ancient styles.
Time periods: Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman, Saxon & Viking
Availability: Year round
pottery
Get hands-on preparing and using materials from the ground to design, create, and decorate a piece of pottery. You’ll learn about local geology and where clay comes from, and about the importance of pottery in human development, vital for storage, transport, and cooking, as well as in early human art.
Time periods: All
Availability: Summer term to October
Quill & Ink
Learn about manuscripts and the monks who made them. You’ll make and use a quill or reed pen, and learn to make ink from natural materials, as well as hear about some of incredible manuscripts found from this time.
Time periods: Saxon
Availability: Year round
Sewing Runes
Discover the runic alphabet used by the Saxons and Vikings, and practice one of the past’s most essential skills: sewing! You’ll learn how runes differ from our alphabet and how they were used in the past, and translate a letter into runes to embroider with needle and wool.
Time periods: Saxon & Viking
Availability: Year round
Spinning
Get hands-on with fleece from our rare Manx Loaghtan sheep and learn the ancient textile of spinning fleece into yarn. You’ll use a drop spindle and work fleece into yarn, the first step in making fabric, and learn about early textiles and clothing.
Time periods: Iron Age, Roman, Saxon & Viking
Availability: Year round