Today we are very excited to launch our new online venture ‘Butser Plus’: a way to share and support the work of Butser Ancient Farm online. Find out more about what we’ve been working on and why below…

Today we have launched Butser Plus – a new online platform that will allow supporters to enter an online world featuring professionally shot behind-the-scenes video content about life at our unique heritage site. Supporters from around the globe will be able to sign up to access the exclusive content, and their donations will help to safeguard our future as we recover from the impact of COVID and the subsequent loss of visitors over the last year.

Simon Jay, Director of Butser Ancient Farm said:

“As a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, we have been affected very badly by the pandemic and loss of visitors to the site over the past year.  Without the generosity of people across the world, it would have been impossible to stay viable given that it has been costing us around £800 a day just to keep the Farm running, maintain the buildings and feed the animals.  We hope that our new online site will help to counter this loss and protect our future, as a place to both share and support our work. It aims to capture the very essence of Butser and provides a connection back to our ancient past, whilst embracing modern technology and the global connections this allows.”  

We have luckily had help this year via funding from the UK Government Culture Recovery Fund, which has enabled us to develop this innovative way to bring the ancient farm to life as part of an online virtual space.  The pandemic has shown how online tools can be used to help people stay connected with the places we love and we hope Butser Plus will be able to translate aspects of the inspirational and calming nature of the farm to an online world that anyone will be able to enjoy.  The website will not only showcase experimental archaeology and ancient skills such as coppicing, flintknapping and thatching, but it will also share nature and mindful content, giving remote access to the gentle beauty of our rural location in the South Downs National Park. 

 Simon Jay added:

“Over the past year we have become more and more convinced of the importance of places like Butser to provide a space of tranquillity and inspiration in an increasingly uncertain world.  We have supporters from all walks of life and from countries all over the world who are keen to see Butser continue and I’m delighted that they will now be able to share some of the beauty of Butser wherever they are.”  

Virtual visitors to Butser Plus will be asked for a small monthly donation (starting at £5.99 per month) to access the behind-the-scenes content, all of which will go towards keeping Butser open and enabling us to continue to bring the past to life, long into the future.

We are excited to share many more aspects of life at Butser with you through this new online platform. For example we have been able to capture some of the work done in reconstructing the brand-new Stone Age Horton House building, using prehistoric techniques and tools. You can also watch how we build and thatch our new Saxon Hall, meet our rare-breed animals, discover flintknapping and other ancient skills, and watch along on our latest Bronze Age build project (which starts later this week!). New videos will be added on a regular basis to keep our supporters updated with the latest experiments and activities at the Farm, and we can’t wait to share all our hard work with you all, wherever you may be.

Thank you in advance for your support.