Staff and volunteers have recently been getting stuck into a new project at the farm. While most of our experiments are based on archaeological and scientific research from across the industry, sometimes we just want to use our skills to make something fun. So this month we have been making a bread oven, ready to use this summer to cook food and melt pizzas on balmy evenings!

This kind of oven has been used for thousands of years to cook food, and while we are following the basic design of an ancient oven, we’ve added a modern twist by using fire bricks, which can reach a high temperature without cracking.

First we built a layer of sand and clay, then a second layer of sand, clay and straw (cob mixture), both of which help insulate the oven in different ways and keep the food hot.

All that remains is to wait for the clay to dry over the next few months, and by summer we’ll be having pizza parties every day!