February Half Term
Monday 17th to Friday 21st February, 10am till 4pm
Normal admission applies, no need to book.
Any guided activities will run in sessions between 11am and 3pm.
This February half term explore ancient worlds at Butser Ancient Farm. Each weekday step back in time and learn ancient skills with a hands on demonstration, take part in a themed trail around the ancient buildings and warm yourself with a hot chocolate from our shop around a roaring fire.
We’ll have a Stone Age themed trail and a chance to design and draw your own Stone Age house inspired by our current Stone Age building project.
We’ll be updating the below with what we will be doing each day - more to be confirmed! (please note activities are run by our wonderful volunteers and may be subject to change)
Monday - We’ll be joined by archaeologists from Wessex Archaeology, the team who excavated the Stone Age building we are currently constructing on site. They’ll be sharing all about how archaeologists find out about ancient people through the evidence we find, with some hands on fun activities. We’ll also have a guided tour at 11am and you can learn how to make a raw wool rug using a peg loom.
Tuesday - Learn more about our unique working Hypocaust as we fire it up for the day. You can also learn about the importance of herbs to our ancestors and make some herbal drinks and remedies. See our Bronze-caster making Bronze torcs (a Celtic style of jewellery) and head to the Saxon hall for grinding wheat and learning about Saxon Runes (afternoon only). There will also be a guided tour at 11am.
Wednesday - We’ll be joined by Saxons from Hearthweru Reenactment demonstrating some ancient textile techniques and fighting demonstrations. You can also find out about Stone Age off-loom weaving and other traditional textiles techniques as well as listen to some norse storytelling. We’ll also be enlisting visitors help to make cordage (a natural fibre string) to be put to good use in our Stone Age house build! Learn some firelighting techniques and there will also be a guided tour at 11am.
Thursday - We’ll once again be firing up our working Hypocaust - find out about the important job of stoking the hypocaust fire and see how effective it is! We’ll also be firing up our bread oven, learn about grinding grain to make dough and make some bread in our oven to sample. Learn more about ancient uses of herbs and make some tea to try. Researchers from UCL will also be on site demonstrating flintknapping techniques! There will also be a guided tour at 11am.
Friday - We’ll be making more bread in our bread oven today (afternoon only). Meet our Bronze caster as he shows us his amazing castings (afternoon only) and have a go making a raw wool rug using a peg loom. Learn felting (morning only) and try on some Roman outfits. There will also be a guided tour at 11am.
