On sunday, we paid a visit to Butser Ancient Farm. I’ve been wanting to visit this place for quite a while. As the visit got closer, I wanted to find out what we would be seeing. With a little bit of searching, I found a site map. This was interesting.
Going in through the entrance and following the correct route, will take you through pre-history, ancient history and history. Doing it right, means that you see the eras in the correct sequence;
Stone Age – Neolithic. & Mesolithic eras
Bronze Age
Iron Age
Rome
The Saxons
All of the buildings representing these eras are what the Ancient Farm Staff call experimental. In that, we have a rough idea of what they look like, but there are some things that the evidence which remains from those times has many gaps. What Butser does is make logical decisions over what could have been done and then experiment with the application of those methods. I was really looking forward to following the paththat would introduce the areas in order.
You’ll gather from the last paragraph, that did not happen. It is all down to two things; A family who don’t have quite the same interest in history as you do, and tend to operate on either “Oooh, that looks interesting, let’s go there” or following our 18-month-old granddaughter, who is squealing with excitement & delight and is teaching the universe the true meaning of entropy.
So that was it. Our visit was delightfully chaotically disorganised and because of our grandaughter full of laughter, and the occasional bout of screaming after a fall. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
But, I will have to go again…on my own.
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