The Great Round House

Ever since Butser Ancient Farm has been running, there has always been a 'great' round house, based on an archaeological excavation.

The first one was on Butser Spur, (also known as Little Butser). This was set up in 1972, based on a house named 'The Balksbury House' from Balksbury Camp, an Iron Age plateau enclosure situated on the outskirts of Andover.
The diameter of this house was 43ft (13.25m)

Balksbury House (© Peter J Reynolds)

In 1976, a second site was started in the valley bottom nearby, at Hillhampton Down.
The Great House there was known as 'The Pimperne House' based on an excavation on Pimperne Down, Dorset. The house was dismantled in 1990
The diameter of this house was 42ft (13.2m)

Pimperne House (© G D Freeman)

In 1991 the project moved to the Bascomb Down Site, where it still continues.
The first Great House on this site was 'The Longbridge Deverel House', built in 1992 and based on an excavation at Cowdown, in Wiltshire.
The house was dismantled in 2006
The diameter of this house was 50ft (15.3m)

Longbridge Deverel House (© G D Freeman)

In 2007 work started on 'The Little Woodbury House' (House1)
from Britford, near Salisbury, Wiltshire.This house has a history of re-construction!
The site was discovered at the end of the First World War, through aerial-photography,
and was excavated by Dr Gerhard Bersu in the 1938/9

Towards the end of the Second World War, a 45-minute film called "The Beginning of History" was made jointly for the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Information, by the Crown Film Unit, in 1944. The archaeologist Jacquetta Hawkes wrote the script and acted as advisor to the director Graham Wallace.
A version of this house was built for the film, in Pinewood Studios.
This is a still from the film:-

Little Woodbury (Crown Film Unit)

And now, at Butser, in modern conditions, this house comes alive once more.
As the building of this house progresses, this slide-show (below) will grow, with photos and a short caption of each stage.
The diameter of this house is 49ft (15m)

All photos in the slide show are © G D Freeman.
Anyone wishing to use one must seek permission!
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If you would like to get involved with projects like this,
Butser Ancient Farm has a 'Friends' organization, as well as a volunteer group,
who come on 'working weekends'.
Friends of Butser
Volunteers

Butser's policy of education means that many of the skills and technologies
involved in the farm, are passed on to interested parties.

The Building of the 'Little Woodbury' House at Butser Ancient Farm

All the timber for the new house was sourced locally, the ash rafters are from the Queen Elizabeth Park. We had to use modern machines to get the timber back to the farm, there are 12 tons of oak, and 4 tons of ash. Delivery of a 'flat pack' round house! (no instruction sheet though...) Removal of the bark means a longer life-span for the house, as it gets rid of any insects. Lack of manpower is made up for by a crane to lift the timbers, one of the oldest, a tripod. The house is marked out post by post, using a plan from the original excavation drawings Some of the friends of the farm on a working weekend, leveling and hole digging. Showing how the logs are lifted with the tripod crane (note the butt-end is charred in a fire) The outer ring of wall posts were pointed, and hammered into the ground. A view along the posts as they become a wall. The wall plate is constructed using scarfe joints on self-pegs around the ring of posts. Cutting the tenons on the top of the porch posts First pieces of wattle (woven hazel) going into the wall. Wattle is progressing, and the porch frame has been started. Mortice joints being hand chiseled for the lintel (inner ring-beam) The first section of the lintel in place above the porch. Construction of the lintel is progressing well Main frame now complete, including the doors, which are set in on the outer wall. The rafters are over 40ft long, and are very heavy. This one is on it's way down to the house. The first rafters on the roof will form the basis of the cone. Seven go in first, as the primary rafters The primary rafters are up! Note the small ring in the peak. The main ring under construction. This will support tips of the secondary rafters. Members of the team lifting a rafter into place. Secondary rafters going up. All roof rafters in place. Porch rafters in, all rafter length trimmed, and the first rings of purlins lashed on. Purlins - notched into, and tied onto, the rafters. They form a surface to support the thatch. Some of the volunteers working on the purlins. Note the straw 'bumper' around the bottom edge of the roof.. Closeup of the first bundles of thatch, note that it is tied onto the purlins. The first ring of thatching well under way. Three rings of thatch later... and the purlins almost at the lintel of the inner ring. The purlins are 3/4 of the way up, and the thatch is now over the porch and climbing. Half way up with the thatch, at least in sqare footage. Well into the longest job on the house. The thatch seems endless at this stage. At last! We have stopped going round and round, and have started going UP!. Looking down from the top of the roof. If the weather holds... We could have less than a week to go. Finished? Not really, the structure may be, but still lots to do..