Butser Ancient Farm
Site Directed by Butser Archaeological Centre Ltd

The New Team

In April 2007 Christine Shaw handed the baton onto a new management team, allowing her to concentrate on cataloguing, archiving and publishing Peters work.

The team comprises:-

Steve Dyer Maureen Page	Simon Jay Joyce Herve

A Potted History of the Project

The Project Proposal
By 1970, the archaeological world had determined to adopt a programme of education and research to inform the interpretation of prehistory and history. In January 1970, a proposal to establish a working "ancient farm" was produced.

The proposal to set up a permanent working ancient farm on Little Butser is being made by the Research Committee on Ancient Agriculture of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and the Council for British Archaeology.

It was as a direct result of this proposal being adopted by the CBA, that Peter Reynolds was identified as a candidate to run the project because of his emerging work and publications in the field of experimental archaeology, while still teaching classics at Prince Henry's Grammar School, Evesham.

The First Site
By 1972, work had been initiated to set up the site on Little Butser, as people now referred to the location. The first public Open Day was in 1974.

The Demonstration Site
Once the research site on Little Butser had been established, it was recognised that its inaccessibility did not lend iteslf well to public access and for educational activites. Thus, in 1976, a second site, proferred by Hampshire County Council, was started in the valley bottom nearby, and known as Hillhampton Down. This coincided with the completion of the original terms under which the farm had been established. With the lower site, it was possible to expand the educational activities and increase the public opening. This provided welcome income. This gave an opportunity to start construction of the most ambitious building yet .... the Pimperne House, based on excavations in Dorset UK.
(Research continued on the Little Butser site right up to 1989).

Bascomb Copse
In 1991 the project moved (lock, stock and barrel) to Bascomb Copse, off Chalton Lane, Chalton.

There is now an archive of all the material at the Hampshire Record Office with the accession number 63A05D3.