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Tuesday work day – bright and sunny

The team today were able to work in lovely sunshine all day, but still no t shirts and shorts because of the chilly wind from the north east.

The roofers hard at work

Although we are still restricted to six on site everyone was busy and we saw good progress

Getting rid of unusable waste

The roundhouse is coming on nicely, with the structure for the bench seating now starting to take shape.

Roundhouse bench supports in place

Thanks to everyone for their help, let’s hope the nice weather continues for us – unless you are a gardener or farmer!

Pete valiantly prepares his lunch at the fire.

Roundhouse building in the sunshine

Offering up the door lintel

The roundhouse is progressing and the team had a lovely day, weather wise, in the forest. The main structure is taking shape nicely.

Preparing the ash poles

The team stripping bark from the ash poles

More hazel weaving for the entrance walls

Thanks to Tony and Jill for the pictures.

Butser Ancient Farm completes new project

I came across an article today in the Daily Telegraph about the latest project at Butser Ancient farm near Petersfield.

An altogether grander project than our roundhouse – it measures 15 metres by 7.5 metres! Not sure Forestry England would be too pleased if we asked for permission to build one this big.

You can read more about it on their blog page here

https://www.butserancientfarm.co.uk/blog/2021/4/18/neolithic-house-project-the-completion-of-the-horton-house

Roundhouse – wattling complete

Adding to the wall

Another lovely day on site with the trees providing some shelter from a bitter easterly wind but sun all afternoon. The muck spreader that started work around 3.00pm was a bit of a challenge!

Auguring the posts

The wattle on the main roundhouse is completed – amazing progress and we had to have an emergency trip to collect some extra hazel from our stock at Rendlesham.

Working in the sunshine

We’ve also augered  the holes for the wall plate that will support the roof. Next job is the porch and the frame for the children’s seating.

Walls up to height required

Many thanks to the team that worked on the day. Also thanks to Duncan and Helen for the pictures.

Typical April workday in the forest

Simon and Tom shingling along

This time the weather was kind and we were able to crack on with roof without the biting wind.

Jill and Roy looking into a hole

The table top has been repaired and the legs set in place.

Maggie oversees the hard work

It is great to see the progress on the roundhouse, although it does take quite a bit of effort to get the hazel in place. These ‘young’ lads make it look easy!

At the end of the day

Thanks to all who came along and helped out. It wasn’t all hard work, we managed to drink the odd cup of tea too.

New Roundhouse build underway

Laying out

The team led by Duncan arrived on site on Thursday ready to start the building of the new roundhouse which you may remember was burnt down last year. An appeal to volunteers, supporters and friends was wonderfully supported and £2000 was raised through a Just Giving page on Facebook. This allowed us to purchase the necessary materials for the new building.

What poles go where

The pictures show the preparation and first stages of construction. We are all excited that we have been able to go ahead. At the moment we only have a small team on site due to Covid 19 restrictions.

Digging the holes

We hope to have more volunteers on site to help with various stages as the restriction on numbers is lifted.

Poles in position

Luckily the team had decent weather compared to the Tuesday – see last news post!

End of the first day

Well done everyone – let’s hope we have a decent summer so that we can enjoy using the new addition to the site.

We will follow the build and keep you posted with regular updates.

Blimey! – it was cold

Snow at the end of the day

What started as a lovely, if cold day, in the forest rapidly deteriorated towards the end of the day.

Our working party finished stripping off the last of the damaged shingles and started again on the fixing. Good progress was made as you can see

Latest work on the roof

There was more tidying of the site and garage and Beryl had the unenviable task of straightening the old copper nails. Roy is now re installing the furniture into the kitchen shelter. The building of the roundhouse starts this week which is great news.