Last Updated on 9 January 2024 by Colette
This post features gifted experiences
As soon as Amy heard the word “farm” she had cows on the mind but Butser Ancient Farm, Chalton isn’t that sort of farm (although they do have some rare breed sheep and goats for you to visit).
Butser Ancient Farm is a self funded not-for-profit organisation which focuses on scientific experiments in prehistoric archaeology – much of the modern understanding of life in the Iron Age is down to the early work conducted at Butser!
The Butster Ancient Farm Research Project was set up over fifty years ago with the initial aim of reconstructing an Iron Age farm. Since its origins as an Iron Age Farm, Butser has expanded to cover over 10,000 years of human history spanning the Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman and Anglo Saxon periods making it a popular destination for local primary school trips!
Your visit to Butser takes you on a journey through time, starting with the Stone Age and ending in the Anglo Saxon period, particularly focusing on the different building types and what we know of the way humans lived during each of these time periods. I found it really interesting to read about the downsides of some of the “progress” made – for example, when people started to settle more in one area, they become more beholden to the land and to crop failure, living in close proximity to animals put humans at more risk of disease and the change to a more carbohydrate based diet was not necessarily good for us.
Typically my kids aren’t really “museum” kids but what we loved about Butser Ancient Farm was that we were almost entirely outside, and the focus on the different types of buildings etc really appealed to Ben and his interest in engineering and science. He actually took time to read a lot of the boards around the site and was really interested in the fact that roundhouses didn’t typically have chimneys – instead, the smoke filtered out through the thatched roof which meant insects didn’t live in the roof and therefore prevented birds from pecking at and damaging the thatch!
I really liked that the layout of Butser Ancient Farm meant that you could easily follow a timeline through your visit without missing any sections out.
For all of us though, the absolute highlight of the morning was watching Roman brass making in the Hot Tech building – we spent a considerable amount of time talking to the team who were experimenting with making brass for the first time. We absolutely loved hearing about the process – and about the science behind it. Dave has worked with metal all his adult life and Ben has a passion for science so the chemistry of making brass was fascinating. For me though, I loved that this wasn’t just a demonstration, but an experiment – the team were as excited as we were to see what was going to come out of the furnace!
Chloe was really interested in the mosaic tiled floor outside the Roman Villa which had taken a team of volunteers 10 days to lay – adding up to about 300 hours of human labour! I suggested she might want to recreate it in our garden at home!
We spent about two hours at Butser Ancient Farm – I think had the weather been less kind to us we might have moved around the museum more quickly as mostly you’re outside.
There is a gift shop and small outdoor seating area where you can get a hot drink and light snacks but we didn’t stop for refreshments this time as we had another adventure planned so needed to crack on!
What we especially loved about Butser was how friendly all the volunteers were, and how ready they were to chat to us and share their knowledge and passions from the rare breed animals to making metals or experimental building work. This really brought the experience to life for us and we came away with an appreciation for how much easier modern life is in many ways!
Book tickets to visit Butser Ancient Farm
You can read about what else we got up to on our stay in Hampshire here:
Gilbert White’s House and Gardens
Watercress Line Heritage Railway
and you can read about visiting Butser Ancient Farm with younger children here.
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