On an indifferent weather day in June, 18 members met at Butser Ancient Farm for a guided tour by Therese, an experimental archaeologist, who was the font of knowledge on both the archaeology and history of the site. Butser is an open air museum near Petersfield, Hampshire that features experimental reconstructions of prehistoric, Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon buildings. It was actually started in 1972 at a site a few miles away from the current location by Peter Reynolds. Butser is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company which focuses on education and research and has over 35,000 school children visiting every year. 

   

Therese showed us round the different types of dwelling each of which has been built replicating the footprint and archaeological data from known existing archaeology sites, such as Danebury,  over the last 50+ years. There are over a dozen buildings on the site and each has been reconstructed after meticulous research and many months of work. Therese explained that the walls of each building were of multiple different materials to investigate durability and maintenance required, they could be either round or straight sided to show the progression of techniques as the inhabitants became more sophisticated and changed from hunter gatherers to farmers, for example one building had wattle and daub on one wall and lengths of wood on another and apart from the tiles on the roman villa the roofing materials were educated guesswork only. In the various Stone, Iron and Bronze age houses there were various tools and items of rudimentary furniture along with open fires.

   

The Roman Villa is based on a wing from an excavation at Sparsholt between 1965-72 and has a functioning underground heating system. In 2017-18 the Villa was renovated including re-painting the walls based on excavated plaster remains showing original colours and patterns, and installing a replica mosaic floor in the central room. This took over 120,000 mosaic pieces and 1000 hours. The villa is furnished with items representative of Roman furniture and outside is a typical roman garden planted with the kind of plants that would have been grown when the Romans were living in Britain.

   

The most modern buildings on the site are Anglo Saxon in construction and are based on the results of excavations carried out nearby at the village of Chalton. Both buildings are of similar size but built in different ways to test different theories about construction techniques.

The site hosts many volunteer groups who re-enact living in the buildings and testing various cooking and agriculture techniques which are all part of the education and research purposes of the farm. Overall, the members found it a very interesting and educational trip which concluded with a pre-booked lunch at a nearby pub, the Hampshire Hog.

Kevin Barter

A group of 16 Questers visited Bowood House and Gardens, near Calne, on Monday 18 May 2026.

This was a self-drive outing and many Questers did car-sharing to reduce the number of vehicles used. For those who observed and followed the temporary road signs erected because of localised roadworks, there were some challenges finding the correct route to get there. For those who ignore the temporary signs there were no problems!

Despite all this we all arrived before or round about the planned time of 10:30. There was therefore plenty of time for a comfort break and then a hot drink in the Treehouse Café at the Admissions building. We then had a 10 minute walk to the front of the House in order to meet our guide and start our guided tour.

   

We were given a 1 hour tour by Phil who, because of the many questions and his added in anecdotes, kept us engaged for over 90 minutes. Phil was very knowledgeable and informative as well as being entertaining. A very good, guided tour. What was particularly unusual was that the original House itself was demolished in the mid-1950s after the National Trust declined an invitation to accept the property as a donation.

   

The remaining buildings, originally the “Little House” and the stables, were then converted into the impressive single building complex that one admires today. The east wing of the House, overlooking the Capability Brown designed lake and parklands, is the home of Simon Petty-Fitzmaurice, the son of the 9^th Marquess of Lansdowne, and his family. The rest of the very large complex is what is open to the public and used for administrative and management purposes for the Estate.

   

After completion of the tour Questers were free to proceed to explore and enjoy the displays in the House, the formal gardens, the walled garden, the lake and parkland or the café for lunch. Various small groups did all this in differing sequences as best suited their preferences.

   

Lunch at the Treehouse Café was disappointing for many as even those who opted for a reasonably early lunch found the available menu rather depleted because they had runout of some items. That was even worse for those who chose to come for lunch later in the visit. Their options were even more limited, if they had any at all.

The weather during the visit was unfortunately not quite what was hoped for and it was cold and windy but dry. This made some members uncomfortably cold and so dampened their enjoyment of the day.

Being a self-drive outing, Questers could choose when to depart. Some left early afternoon while many others were there until late afternoon.

The general reaction from the members of the group was that it was an interesting and enjoyable day out, spoilt only by unfavourable weather and limited lunch options.

Cecil Rose