Video: Throwing Pots In Selborne, Hampshire.

I know that it has been a while now since i promised you all a video of my visit to the Selborne Pottery. I filmed this short video on the mobile phone to show just how easy it looks for a professional potter to throw a simple clay pot from scratch. Robert, the potter gave me a quick tour of his studio, the original post you can see here. So, at last, here is the video....

Butser Ancient Farm, Hampshire.

Today has been one of those days when you find something to visit, and when you get there you don't want to leave. Tucked into a lush green valley just off the A3 near Waterlooville, close to Butser Hill, is the Butser Ancient Farm. This place has to be seen in the flesh as it were, to understand and appreciate what it is that is being achieved here.

The farm is a replica of what a farm and village would have looked like at the time of the ancient Britons, around 500 BC. The village and farm roundhouses have been painstakingly built by the owners and volunteers as not only a museum, but as a working farm and experimental archaeological site, that can be visited by the public and school or university parties.

This is David Freeman, a working archaeologist and builder of many of the ancient buildings and roundhouses that can be seen here.

Having sat down with him for about half an hour i came away with my head crammed full of historical facts and figures, how the roundhouses were built, who lived in them and their way of life. I couldn't cram all of the recordings together so i have split them into three separate stories which are best left to the expert .....



Having told me one thing about the ancient Britons, David told me more .....



Finally, we got onto the people that actually lived in these buildings, and exactly what the Romans thought of them .....



David was a guy who certainly knew his history. Having given me a short tour of the farm, i came away with a great deal of knowledge that i previously didn't know, about the construction, the way of life, and what it is to be an archaeologist today and the techniques they use to uncover and understand the ancient way of life.

Look closely at the buildings and you can see the painstaking work and knowledge that has gone into the building of this ancient farm and it's buildings. This can only have been achieved by rigorous research and a lifetime of work in studying the ancient Britons and their life. The farm itself is a pleasure to walk around and is quite easy to navigate around. I was expecting something larger in format and size, like a modern farm, but that is the point. Ancient Britons lived in sometimes small family groups and farmed the land close to them with crops and animals, and the Butser Ancient Farm is a good and accurate portrayal of what life would have been like hundreds or thousands of years ago.

So, if you do ever find yourself out this Summer and fancy something a little different for the kids to see, you can take them along to see the people working here, with events and demonstrations all year round to fire up the imagination. And you never know, like me, you might just learn something along the way.

You can visit the Butser Ancient Farm website HERE.

Paul Martin
http://www.media-attention.co.uk

Audio: The Hampshire Medievals.

Sorry that it took a while to get this up onto the blog, but work commitments got in the way. As you can see from previous posts, i visited the Hampshire Wood Fair at the Queen Elizabeth country park a few days ago, and was pleased to meet a medieval re-enactment group called Weorod. Whilst watching them do their thing, i had the pleasure to talk to the man in charge ....

Part One.



Part Two.

Hampshire Wood Fair.

Yesterday saw me travelling about 10 miles or so down the A3 towards Petersfield and the Queen Elizabeth Country Park, where they were staging this years Hampshire Wood Fair. I like and enjoy all things countryside, so i decided to take a look and was glad i did. First of all the country park is just a great place to go to clear the cobwebs and to get a bit of fresh air but, coupled with a great deal of wood crafts and exhibits, made for a specially interesting day.

A great deal of craftsmanship and artistic effort had gone into many of the wood exhibits, from walking sticks to large garden style ornaments that take a great deal of time to finish. I spent quite a while just sitting and watching the crafts people at work doing whatever was their art with various sizes of lumps of wood, using differing tools, many with stunning results.

The fact that the weather was kind made the day out a pleasurable experience for all the family. And a walk around the park is always good. I was on the understanding that this event before now was a moveable event that travelled around Hampshire, however steps are being taken to bring back the event to the Queen Elizabeth country park again for next year, so i will keep an eye out for it again.

Anyone with an artistic view or is interested in wood carving and wood crafts would enjoy the day out here, as a wide variety of stalls and skills were on show to the public. As the day wore on and the sun got hotter, more and more people made the decision to visit with children and families, which gave the event a very pleasant feel and relaxed atmosphere. I would recommend that you visit next year.

Most of the event is taken by demonstrations of various kinds. Not just of the wood crafts, but of the working environment too, such as this Shire horse, being used to drag large logs around the woodland. This type of woodland work with horses is rapidly becoming more popular, as horses do not damage the environment as much as large tractors and similar vehicles.

All in all, a very enjoyable day out.

Paul Martin
http://www.media-attention.co.uk

Meeting The Hampshire Medievals.

Whilst taking a look around the Hampshire Wood Fair in the Queen Elizabeth Country Park, i had the pleasure to meet Wayne Letting, who, when not doing his normal day to day job, is known as whitgar, a 6th or 7th century clan leader of the Weorod.

This is Wayne in his full historically correct clothing of the period .... And the gold clothing catches were, i'm told, made from real gold.

Also at the Hampshire Wood Fair were the rest of the Medieval family, who when not trying to knock each others heads off in a re-enactment show of a battle scene, were telling the visitors about medieval life in the 6th and 7th centuries, with displays of cookery, woodcraft and cloth making, as well as the fighting weapons which look scarily real, even close up.

Here is the cooking area ... and yes, they did eat the food, made to medieval recipes.

Whilst the men traded goods, hunted, and took care of their weapons, the women of medieval times were getting on with the work of making clothes, weaving and more ...

 

Then of course, there were the really scary blokes who took great delight in showing the crowds just how tough it was to be a medieval warrior. Times were tough and sometimes brutal, and the weapons used in the re-enactment were real enough and just as dangerous. But these guys have obviously put in a great deal of practice and gave a good show in fighting skills to those who watched, and no one came to any harm ... i promise.

 

The guys here took a great deal of time and effort to get the image just right, and looking at them takes you right back to medieval times if you let your imagination take over. The level of detail was outstanding and the fighting scenes were quite rough and realistic.

 

 

If you ever get the chance to see these guys do what they do, i would heartily recommend it to you. A lot can be learned from watching them go about their early medieval lives, and they do their very best to do it as accurately as possible. You can visit their website HERE.

Hampshire Lavender Fields Open Day.

I did intend to go a little further today but was stopped in my tracks just a mile and a half North from the Pottery in Selborne, Hampshire, where i last posted from. The big sign saying open day was enough for me so i turned in to see what was happening.

It turned out to be an open day for the Lavender fields, where the farmer, Tim Butler, grows many varieties of lavender and manufactures the lavender oil, from which he and others make a bewildering number of products from lavender and honey ice cream, to soap, oils, and much more.

Having given me a quick tour of the fields and farm, Tim was kind enough to give me a quick interview about what it is he does, and how he does it. This is what he had to say ....



So, if you are ever passing the road between Selborne and Alton, do drop in and visit the lavender shop, and tell them that i sent you. Alternatively, you can visit them online HERE.

A Visit To Selborne Pottery.

Still staying close to my home patch as it were, i made the trip to the village of Selborne in Hampshire as i knew there was a pottery gallery and studio there that you can go and visit. The studios sit in a delightful little courtyard just off the main road in Selborne and is a great place to visit and even sit and watch the potters at work if you ask nicely enough. So i asked the potter a few questions .....

Watching Robert work was to watch a genuine artist at work with the ease of a man who has practically grown up with using clay, and nurturing his natural ability to make anything that comes to mind that can be made on a potters wheel. I really didn't know just how quickly a potter can throw a simple small pot. Even a larger one took Robert only three and a half minutes to make, as you can see from the video post, which is coming shortly.

So, if you have the time, i can recommend that you go and visit the Selborne Pottery if you get the chance, and have a chat with Robert. Oh, and don't forget to visit the gallery where you can browse and buy any of the locally crafted pots. Tell him i sent you.

Or, you could visit him online HERE.

Wildlife Artist At The Alton Show.

Having spent the day at Froyle Park near Alton at the Alton agricultural show, i got around to speaking to a wildlife and landscape artist called Gordon, and i took great delight in looking at the fine pictures he paints whilst working full time as a landscape gardener. So i decided to have a few words with him to see what inspires him to paint ...



I think you will agree that he is a thoroughly nice chap, with a talent that most of us can only aspire to, and it was a pleasure to get to talk to him.