The replica Roundhouse is now six years old. 



The chestnut posts are in good condition.  The people who live near the wood (Trelowarren) where we cut the poles told us they had just taken down a pole barn which was built by Italian P.O.W.s almost 60 years before, so hopefully ours have a few more years in them yet.

Occasionally we pour a little creosote around the base of each of the 6 posts.  No doubt this would have met with the disapproval of the late great Peter Reynolds (Butser experiment – Hampshire) He once wrote a paper on the Life and Death of the Post Hole.

Postholes are one of the main resources for Prehistoric archaeology as they often indicate the primary evidence for prehistoric structures. Where they did not use earth or stone.

Most Roundhouses in Britain were made of timber which unlike our granite walled types had a short life.  No doubt they were frequently renewed,

Oak posts would have had the longest life due to the durable tannin.  When we built the Roundhouse we could not obtain long oak poles locally so we had to use the rather less authentic sweet chestnut coppice which is probably second best in terms of lasting in our damp climate.

Chestnut is often grown as a coppice timber.  When the trees are cut they shoot again and after a number of years new poles can cut be cut.

This is often done on a 7 year cycle depending on the size of the poles required.  During the “Bronze” and Iron Age there must have been a big demand for coppice timber for construction and tool making.  They must have protected their woodlands against grazing animals.  We often tell the visiting school children that one of their main jobs would have been looking after the cattle, sheep, and goats and woe betide them if they allowed them to wander into the crops or trees.  In those times could have made good use of creosote (and barbed wire fences.)

The reed thatch is weathering better than expected. When we cut the reeds from Marazion Marshes (Near St. Michael’s Mount) we did so mainly to ensure that all the materials used in construction were sourced locally although in fact no British reed seemed available commercially.  Seemingly it is mostly imported from Eastern Europe with Chinese water reed gaining in popularity. The “Thatch Council” told us that reeds from beds with a high nitrogen source i.e. water from arable fields would produce inferior reeds.  This is probably the case with Marazion Marsh.

The spring

During 2005 we cleared large areas of scrub from the 1ha are of the ancient settlement.
Part of our project entailed redistributing large spoil heaps left from the Dudley team’s four year period of digging.

I’m afraid that they did no backfilling so by modern archaeological standards they would be classed as ‘vandals’. 

We re-excavated sedge and sediment from a round structure classed by English Heritage as a Roundhouse, this structure had originally been excavated by Dorothy Dudley’s team * in the early 1950s. 

As soon as the sedge was removed then water positively bubbled up despite the weather having been very dry. It was extremely gratifying to think that this surely was the spring which supplied the needs of people and cattle all that time ago.  Little wonder that sources of water were considered sacred.  It was the source of life in a time when sacred mysteries and everyday life were inextricably linked.

Strangely, there was no information in the Dudley report of this ‘roundhouse’ despite the question having been raised concerning lack of a water supply for the Bodrifty Settlement.  
At the time Dudley suggested their source as being the spring on the next farm, about a mile away.

*An excavation at Bodrifty, Mulfra Hill, near Penzance Cornwall – Dorothy Dudley
The Arch. Journal Vol. CX111 November 1957