Building a roundhouse

Friday 4 October
Sunday 6 October
Monday 7 October
Tuesday 8 October
Wednesday 9 October
Thursday 10 October
Friday 11 October
Sunday 13 October
Monday 14 October

Friday 4 October

The Museum's roundhouse will be typical of homes that existed in the London area in the late Iron Age and early Roman period. Examples of this type of building have been excavated close to the Museum at Gresham Street and Newgate Street. Other examples have been found in Southwark, Heathrow and on sites throughout London. The surprising lesson learned from the Gresham Street excavation was that roundhouses continued to be built in Roman London.

At 4.2m in diameter this building is similar in size to the roundhouses found at Gresham Street. The East Sussex Archaeology and Museums Project (ESAMP) will build the walls by driving wooden stakes into the ground. The gaps are then filled in with woven sticks (wattle) and a clay mixture (daub).

Well-preserved examples of this type of construction have been found at the Glastonbury Lake Village, Somerset, allowing us to reconstruct the wall accurately using hazel wattle. Evidence from other excavations has been used to recreate an oak doorframe and a reed-covered roof.

There is less evidence available to help us reconstruct the interior but we do know that almost all houses had hearths and that some also had wooden plank floors.

Sunday 6 October

Pegs are used to mark out the correct location for all the stakes that make up the walls of the roundhouse.

The doorposts are set into the ground and topped with the lintel, holding the wattle door in place. Stakes are driven into the ground.

Once all the stakes are in place, visitors help the team to weave hazel rods in and out to create 'wattle' walls.

Monday 7 October

Once enough wattle has been woven in to reach the required height, long poles are attached to create the rafters.

The main rafters are added, reaching from the ground to the central point. Smaller poles are used to create additional rafters reaching down to the top of the wall.

Once all the rafters are in place, the highest and lowest purlins are woven in horizontally between the rafters to hold it all securely.

Tuesday 8 October

Additional hazel purlins are tied in at regular intervals up the roof.

Wednesday 9 October

All the purlins are now in place in regular intervals up to the full height of the roof, creating a strong framework to hold the thatch.

Once all the purlins are fixed, bunches of long reeds are tied on with the cut end at the bottom.

Work starts applying daub - a mixture of mud, manure and horsehair or straw - to the walls. Daub sticks to the woven wattle and fills all the gaps, making the building solid and windproof. A local resident helps the team with this messy work.

Thursday 10 October

Bundles of reeds are laid down carefully and pinned or tied into place to create a solid roof.

As the thatch is carefully stacked up, the finished effect begins to show from the bottom - a smooth surface made up of the cut reed ends.

While the thatching is being done, work continues for other members of the team. They mix and apply the daub that makes the surface of the walls inside and out.

Friday 11 October

Thatching is slow and careful work. Each layer must be placed precisely over the one below to create a waterproof roof.

Sunday 13 October

Once the layers are firmly fixed, they are patted into place to create an evenly sloping surface. Rain drips down the length of each reed, guided down to the layer below and then drips down onto the ground. The overhanging roof keeps the water well away from the walls so they stay dry.

After a well-earned day's rest on Saturday, the team is back on site to finish of the house. Heavy rain made it a difficult task, but with the help of several hundred visitors and some emergency chocolate cake, they finish all the daubing inside and out. The final layers of thatch are added to the roof. Wheat straw is used to create the pointed 'hat' for the very top as it is softer and easier to work.

The residents Veratrix and Olwen arrive and helped to stuff bundles of straw into the soffits (the gap between the top of the walls and the roof) to stop the drafts and help the fire draw properly. By 6 o'clock everything was finished.

Monday 14 October

One final stage is needed: fire proofing, Not something the Iron Age population would have had to worry about! But times change and so do health and safety laws, so we keep a huge blue tarpaulin over the roundhouse all day to protect the fire proofing chemicals while they dry.

Finally, by mid-afternoon, the fire is lit inside and house is ready for Veratrix (left) to live in!

Tristan Bareham
East Sussex Archaeology and Museums Project, and
Jane Sarre
Interpretation Unit, Museum of London
October 2002

For more information...

In the Museum...

Visit the London before London gallery to find out more about London's first people.

On the internet...

Fact pack on the archaeological background to roundhouse building in London.

To see the history of another roundhouse built by ESAMP, visit Michelham Priory's website.