Wychurst

Wychurst is Regia Anglorum's permanent site under construction near Canterbury in Kent. Whilst it has its own dedicated web pages, this is an overview of Sceaftesige's involvement in the project.

Wychurst is a Saxon Manorial Burgh, that is a Saxon Longhall with attendant dwellings surrounded by a ditch, earthwork rampart and wooden palisade. The buildings inside the fort will consist of a 60'x30' Longhall, stone Chapple, Bauhouse, Stables, Forge, and Bakery, whilst outside the ramparts there will be several artisans cottages.The picture (right) shows an artists impression of the gate house as seen from the cottage.

	June 2001	August 2001	October 2001	April 2002	May 2002	June 2002	July 2002	August 2002
	September 2002	October 2002	November 2002	Easter 2003	May 2003	June 2003	July 2003	August 2003

Construction Diary

Work started on the project in early 2000 with the construction of the Gruben House (peasants hovel). This was mainly an exercise to learn some of the construction techniques that would be required to build the Artisans cottage completed later the same year.

By June 2001 the oval for the fort (some 65 yards by 75 yards) had been rough cleared of timber, the ditch and pond dug, earthwork rampart constructed, and the area for the Longhall cleared and leveled.

In July 2001 the Society took delivery of 23 tons of green oak, rough cut to the approximate size and length needed to construct the Longhall. In the week following the August bank holiday a gallent crew began work on preparing the main timbers for assembly. Working on the main uprights, some 19ft in length( when cut to size) and 10" square , and their corresponding crossbeams, some 16ft in length(when cut to size) and 10" square, three sets were man-handled from their storage, cut and jointed.

October 2001 saw the second working weekend of the project. With a large amount of additional manpower movement of the aisle posts and tie beams became a simple task. This allowed rapid progress to be made in sizing and jointing the remaining two sets of posts. In addition the manpower enable work to commence on cutting and jointing the aisle plates and all bar two of the eight were completed.
We also took the opportunity to hire a mini-digger which allowed us to cut a rear access to what will become our Living History Exhibit overflow and 20^th Centuary camping area. In addition we managed to dig the holes for the posts, which was a learning experience in its own right.

Easter weekend 2002 was to be the weekend where we erected the first bay of the Longhall. Well that was the aim and I arrived with more hope than expectation, only to be told that our timber building expert was in hospital and I was in charge.
The first task for the weekend was to move the first two sets of posts so that we could trial-fit the tie beams, measure and cut the braces, and then trial fit the whole assembly. Once this was achieved it was then down to swivelling the posts to allow the aisle plates to be trial fitted, aisle braces measured and cut, pockets cut, and the whole assembly trial fitted. Well by late morning on Easter Sunday we'd managed all this and managed to reset the levels and alignment markers across the site.

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Page Created 25/09/2001 Last Updated 26/04/2002