Posted on 10/26/2026 9:11:19 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Over 50 years after helping excavate the remarkable Anglo-Saxon site, archaeologist Dr Phil Harding returns to help celebrate and dedicate the reconstruction.
Phil Harding Opens Saxon Hall 50 Years After Helping Excavate it | Archaeology Brought to Life | 9:54
Butser Ancient Farm | 10.1K subscribers | 30,788 views | October 22, 2026
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
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[snip] The Grand Opening
This is the grand opening of our reconstructed Anglo-Saxon Hall house -- and the final chapter in our journey from archaeological evidence to a building made by hand.
...In this final part of our three-part series, Rebuilding a Saxon Hall by Hand, Phil gives a moving speech at the opening of the completed hall and reflects on the excavation that helped shape his life in archaeology.
The house has been under construction since 2018 by a team of volunteers under the expert leadership of Treewright Darren Hammerton. All timber used in the construction came from within a 10-mile radius of Butser Ancient Farm, with a combination of English oak, sweet chestnut and hazel used in the construction, whilst the roof has been thatched with water reed. [/snip]
YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai *may* follow.
How do you turn a 120-year-old oak tree into part of a Saxon hall -- entirely by hand?
In Part 1, we follow Butser Ancient Farm's highly skilled treewright as he hand-converts a huge oak log into the timbers for the front wall of a reconstructed Saxon hall, using traditional tools, techniques and skills that bring us as close as possible to the world of the Saxon craftsman.
The reconstruction is based on archaeological evidence from a Saxon hall excavated at Chalton Down in the 1970s by archaeologist Barry Cunliffe. At Butser Ancient Farm, that evidence is being brought back to life through experimental archaeology -- not simply asking what Saxon buildings looked like, but discovering what it actually takes to build one.From Oak Tree to Saxon Hall
Archaeology Brought to Life | 11:12
Butser Ancient Farm | 10.1K subscribers | 221,632 views | September 24, 2026
YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai *may* follow.
I tried to find the link to the video, but had no luck, but here's an article on that dig:
Thanks! It’s Geake, btw. 😁
It was up, but blocked. Maybe a VPN would help, or the Wayback Machine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OnzLtyICuI
Oh, whoops, that’s not it anyway.
MARK
Thanks...I should have checked the spelling. I remember Helen from her previous Time Team days, when she was expecting...and Carenza Lewis too, when she was pregnant on the show. I'm glad their both around to take part in the new online series.
Loved this. Thanks for posting this.
Same here, Phil’s a gem. My pleasure.
They say if you can make it at Saxony Hall, you can make it anywhere.
I had never heard of this Phil Harding before. There is another Dr. Phillip Harding, an ancient historian dealing mainly with Classical Greece, who was at UBC in Vancouver (but is probably retired by now).
Never heard of the Classical Greece Expert Dr. Harding. British Professor Bettany Hughes does a lot of tv documentaries. My first introduction to Greece was through her. Here's the link to her website:
The photos on her site are of her when she was much younger and slimmer. The Last tv series she conducted was Treasures of the World, which is available on BBC Select, as are many of her other programs. You may be able to find some of them on YouTube as well.
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