Look here!

If you missed the Roots of Iron Heritage Skills Open Day on July 9th then have a look at this brilliant little video and catch up with some fabulous demonstrations with commentary from the archaeology students who braved the torrential rain to set up a bloomery forge in the chapel gardens.  From bronze and copper work to flint-napping and pottery the Iron Age way, it’s a joy to watch.  Watch out also for the excellent camera work and interviewing skills of the youngest member of our film crew.

Roots of Iron youtube Heritage Skills Open Day

And this wraps up a wonderful two year project funded by the National Lottery ( Heritage Lottery Young Roots ).  The project involved 777 young people aged 11 – 25 and many more besides. Many, many thanks to anyone who has ever bought a lottery ticket! We’re all winners.

But  – We will be Lighting Up the Hill again on Tuesday 15th November 2016, leaving the chapel at 5pm to walk through the woods and up the hill by lamplight.  Look out for details of additional community workshops and activities throughout October. And see you there   .

Deep in the Woods

If you go down in the woods today – have a look for our bench.The young people of the Roots of Iron project have burnt their names into the bench using the ancient symbols of the Celtic Language, Ogham.  If you came climbing – you just might find it…

Celebration Heritage Skills Day

Rain did not stop play…

Despite the dismal downpour early on the day of our Celebration Day on July 11th, a host of enthusiastic archaeology students descended on Wincobank to share with local people their skills and knowledge.  Setting up a bloomery beneath blue tarps they set out about stoking the forge and melting down bronze to cast into replica Bronze Age axe heads. Elsewhere in the gardens there was open fire cooking and a shelter building challenge for younger children.  Meanwhile, indoors there was a remarkably tasty Roman Feast to be consumed, pottery to be made and a rolling programme of  films made by other groups during the Roots of Iron project.  The final task was for everyone to burn their names, in ancient Celtic Ogham  script, into the commemorative bench that will be installed deep in Wincobank Woods to remind us all for years to come of this fantastic project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adventure Camp

The end of May brought the half-term holiday and time for another spell out in the woods.

We moved further down into the woods for the adventure challenges of trail laying and fire lighting. We finally achieved the cooking of popcorn without actually setting it on fire.

Kim set a challenge to build a platform house 1 metre off the ground that would be weatherproof and withstand her bucket of water test. The standard of knotting was excellent beneath the canopy but and there was some creative design work. Despite appearances there was general enjoyment and all stayed mostly dry.

Team 2 took a slightly different approach and would have kept their feet drier had a storm swept by –

On the final day we were joined by some more young people and also by Adventures R Us with slack rope and high ropes.  Some of us were very happy to keep our feet on the ground.

Meanwhile James the Ranger was running his own set of challenges to travel across the forest floor without stepping in molten lava.  Just as well there wasn’t any or there would have been some roasted toes.

But the best thing of all was seeing the smiles on the faces of our two very serious young men. Hooray…

The Bluebell Festival

Saturday April 30th brought the sunshine and more than 300 people came out to see the bluebells.  The signs of Spring were all around and with inspiration from Ignite Imagination artist Aimee Hickman, everyone was soon gathering up the tiniest seeds, leaves and flower heads to create beautiful mandala patterns.

The festival was organised with the help of the 61st Sheffield Scouts(Wincobank) who had got involved with Roots of Iron earlier with the Light Up the Hill project.  They set up their camp kitchen and impressed us all with their award winning cooking  – serving up cups of tea,  freshly baked bread and fish baked in wet newspaper … all very tasty.

Roots of Iron is a partnership project supported by the Sheffield City Council Woodland Service so all the Rangers were out in force sharing their skills: charcoal making, willow weaving, and encouraging passers-by to try out their skills with natural art in a competition.  The winning entries were posted 20 May 2016 on .facebook.com/sheffieldparks

The scouts were both providers and participants at this event.  Artist blacksmith Tim Puddephatt was busy tutoring first timers in the art of black-smithing with impressive results:

Some very enthusiastic students from the University of Sheffield Department of Archaeology  gave a breath-taking demonstration of how bronze was smelted and moulded to make Iron Age axe heads and on this occasion bluebells.. The Roots of Iron crew provided the person power for the bellows to keep the fire roaring.

In all, more than 300 people passed by that day and had a taste of the past and a stroll in the bluebell woods.  Just a stone’s throw from the M1 but so peaceful and oh so beautiful.

A Walk in the Bluebell Woods

Woolley Woods has the best display of British bluebells – so all the visitors say.  It is a magical sight.  So one Tuesday evening in April the young people from the youth club set off to walk down the hill to Woolley Woods armed with cameras – only to be caught in a blizzard.  Undaunted, they continued on and when they reached the Lost Gateway (whereon are carved mysterious Viking Runes telling the ancient legend of the last Woolley Wolf) – they were surprised to find a pack of very young Beavers, of the scouting variety, out painting the bluebells.

Young people and youth workers took some stunning photos some of which are featured in this post, but unfortunately they all got rather mixed up so it is impossible to say whose is whose …

 

Meanwhile back at the club…

We had agreed that on some Tuesday evenings we would hold Young Roots activities at Wincobank Youth Group for any young people who wanted to join in.

James the Ranger showed how to make bird feeders from pine cones and peanut butter and Jon Harrison came back to explain how to edit the Hue and Cry film so that Rudi and Dylan could do it themselves.  Penny came in  with a bag of clay and a clay green man face –  rather weird looking with leaves sprouting everywhere. We made faces which Anna fired for us in her kiln,

The Survival Game – part 2

We were so impressed with the shelter Beck had made in February, that we began to wonder how people in those days made luxury  homes and what is might have been like to live in one so in the next holidays, at Easter, we made our own house – well part of one…

It was a bit draughty, rather dangerous with no door to lock, but felt quite friendly without fences and walls every where.  So we started thinking about life in a village and we thought we would make a little film to show primary children a slice of olden days life.

Dylan told us about the ancient law of Hue and Cry whereby a  criminal had to be driven out of the village or the whole village would be held responsible. There was no time to write a script so with a little direction the actors improvised while Thomas and Alex filmed the action.  Watch our mini movie here: Wincobank Hue and Cry on YouTube

The Survival Game – part 1

The winter months are bleak but beautiful high on Wincobank Hill.  It’s difficult to imagine how folks survived here thousands of years ago, when all there was was wood, wool and woad.

We spent a day in the woods  trying to imagine what it might have been like. We were cold and hungry – so we lit a fire, cooked pancakes and then set fire to the popcorn…  After some practice the lads lit the kelly kettles and brewed up. And then Beck built an amazing shelter from dead wood and leaves but we all agreed it would have been a chilly place to sleep.

Light Up the Hill

A Ghostly Night Out

There was quite a buzz in Wincobank in November 10th.  There were children in the chapel garden carrying the lanterns they had made at school, parents tagging along not wanting to be left out.

Up at the hillfort student archaeologists stoked their fiery furnace, the piper played her weird tune and the Ghosts of Wincobank, decked out in illuminated finery and a dab of blue face paint hid in the bushes, ready to frighten the life out of unsuspecting lantern bearers.

The Brigantes waited to re-enact once again the account set out by Tacitus of the fateful night when Caratacus came to rouse the locals to rebel against the Romans and once again Queen Cartimandua  struggled with the dilemma of what she was going to do.

A Roots of Iron film crew hovered to capture the excitement of the night and record the comments of the crowd. And here it is – filmed and edited by the young people of Wincobank – Light Up The Hill – click here.