My classroom for the weekend or 6-7 July was the Earthlodge at the Ancient Technology Centre, in Dorset --I was one quarter of the teaching staff, with me covering hand-spinning on spindles + distaffs. We had about 40 students who rotated in four cohorts through my workshop, a workshop on basket-making, cordage, and twining, a workshop on nalbinding, and a workshop on prehistoric textiles.
A bit rainy across the weekend, but one of those weather systems where you have five minutes of downpour alternating with bright sunny skies, clouds, mist, rain, more sun, and so on repeat.
The ATC has a number of purpose-built structures for leading talks and workshops on era-related activities from prehistory through to the Roman period.
We tutors stayed overnight from Friday, and several of the students booked in to stay overnight through the weekend.
Our students came from a diverse background -- bush-crafters, heritage education, re-enactors, textile artists, and people simply interested in ancient and medieval fibre techniques.
The nice thing about spinning on a distaff was that my groups were mobile -- it got a bit dark at times in the earthhouse, so it was great to get outdoors -- plus we got to check out the sheep as well as what was happening in the other workshops.
Saturday evening we instructors hosted a discussion about fashion from the periods from prehistory through to the Iron and Bronze Age, then on to Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Vikings, with students gamely coming to the centre to act as our models. The discussion was less about 'here's what people wore in those times' and more about the choices and decisions we make about how to design our kit for heritage sites -- a mix of research, guesswork, and what the public expect to see on these sites.
It was a successful weekend for us and for the Centre, who plan to hold additional themed weekend workshops. Feedback from the students was great, and I think we tutors learned as much from the exchange as the students did.
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