Replacement roundhouse nears completion after fire

A new replica roundhouse to replace one destroyed in a suspected arson attack at an archaeology park is nearing completion.

Francis Pryor, who led the excavation that unearthed Flag Fen, near Peterborough, in 1982 and helped transform it into an open-air museum, said the roundhouse would help embed the 3,500-year-old site "even further into the community".

He said it was fitting that the new roundhouse was being partly funded by members of the public after a replica Iron Age roundhouse was burnt down in a suspected arson attack on 13 July last year.

"It's everyone's past; it doesn't matter where you've come from," he told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

Pryor explained that roundhouses were used for both living in and ceremonial purposes, such as honouring the dead.

"They had a living side, where you ate your meals, fed your children and played games," he said.

"That was on the sunny side of the house, facing south. The sleeping side was on the north side of the house. That's where occasionally you also find bodies buried."

An online fundraising campaign raised more than £18,000 towards the new roundhouse, which is nearing completion.

Its thatched roof weighed about three tonnes, Flag Fen ranger Arthur Randall said, and its design was based on a roundhouse discovered nearby.

It has wattle and daub walls, made by weaving together mud, clay and fibre, and a fire pit in the centre.

The archaeology park is a popular destination for school trips.

The experience was "something you can't really pick up from a textbook," said Randall.

"A lot of kids really do flourish being able to see and feel how they work."

In 2022, he and about 30 other volunteers helped build the roundhouse that later burnt down.

He said it was "devastating" to see it destroyed after so much hard work had gone into it and so many people had enjoyed it.

As well as homes, other remains were found at Flag Fen, including swords, spearheads, jewellery and animal bones.

The site is believed to have had religious significance to ancient people.

The archaeology park, run by Peterborough Limited, plans to build more replica roundhouses on the site.

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