• Home
  • About Us
  • Education
    • More information
    • Round House Builds
    • Home Education
    • Residential Visits
    • School Day Visits
    • Outreach school visits
    • Colleges & Universities
  • Public Events
  • Courses
  • Hire the site
    • Weddings
    • Private Hire
    • Film and TV Hire
    • Corporate Team Building
  • Volunteer
  • Contact Us
  • The Site
  • Questionnaires
  • More
    • Home
    • About Us
    • Education
      • More information
      • Round House Builds
      • Home Education
      • Residential Visits
      • School Day Visits
      • Outreach school visits
      • Colleges & Universities
    • Public Events
    • Courses
    • Hire the site
      • Weddings
      • Private Hire
      • Film and TV Hire
      • Corporate Team Building
    • Volunteer
    • Contact Us
    • The Site
    • Questionnaires
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Education
    • More information
    • Round House Builds
    • Home Education
    • Residential Visits
    • School Day Visits
    • Outreach school visits
    • Colleges & Universities
  • Public Events
  • Courses
  • Hire the site
    • Weddings
    • Private Hire
    • Film and TV Hire
    • Corporate Team Building
  • Volunteer
  • Contact Us
  • The Site
  • Questionnaires

Ancient Technology centre

Ancient Technology centreAncient Technology centreAncient Technology centre

experimental archaeology and historic skills education

experimental archaeology and historic skills education experimental archaeology and historic skills education experimental archaeology and historic skills education

SUMMER DAY VISITS

SUMMER DAY VISITS

SUMMER DAY VISITS

A summer day visit will take place between April and October. This visit will focus on the ancient skills and tasks people from the Dark Ages would have undertaken.


What happens on the day?

Your visit duration will depend on your transport but typically 10am to 3pm. 


On arrival your class will be divided into work parties of around ten children. Each party will rotate around the activities.  Usually, two of your three activities will be ATC staff led and will usually be more technically demanding such as:

  • blacksmithing, 
  • rope making, 
  • felt making, and many other

The  third activity will be led by your visiting staff after our demonstration to your children. 


Each teaching day finishes with a plenary session sitting around a fire in a building and gives your children a chance to ask questions from the day. Our qualified staff are experts in their subject and this is a great way to wind down before heading home.

Activities

SUMMER DAY VISITS

SUMMER DAY VISITS

We can cover specific time periods such as the Stone Age, Iron Age (Celtic), Roman, Saxon, or Viking Periods or alternatively, we can design a day that compares and contrasts two time periods. 

 

Safety is paramount. Every ATC activity is planned, tested, risk assessed and practiced before it is offered to a visiting school. This maintains our excellent safety record and allows us to offer activities, which are unique to the ATC.


The activity you wish to do is discussed at the time of booking or during your pre-planning visit and can be adapted on the day if the weather is bad and according to the year group.


If in doubt just ask our qualified staff.


"The children had an amazing visit to your center. The following day they wrote about their experiences and they all commented on all the new things they had learnt and how much they wanted a return visit". St Catherine's School November 2019.

Winter Day Visits

Wintertime at the ATC is our time for fire-making, harvesting timber, sowing our crops, building fences and hurdle gates. The colder weather makes many of our summer activities unsuitable and we like to keep the children warm with good doses of hard work. 


The focus of a winter day is placed on the realities of past lives alongside timeless issues of sustainability and seasonality. 


The ATC in winter is a place where children use sharp tools, such as loppers, bow saws and sometimes axes to shape their surroundings and build something semi-permanent.


Our winter days can be tailored to a specific time period or can be a useful way of generally introducing the past. We offer two types of winter day, each of them finishing in a building with an open fire and a chance to relax and ask questions.


"Staff were fantastic - so engaging. I had pre-warned the centre about a couple of children with additional needs and they were amazing with them". Stalbridge Primary. November 2019.

Winter Activities

Winter Days covers some of the tasks our ancestors had to do in the past. The children rotate around three activities of Farming, Fire-making and Fence building. 

  • Farming involves breaking the ground with ancient ploughs and ards, fertilizing with wood ash, and sowing seed for our crops. 
  • Fire-making explores methods of fire making in the past and children have to gather their own tinder from around the site – the aim is to produce a fire that will keep the whole group warm at the end of the day. 
  • Fence building lets the children process hazel rods from Garston woods, saw up firewood and stack it for next year and build our lovely hazel fences to manage the movement of our animals and protect crops. 

The Winter Day is a day of hard work and enjoyment for your children and they will gain an understanding of the effort and time that was required to live in the past.

Winter Coppicing Day

The Coppice Day is designed for Year 3 children and older.


For schools who have a longer day, the Coppice Day begins in the RSPB reserve of Garston Woods just 5 miles from the ATC and puts your children in touch with materials sourcing and sustainable living. 


We take you on a walk through the ancient woodland of Gaston Woods. After a demonstration of ancient tools for harvesting hazel and a safety demonstration for the bow saw and loppers, your children divide into small groups and begin the physical task of coppicing. Having spent the morning in the woods, we all return to the ATC with our gathered wood and have lunch around the fire in the Earthouse. 


The afternoon’s focus is using your coppiced wood to rebuild woven fences and hurdle gates and making fire by friction in the Roundhouse. The Coppice Day is a unique opportunity for your children to experience a working wood and genuinely understand the processes that were so familiar to our ancestors.


The Adult ratio for Year 3 children is 1:3 and Year4 children 1:4 - Please note this does not include ATC Tutors

Activities by Time Periods

Stone Age - Iron Age

Stone Age - Iron Age

Stone Age - Iron Age

ATC Tutor led  

  • Flint Knapping (all year)
  • Willow weaving  (summer)
  • Blacksmithing (Bronze & Iron Age - Summer) 
  • Felt making   (summer)
  • Natural Dyeing  (summer)
  • Archery (summer)
  • Cordage (all year)
  • Fire making (all year)
  • Textiles (all year)
  • Fence building (winter)


School Staff led

  • Granary (summer)
  • Tanning  (all year)
  • Farming/construction (all year)
  • Object handling (all year)


Romans

Stone Age - Iron Age

Stone Age - Iron Age

ATC Tutor led

  • Blacksmithing (summer)
  • Archery (summer)
  • Willow weaving (summer)
  • Felt making (summer)
  • Natural Dyeing (summer)
  • Roman Road (summer)
  • Rope Making (summer)
  • Cordage (all year)
  • Fire making (all year)
  • Textiles (all year)
  • Fence building (winter)
  • Warrior training (all year)


School Staff Led

  • Granary (summer)
  • Cob-Bricks (summer)
  • Tanning (All year)
  • Farming/ construction (all year)
  • Object handling (all year)

Anglo Saxons/Vikings

Stone Age - Iron Age

Anglo Saxons/Vikings

ATC Tutor led

  • Blacksmithing (summer)
  • Archery (summer)
  • Willow weaving (summer)
  • Felt making (summer)
  • Natural Dyeing (summer)
  • Pole lathe (all year)
  • Fire making (all year)
  • Textiles (all year)
  • Cordage (all year)
  • Rope making (all year)
  • Fence building (winter)
  • Warrior training (all year)


School Staff led

  • Granary (summer)
  • Tanning (all year)
  • Farming/construction (all year)
  • Object handling (all year)
  • Games / Riddles (all year)

Price List

Day Visit Prices 1 April 2025 until 31 March 2026

The cost of day visits varies and is dependent upon the number of pupils booked. - Please note: We require a minimum ratio of 1:6 adults to accompany children attending the day visits, this ratio does not include the ATC Tutors or 1:1 support. Please note if you are only a few children overspilling into the next price bracket do call us. We may be able to accommodate you.

1 - 20 children - £400.00

We provide ATC tutor and all materials . Dependant on numbers, we will split the visiting group into two work parties. They will rotate between two activities in the morning, and a further two activities in the afternoon; two activities will be led by your accompanying staff/adults, the remainder will be led by ATC tutors.  The day will end with a plenary and Q&A session around the fire

21 - 33 children - £564.00

We provide ATC tutors and all materials. We will split the visiting group into three work parties, and they will rotate through three activities during the course of the day; one activity will be led by your accompanying staff/adults, the remainder will be led by ATC tutors. The day will end with a plenary and Q&A session around the fire. 

34 - 44 children - £753.00

We provide ATC tutors and all materials. Typically, the group will be split in four working parties and will rotate through four activities, two activities in the morning, and a further two activities in the afternoon; one activity will be led by your accompanying staff/adults, the remainder will be led by ATC tutors.  The day will end with a plenary and Q&A session around the fire.

45 - 66 children - £1128.00

We can accommodate two groups of up-to 66 individuals on site at any-one time. Though please be aware that the groups will be based in different buildings, but will have exclusive use of the site and will likely follow a different programme of activities.


We provide ATC tutors, and all materials. Typically, the group will be split in half, and treated as two separate visiting schools; the groups will each follow the structure outlined above, for groups of 21-33 children. 

Price List

Day Visit Prices 1 April 2026 until 31 March 2027

The cost of day visits varies and is dependent upon the number of pupils booked. - Please note: We require a minimum ratio of 1:6 adults to accompany children attending the day visits, this ratio does not include the ATC Tutors or 1:1 support. Please note if you are only a few children overspilling into the next price bracket do call us. We may be able to accommodate you.

1 - 20 children - £TBC

We provide ATC tutor and all materials . Dependant on numbers, we will split the visiting group into two work parties. They will rotate between two activities in the morning, and a further two activities in the afternoon; two activities will be led by your accompanying staff/adults, the remainder will be led by ATC tutors.  The day will end with a plenary and Q&A session around the fire.

34 - 44 children - £TBC

We provide ATC tutors and all materials. Typically, the group will be split in four working parties and will rotate through four activities, two activities in the morning, and a further two activities in the afternoon; one activity will be led by your accompanying staff/adults, the remainder will be led by ATC tutors.  The day will end with a plenary and Q&A session around the fire. 


21 - 33 children - £TBC

We provide ATC tutors and all materials. We will split the visiting group into three work parties, and they will rotate through three activities during the course of the day; one activity will be led by your accompanying staff/adults, the remainder will be led by ATC tutors. The day will end with a plenary and Q&A session around the fire. 

45 - 66 children - £TBC

We can accommodate two groups of up-to 66 individuals on site at any-one time. Though please be aware that the groups will be based in different buildings, but will have exclusive use of the site and will likely follow a different programme of activities.


We provide ATC tutors, and all materials. Typically, the group will be split in half, and treated as two separate visiting schools; the groups will each follow the structure outlined above, for groups of 21-33 children. 


Copyright © 2017 Ancient Technology Centre - All Rights Reserved.     Photographs courtesy of AWD Photography, Tony Harris , and various  Volunteers including Clive Perrin

Powered by