New Iron Age Roundhouse Rises from the Ashes at Flag Fen
Volunteers Rebuild Iconic Structure One Year After Fire in Peterborough
A year after fire destroyed a large part of Flag Fen Archaeology Park in Peterborough, a brand new Iron Age roundhouse has opened its doors to visitors once again.
The fire, which was started last June, gutted two of the site’s unique roundhouses.
Since then, a team of dedicated volunteers has been working together to reconstruct the building and help keep the ancient history of the area alive.
Arthur Randall, a ranger at Flag Fen, described the devastation of seeing the building burn down:
“Seeing that go up in smoke is just absolutely gutting."
"And for a brief time, we actually didn't have a proper fully decked out roundhouse on site. So people would come in and you sort of feel like that you'd let them down.”
Flag Fen is known as one of the few places in Britain where people can get up close to Bronze Age history. Arthur explained:
“When it comes to Bronze Age sites in Britain, we actually don't have a lot of them that you can come and you can see stuff."
"We're very unique in that manner. It is an excellent way to teach people and it just sort of helps retain our history.”
He added that the hands-on experience of the new roundhouse will mean a lot to visitors:
“Being able to go and experience it and touch it and see how it works. That is something that a lot of people are going to appreciate, where maybe with the artefacts that we have behind glass, that's not really something you can directly interact with.”
The new roundhouse is now welcoming visitors, offering them a unique way to explore the lives of our ancestors thousands of years ago.