What is the Wychurst Project?

Wychurst is the name of a project by Regia Anglorum, the U.K’s leading early mediaeval living history society, to construct a late Saxon (10/11th Century) manorial estate.
The project began in February 1999 with research and the acquiring of planning permission for phase one, as well as the purchase of the land. The land purchase was completed on 3rd August 2000 and construction began in May 2001.

Phase one of this project is the construction of:
The great hall - (sometimes called the mead hall or the longhall).
The defensive enclosure or burh; an earthen rampart topped with a substantial timber fence.
The gatehouse.

This represents the core of the estate, the Lord’s dwelling. It is also the most difficult, expensive, and arduous part of the project, which is why we are doing it first. Progress has exceeded our expectations and Phase One is scheduled for completion around the end of 2007.
The Location
In order to construct this project, Regia Anglorum has purchased the freehold of two acres of commercial pine woodland on the edge of Blean Woods between Canterbury and Herne Bay in Kent. The land lies within the boundaries of Wildwood Discovery Park, owned and operated by the Wildwood Trust, who have been supportive of the project. The Wildwood Park contains many of the native and introduced species that were significant to the Saxon and early Norman period such as wild boar, European wolves, red, roe and fallow deer and the intention is that as the project develops, the two parties can explore the history of the relationship between the people who lived here around a thousand years ago and the environment they inhabited and affected.
Future Development
Phase two will be the ongoing development of the project, to add to the area within the walled enclosure essential ancillary buildings such as the blacksmith’s forge, the cookhouse and bakehouse, chapel and stables. Also, a bower-house will be constructed. This is essentially a dormitory building for certain of the estates retainers, womenfolk and guests.
Outside the walls, a village of several cottages will develop. Although they will be living quarters reflecting different strata of early English society, each building will also function as a specialised craft workshop to promote traditional skills. E.g. a potter’s cottage, a woodworker’s hut.
The Wider Aspects of the Project
The 2 acres we have purchased were in a pretty poor state when we began. The commercial crop of Corsican pine was beginning to choke the life out of the land, as it has done elsewhere. The woodland has been thinned to allow light through to the lower vegetation. Large areas have been cleared by our volunteers who have worked extremely hard combing the acidic pine needles from the ground: allowing the soil to recover.

Already, patches of heather are returning and some of the isolated native trees are flourishing again. The site has many young oaks, some holly, rowan, sweet chestnut, willow, hornbeam and of course, birch is appearing everywhere. It is planned to introduce more native species and herb and wild flower planting has already begun.
The ditch and rampart form a small moat that opens into a larger pond by the gatehouse. This has been lined to provide a wet area throughout the summer when the rest of the moat dries up, and already pond life has appeared as if from nowhere.
It is hoped that within a few years, we will have returned the site to an early English landscape, and attracted a good deal of wildlife onto the site.

While other projects have constructed buildings and whole settlements, they generally do not have a core of dedicated enthusiasts who can bring their sites to life as we can ours. Wychurst is a vehicle through which we can explore the environment, social structure, customs and traditions, crafts, warfare, hunting, medicine, literature, religion and more. We believe that no other project in the British Isles has sought to examine as much of life in a chosen period as we seek to do at Wychurst.