The Bog Blog: Day 2

After days of getting down and dirty, our slaves were finally able to start construction on the latrine walls! Using the flint and mortar technique used on our Roman Villa, the latrine has been built up slowly and precariously, but don’t worry, we’re sure it will be stable enough to sit on!Also, over the past couple of days, we’ve caught our slaves skiving off work to play the Roman board game latrunculi with our domesticated legionnaire, Larus Fucius Hispania. They’ve had so much fun playing it, that they might just end up incorporating it into the latrine itself as the Roman’s did themselves, so you can play while you poo! Watch this space...

The Rare Breeds Show

We had another fantastic day at the Rare & Traditional Breeds Show on Sunday! The show takes place each year at the Weald & Downland Museum in Singleton, and it's the perfect outing for anyone who loves livestock, rare breeds and rural life. Last year we took our youngest kid Sorrel to the show, and this year we took Sorrel (now grown up!) with her two male kids Hops and Burdock.It was also a great opportunity to catch up with our fellow members of the English Goat Breeders' Association, dedicated to the promotion and preservation of the English goat breed. English goats are a rare breed in Britain, and we are lucky enough to have six of them at the farm. They are a great dual purpose breed for milk and meat (although we don't eat ours!), so if you're interested in introducing a goat to your family or smallholding, we really recommend this breed.We also bought a brand new Manx Loaghtan ram to refresh our flock! He's a pedigree yearling called Norman, and is very handsome. Sorrel and Burdock each won 3rd prize in their categories, although Hops was a bit naughty and won 4th... Nevertheless, we are proud of them all and look forward to another lovely day next year! Hops is also still currently for sale, so do get in touch if you'd like a pet goat or a companion for your horse or sheep.

The Bog Blog: Day 1

Apparently, one of the most commonly asked questions about the Romans is: Where did they go to the toilet? So our student volunteers from Cardiff University, Hannah and Lewis, along with our archaeologist Claire Walton thought they’d show you first hand!After initial investigations into the dirty work of Roman toilets, we discovered that the average toilet stood at 43cm tall and as little as 30cm apart! To save such a close encounter and give the modern derrière some wiggle room, we decided to increase the distance to a more moderate 56cm instead. Such a gap however, had its downsides as it meant we had to create a three-seater latrine 181cm long, which meant some digging!..and some more digging…..and more digging….When our slaves were all dug out we thought we’d be kind and let them mix some mortar, with the help of supreme leader Simon instead, ready for tomorrow’s antics!