NEOLITHIC TANNERY
In 2018 Jane (along with numerous volunteers) built a Tannery based on a Neolithic design, nestled on a Welsh hillside next to two round houses which are reconstructions from Barrington walls (near to Stonehenge in Wiltshire).
The tannery is part of a larger project by the Wilderness Trust, situated in Mid-Wales.
Using archaeological evidence they are reconstructing a landscape true to the Neolithic era on their 50 acres of land and the experiment and challenge is to recreate the technologies, buildings and overall feeling of that time.
The Neolithic era means the new stone age, and it is a time in prehistory when the first domestications of animals and plants were happening in the UK.
The land is made up of woodland, coppice, field systems and a settlement.
The tannery’s construction is an oak timber frame, with a woven roof thatched with heather.
It is intended as a space for working skins and is of a simple design- a covered, sheltered fire for drying hides with beams and stakes for working hides.
