ANGLO-SAXON FOREST DAY

Yesterday morning, Monday 28^th April 2025  we had an extra-ordinary day as life like a Saxon.

Matt from Bluebell Bushcraft taught us skills people from the past had to use to survive,

Just like ;

Weaving and woolcraft

Slowly but happily we created braids full of vibrant colours.

There is many different ways and many admired the activity.

Excitement definitely came after today the 29^th ,when people were wearing them in their hair. I was impressed because this is actually how Saxons made their clothes, but we did not have many tools like a crochet hook so it was like we were back in history when they only could use their hands.

FIRE-CRAFT AND AXING

First we collected a few cotton wool pads and started a fire on it with the help of a flint and steel fire starter. It turned into ashes when it disinagrated. Luckily it does not hurt the grass because it has chlorine in them.

After, we used clippers to cut off branches off of this big tree btw very big.

We threw them into the fire to keep our stew cooking… oops spoiler alert!

For the axe,the best part was when we lodged it into a timbered chunk and banged it down .My fire team Emily,Brooke,Emmanuel and Finn.

When the fire was defusing we blew on it to give oxygen and this is 1 of the things Anglo Saxons have to deal with when cooking.

DENS AND STICKS

Dens we built are secure ,creative and stable planned to survive harsh weather.

We only used natural resources and things we found around our area. Some of us used soil and water to activate as cement since we don’t have it. Yes we did get dirty but we were thrilled as it is.

We had a great support stick as a holder for the roof, shaped as a cross, so it has the right force. As for the floor, we had picked fresh leaves and beautiful daisies.

COOKING AND CUTTING

We made 2 tasty meals made with a recipe from the Anglo Saxons which were honey bread and vegetstable stew. Then we cooked them over the fire. The Honey bread recipe will be somewhere on this blog . And it even looks like a small pancakes and it tasted really nice. We learned from Mrs Stray that honey is the only sweetener they had because sugarcane doesn’t grow in Brittan.

We cut up vegetstables  with great strong tastes  and plopped them in a pot , bubbling over the campfire and a smell no other smell has.

STORY TIME with Matt

The scenery was beautiful and we could hear the birds chirping then Matt told us this epic story of how trees were made some of us decided to try the stew and I loved it and I will cherish this memory forever.

All thanks to Matt  would rate 10/10 

EMMA   SMITH