Priory Post 101 – Lower I visit Celtic Harmony

Posted: 26th August 2015

Lower I visit Celtic Harmony

A day’s travel back in time

Friday 27th February saw Lower I travel back in time to Ancient Britain by visiting the Celtic Harmony Camp near Hertford.  Celtic Harmony’s website states that they provide ‘hands-on cultural heritage education of ancient Britain to increase understanding of the natural world and create a more sustainable way of life for future generations.’

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Hannah Shahid and Pavneet Dhalliwal reported on their visit:

‘When we arrived at Celtic Harmony we met a Celtic lady who showed us to her village.  When we got to the village we had to go through gates.  We saw a guard named Aryas.  Aryas said, ‘Do you come in peace’.  We said, ‘Yes’.  So we went through the time travel gates and said our names.  We were welcomed by being face painted and we then went into tipis.  And then the lady told us how to make a bracelet and then dye it.  We had a choice of yellow and red.  Then we had lunch.  After lunch we made flour and then made it into bread.  Then we had to go in groups of three and we made clothes and used a loom and a loom bar.  Then we used special brushes to comb sheep’s wool.  Then we went to the shop.  At the shop we traded coins for Celtic money.  There were gemstones, bracelets, Celtic cards, helmets, shields and more.  We went to the tipi and played a game called the trading game with grain, gemstones, pots and yarn.  Then we went home on a coach.’

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Kyra Zorzy adds, ‘I loved Celtic Harmony because we made bread and we had a look at round houses. I learnt that a round house is mainly made out of oak beams and wood.  I finally get to the best part – we made bracelets and dyed them and I dyed mine red.  Red stands for blood in Celtic culture.’

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Lana Fazel comments: ‘First we went to see a round house and we found out that the Celtic people woke up at dawn and the first thing they did was spend two hours making bread!  We went to the herb garden and we found out that you can use herbs for eating and dyeing.  So we dyed bracelets and we could choose red or yellow.  I chose red.  Roza, Mrs Round and Biba were the only people who chose yellow and everyone else chose red!  After that we went to make some bread.  We had a bowl of flour and poured some water into the bowl.  We mixed it with our herbs and rolled it into round shapes and then rubbed our hands by the trees to get all the wet flour off our hands!  Then we went to lunch and our left over food went into a bucket for the geese, ducks and pigs!  Soon we went to try some weaving.  We were in groups of three.  I was with Coroico and Laila.  We used something called a loom bar and some wool.  Last of all we went to the trading post and bought things.  Then we went back on the coach.’

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Finally, Coroico Bottomley gives us her account of the day.  ‘First we met the lady who was taking us around, Gwen.  Gwen put Celtic signs in facepaint on our cheeks.  Then we met the chief, Manachar.  He told us we were crazy because we go to the bathroom indoors!  We then dyed bracelets to take home.  After that we made bread for Manachar.  You had to make flour by grinding wheat on great slabs of stone, then sieve it through a wooden sieve and you then had flour.  You mixed the flour with some water and kneaded it into any shape you wanted and then baked it (in a Celtic oven of course!).  We had lunch and then we wove trousers for the chief on a Celtic loom.  We worked in groups of three.  It took all three of us to work a loom!  Then we played the trading game.  We were given some things like yarn and clay pots and gemstones.  We then had to trade with these.  Then we went to the gift shop which had shells and feather pens and other things and then we went home.

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Fast Facts from Coroico: Fact number one:  ‘Celts made their dyes by mixing herbs with wee.  Yuck!!’

Fact number two:  ‘It takes two hours in the morning to grind enough grain to make one loaf of bread!!’

Lower I learnt a great many useful skills on their visit to Celtic Harmony – thank you for sharing your knowledge with us!

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