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Vandals have burnt down an Iron Age reconstruction roundhouse at Barbury Castle earlier this week. Senseless acts of bravado and in this case destruction are quite common, but perhaps what is not understood is the hard work and joint effort by many people to create a marvellous example of our past history.

The roundhouse was designed and constructed by Acorn Education who with the help of local people built it. Local materials were also used, and artwork depicting the prehistory of the Iron Age hillfort was beautifully illustrated in the hut, as were the wood carvings on the beams and posts. This is what is so sad, the lost artwork, the roundhouse in all its glory, a teaching example to adults and children alike of what life would have been like in the past.

Barbury Castle replica Iron Age roundhouse before the vandals got to it. Photo credit: Littlestone

The damage has been attributed to boy bikers, who in the evening use the Barbury Castle car park to joyride in. If there are gates to the car park, these should be shut in the evening thereby restricting access to the site, whether this is feasible though is another problem. What should be clear, is that such acts of mindless vandalism must be stopped, and that perhaps sometime in the future a new roundhouse can be built. All we have left now are photos of the building and artwork.

Detail of interior wall painting. Photo credit: Littlestone

It should be noted that the Roundhouse lies within the Barbury Castle Country Park, managed by the Swindon Services Ranger Team, part of Swindon Borough Council, therefore responsibility for shutting gates or installing CCTV to protect the site must rest with them. It is also worth mentioning that as £28,000 has been spent on building the roundhouse, no thought was given by the council to adding doors to protect the wall paintings from bad weather; the paintings, subsequently have suffered serious degradation since the roundhouse was first built. There is a charge of negligence to be brought here, or at least carelessness in not protecting a unique and very valuable site.

Links:
http://www.acorneducation.com/homepage.html
http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/3799392.Iron_Age_replica_goes_up_in_flames/
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/2617

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