Since this is such an old workshop, this section is not just a load of flannel.

The original building dates from 800 – 900 AD (Alfred the Great came to the throne in 856 AD, before written English history).

It’s 300 years older than the Norman Castle under which it sits, and 3 times older than anything non-native in North America.

We dug out a well, the pottery inside was 12th century (so that’s when it fell out of use).

The small alley dividing the workshop from the next door building was originally the main road in to Lewes. After that it housed the original medieval shop doors, which were not on the High Street as now.

When we took the building over in 1981, it was in disrepair, having been the London and Provincial Butchers; and then as it slid downhill, a plumber’s store and an Oxfam shop.

We put in the elm boards at the back because there had been an ice ring (not a fridge) which had melted away and rotted the floor.

The room underneath was completely full of earth, and we didn’t know it existed at first.