Coracle Diaries

Imagine the Iceni, in Iron Age Britain, paddling their boats through the waters of the fens. The water would have been too shallow in many places for a boat with a keel, and the patchy landscape of water and earth would make a boat light enough to be carried by one person ideal. Enter, the coracle.

Almost shell-like, these tiny boats have been used throughout history and around the world and a fleet of them were made as recently as August 2024 at West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village. As part of BFER’s Lottery Funded Heritage Crafts project, the team at West Stow hosted six teams of two to create the boats over two days. Hands on Heritage were there to make an authentic cow-hide coracle, as it would have been made in the Iron Age, whilst participants created their own slightly modern versions using a mix of woodland materials, string and recycled canvas.

Here are the coracle diaries that chart their making:

Day 1:

The 12 participants, aged from 6-60 years old coppiced willow from the river edge to bring back to the village to make the coracle frames. The teams spent most of the afternoon bending, twisting, cutting and tying the materials together to form the basis of the crafts, all within the area of the new Iron Age site at the country park. Duncan Allen, from Hands on Heritage, was there as the main consultant to oversee the designs and help with the practical elements.

Day 2:

The team moved on to making the seats using alder from the Alder Carr at West Stow. The planks were cut to fit the bespoke coracles. We then carefully cut and trimmed the recycled waterproof canvas to cover the frame ready for floating and boating. Small willow foot-plates were woven together to add extra support.

Today, West Stow also ran a “float your boat” activity for the 400 plus visitors to the park. All visitors had the chance to test their own boat-making skills making their own mini crafts to test in water tanks. Those keener visitors tested the design and capacity to hold marbles in the clay provided, with the winner achieving 23 marbles in their leaf shaped boat.

Time to Test:

The Trout Club had identified a 20-metre stretch of the River Lark to test the coracles. Like our ancestors of many years ago, the members of this club know the depths and flow of this river inside out.

By the end of day 2, there were 4 crafts ready to paddle down the river. All participants managed to safely navigate the waters in their coracles and successfully complete the project with only one getting an unfortunate splash. Some were rather wobbly, others like professionals.

Our authentic cow-hide craft only just managed the journey as it needs to dry out further- we’ve set it out to be dried and tested again in the near future. This coracle will be displayed beside the Iron Age roundhouse and we hope the coracles can be seen annually on the river Lark from now on!

Elsie aged 6 was teamed up with her sister Becca (27).

Elsie – ‘I loved building the frame because it was the first part of an amazing day. I found it interesting when they explained how we were going to make it. My favourite part was tying the string to the frame.  Another favourite was when Natalie fell in the river!’

Becca – ‘The 2 day workshop was amazing. I signed up at Dragon Fest with excitement. Really lovely group of people with a gentle feel to both days. I learned loads and it was so great to be in an environment where we were collectively creating something with various age groups. It was so satisfying to test the coracle at the end – thank you to all involved.’

Kris Jones and 12 year-old son Harrison –

‘We honestly thought that it might be interesting for a few hours, but by the end of day one we were hooked on the project and the history. We are coming back to finish ours as we had to go on holiday.’

Georgia and Lily (aged 12) worked together on their coracle –

‘We really enjoyed feeling welcome at the event. We loved creating the structure of the frame. It was so much fun taking the coracles into the river. We even managed to use our one together! We are still marvelling at the fact it work!!’

Huge thanks to April and Dr John Urquhart for enabling us to safely manage the river trip and Duncan and Neil from Hands on Heritage Centre for their expertise.