Blog to the Past - Brick to the Past

Unveiling the Caithness LEGO Broch

14/7/2017

Yesterday saw the unveiling of Caithness Broch Project’s LEGO broch at the Caithness Horizons Museum in Thurso. The model is a Brick to the Past creation, built by Dan Harris and James Pegrum, the former working on the broch itself and the latter the landscape it sits on.

One of the amazing things about this model is the distances it has travelled to get here. While Dan lives in Nethy Bridge near Aviemore, which to be fair is reasonably local in Highland terms, James lives in Newton Abbot in Devon. This means that a big part of a model that now resides in the most northerly town on the British mainland was created just a stone’s throw away from the English Channel.

The model is 1.4 metres square and reaches a height of about 40 cm. The broch itself is made of approximately 10,000 pieces and the whole model packs in a lots and lots of advanced building techniques. One of the greatest challenges was getting the gently tapered shape of the walls right and Dan admits that the Broch is the most challenging thing he has ever built.

The LEGO broch is just one of many outreach activities Caithness Broch Project have going on in 2017, which is Scotland’s 'Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology'. It will be at the Caithness Horizons Museum all summer but Caithness Broch Project also intend that it visit local schools and clubs to help promote brochs as one of the area’s richest historic and cultural heritage of assets.

Chairman of Caithness Broch Project, Kenneth McElroy said:

"The LEGO broch's main purpose is to encourage people to learn and engage with the archaeology of Caithness. We hope that we can make learning about the heritage of our county exciting and enjoyable.

We also hope that it will let people know about Caithness Broch Project, and what we are aiming towards. We hope to build a much bigger replica broch one day!"

We’re proud of working with this grassroots organisation and hope that our little model will in some small way contribute towards their goal of building a fully sized reconstruction of a broch in Caithness.

The exhibition opens at the Caithness Horizons Museum today and the LEGO broch will be on display at until October 16th.

You can find more about Caithness Broch Project and offer your support by visiting their website:

www.thebrochproject.co.uk

LEGO Corgarff is at Real Corgarff!

5/7/2017

Phew, we do some miles here at Brick to the Past! Last month we were in Caithness, last weekend we were in Manchester and now we're back in Scotland, this time in the mountainous splendor of the Cairngorms National Park! To be fair, we have our HQ in the mountainous splendour of the Cairngorms National Park, but that's not really the point, it's all about time spent on the road! Besides, we wouldn't be writing just to tell you that we're back home safely, no, we can do better than that. So here it is - we're delighted to announce that we have another exhibition on!

LEGO Corgarff.

Last weekend we unveiled the first iteration of our latest epic model, The Jacobite Risings: The Fight for Britain's Throne. Part of this model is a recreation of Corgarff Castle, located in the eastern Cairngorms, as it might have looked during the first half of the 18th Century. We wrote a blog about the design process back in March; a blog that's well worth checking out if you're nerdy enough to be interested in the castle's history.

So what better place for the LEGO Corgarff Castle to spend the summer than the real Corgarff Castle? Well, it's our opinion that there is no better place so that's exactly where it is and will be until September 4th.

Corgarff Castle as it appears today.

It's rare that we can say with confidence that the venue is more impressive than the LEGO model we have on show. Which isn't to talk the model down, the model rocks, but Corgarff Castle must be one of the most beautiful castles in Scotland and is well worth a visit in its own right. So what we have is a great opportunity to not only visit an amazing historic building in an amazing landscape, but it's also an opportunity to see some amazing LEGO at the same time.

The exhibition space.

Corgarff Castle is owned and managed by Historic Scotland and is open Monday to Sunday between 1st April to 30th September.

LEGO Corgarff Castle will be on display until the 4th of September 2017, so that in our opinion, is the best time to visit!

Tickets are £6 for adults, £3.60 for children and children under 5 and Historic Scotland members go free. The price of seeing LEGO Corgarff is included in this price.

Find our more and buy your tickets at:

www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/corgarff-castle

Don't forget to share your photos of LEGO Corgarff with us on Facebook and Twitter!

There's One more Broch in Caithness this Weekend

24/6/2017

Thursday saw us traveling to Thurso, the most northerly town on mainland Britain and the home of the superb Caithness Horizons Museum. Our mission was to deliver and set up the now well publicised LEGO broch for Caithness Broch Project, a task which we of course delighted in, because a). it meant that we got yo visit a museum, and b). it meant that we got to play with LEGO. The LEGO broch will now form part of a summer exhibition on, you guessed it, brochs, before being taken on a tour of local schools as part of Caithness Broch Project's exciting outreach program.

Good doggy.

We won't give you a full look at the model just yet, there will be a proper press release issued by Caithness Broch Project that will do that. In the meantime, please enjoy our little teaser... and to see more, visit the museum!

Legofarne for Rent

4/12/2016

Our models are massive and this means they only have a limited lifespan and are taken apart so that the parts may be recycled. They are never completely dismantled though because we like to keep parts of them so that they can be rented out and taken to other shows.

From England 793 we are keeping the island monastery built by Dan Harris and it is available to rent along with a number of other models. We call this part of the model 'Legofarne'.

The island is based on the famous Anglo-Saxon monastery at Lindisfarne in Northumberland, which was founded in the year 635. It was here in 793 that the first Viking raid is said to have taken place; famously the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reads:

"In this year fierce, foreboding omens came over the land of Northumbria. There were excessive whirlwinds, lightning storms, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the sky. These signs were followed by great famine, and on January 8th of the same year, the ravaging of heathen men destroyed God's church at Lindesfarne."

Of course, this is not a scale model of Lindisfarne as such a thing would be wildly impractical and arguably, not that interesting as it would mostly consist of sand dunes and tidal mudflats, but efforts were made to take certain key features and place them in the model. Perhaps the most obvious of these is the tidal causeway that connects the island to the mainland. This feature was picked up instantly by many of the visitors to our shows and essentially provided the model with all the context it needed.

The second feature is the small island on the eastern side of the model, complete with hermit in residence. This is based on St. Cuthbert’s Island, which was occupied by the eponymous patron saint of Northumbria in the early 8th century. Of course St. Cuthbert was long dead by the time the Vikings turned up, but since he occupies such an important place in the area’s history, it felt important to include a reference.

Because the later Norman priory obliterated any obvious evidence of earlier occupation the buildings on the main island are based on what we know of Anglo-Saxon building techniques from other sites. The priory, which is now owned and run by English Heritage, has an excellent museum describing what the Anglo-Saxon monastery probably looked like in the late 8th century and so this is what has been drawn upon.

If you are interested in renting this model then we can be contacted by emailing us at:

bricktothepast@outlook.com

Alternatively, we may be contacted via our website's contact form.

We're a friendly helpful bunch so don't be shy.

You may also be interested to know that we have a range of other historic models available covering many eras of British History. Ask us about the packages we could provide you.

All photographs are © Brick to the Past and Andrew Whyte, 2016.

We're in Blocks Issue 25!

20/10/2016

Blocks magazine Issue 25 is out in shops today (October 20th).

We're in it with a substantial yet entertaining article about our latest epic build, England 793. You'll find out about Anglo-Saxon and Viking history, hear from the builders on their thoughts about the model and the creative process and be able to marvel at the many wonderful photos of this enormous creation.

Find out more about Blocks magazine, including how to subscribe or where to find a copy in shops:

www.blocksmag.com

Get you're copy now!

Rheged's over, but STEAM's just around the corner

5/9/2016

Yesterday was the final day of the Bricks in Time exhibition at the Rheged Centre and so we were back on site to do the take down. The exhibition was a great success attracting over 25,000 visitors between July and September. We're incredibly pleased to have been part of the event and really happy that it was enjoyed by so many people.

The ancient Britain section.

We were lucky enough to have a quick wander around before everything closed and despite being a little bit dusty, the models still looked great. It was also great to be able to chat to a few visitors; it's always interesting to hear what people like and notice about models... plus who doesn't like a bit of praise?

England, 793.

While it was sad to see our models taken apart once more it won't be long before they're up again, because in just a few weeks we'll be at the Great Western Brick Show in Swindon. The show is on the weekend of the 1st and 2nd of October and is well worth a visit - we hope to see you there!

And so things come to an end... but not for long.

caithness broch project

11/7/2016

We are delighted to announce that Brick to the Past have been commissioned by the Caithness Broch Project to build a minifigure scale Lego Broch for permanent display at the Caithness Horizons Museum. The model will also be taken around schools in Caithness and used for discussing Brochs in more detail with local children, as well as other aspects of Iron Age life.

This project is just one of many outreach activities Caithness Broch Project have planned to coincide with the Scottish Government's 'Year of History Heritage and Archaeology' in 2017.

For those unfamiliar with Scottish Iron Age archaeology, a broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland and mostly in northern Scotland. Caithness, Sutherland and the Northern Isles have the densest concentrations, but there are also a great many examples in the west of Scotland and the Hebrides.

And so work begins on a brand new Broch...

Caithness Broch Project is a registered charity (SC046307). The aims of the Project can be divided into several achievable targets:

Promote and Preserve existing archaeological sites in Caithness, through improved signage, access and information releases on these sites.
Create an Archaeological Trail around Caithness, for locals and visitors alike to follow and discover the wonders of our past.
The ultimate goal of the project, through authentic building techniques from the time, is to build a replica of an Iron Age Broch, which becomes the base for a Tourist Centre and Dry Stone Workshop.

Check out their website and support them on social media:

www.thebrochproject.co.uk
www.facebook.com/CaithnessBrochProject
www.twitter.com/thebrochproject
www.instagram.com/caithnessbrochproject

Another day, Another show...

7/7/2016

Bricktastic sadly over, Monday morning saw us leaving Manchester in convoy and making our way north to the Cumbrian town of Penrith. Penrith is home to the Rheged Centre where our models would be built once more to become part of the Bricks in Time exhibition, curated by Bright Bricks. Not only would we be contributing our Bricktastic models to this event, we would also be adding an Iron Age village, Romano-British villa, mosaic of the emperor Hadrian, Norman keep, and Sir Frances Drake’s ship, The Golden Hind.

Rheged... not a bad place to play with Lego.

We would not however be setting up until Tuesday and so with some time to kill we decided to go on a road trip into the Lake District. The British summer delivered its usual mixture of rain and lukewarm temperatures but we still managed a short walk and a cheeky ice-cream. The trip also turned into an impromptu photo shoot as new mugshots were needed for our website; this activity was more popular with some than it was with others, but I think we can safely say, the camera loves our Lego models more than it loves us.

Simon demonstrating his super human levels of patience as he rebuilds his roundhouse for a third time.

Tuesday morning brought some bad news when we discovered that Simon Pickard’s Iron Age village had been seriously damaged in transit and so what was meant to be a five minute job turned into 10 hour one as he endeavoured to re-build it; we blame the northern cattle grids. Owing to its complex structure this was no mean feat and Simon demonstrated superhuman levels of patience in completing a task that would send lesser mortals into fits of Hulk-like rage. Thankfully, the rest of our models went up reasonably quickly giving us time to lavish extra attention on the placement of vegetation and minifigures, an activity that by contrast, fosters zen-like calm in our builders. Rheged is undoubtedly a gorgeous venue and it was wonderful to see our models laid out so cleanly and lit so beautifully; we are massively excited to be on display here.

Yoga time at Rheged.

The exhibition will run from Saturday 9th July to Sunday 4th September 2016 and if you love history and you love Lego then be sure to make time for a visit. Tickets are £2.50 per person and 3’s and under go free. Read more about it on Rheged’s website:

www.rheged.com/bricks-time-hands-history-lego

Blocks Magazine Is Out

26/10/2015

Yay! it's out. A full write up of our 2015 Hadrian's Wall build is featured in issue 13 of Blocks Magazine.