Blacksmith to join Danish Viking anchor project

A Shropshire blacksmith is part of a team that has been invited to Denmark to forge an authentic anchor for a reconstructed Viking ship.

Rowan Taylor, who is based in Ellesmere, said the trip to Aggersborg to take part in the project was a "dream work trip" because he had spent so much time researching the ancient anchors and their forging methods.

Rather than using modern steel or Victorian wrought iron, the team will use bloomery iron, the same material used by Viking smiths centuries ago.

Internationally-recognised bloomery expert Jens Olesen is leading the project and Rowan "nearly bit Jens' hand off" when he eventually asked him to design the anchor.

The completed piece will be fitted to the Huld, a reconstructed Viking vessel operating from Aggersborg.

The project itself grew out of discussions at the end of the historic market season in Denmark between Jens Olesen and the Aggersborg Viking Craft Meeting.

There Olesen began exploring the possibility of undertaking a larger forging project using bloomery iron, which is when he thought of Taylor with whom he had worked previously in Ireland.

Taylor, who lives near Welshpool, told the BBC that this was a "very exciting" experimental archaeology project.

"This is such a wonderful opportunity to test some of the observations I have made," he said.

"What I'm hoping to see come out of this is that the joinery techniques work, and are accurate, and we end up with a finished project that then is a working object rather than just something behind a bit of glass at a museum", he added.

"Just having this anchor on a boat will allow us to test its capability... we can then compare whatever data comes out of that to the archaeological record and ongoing research."

The completed eighth century authentic anchor is expected to weigh about 10 kilograms once completed and be 70 cm tall.

Taylor is also a course tutor at the National School of Blacksmithing (NSB) at Holme Lacy College near Hereford.

While the Aggersborg Anchor Project is an independent initiative, the NSB is providing two further members of the teaching team, with course tutor Mischa Kunkel and technician Ernestas Jakubauskas joining the project.

"We're all very, very, very excited," Taylor said. "I think it's probably going to be the largest object that's been made from bloomery iron since the 19th century."

Taylor said he thought the reason they were asked to take part in the project was because the "UK probably has the best blacksmith training in the world".

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