VISITORS to a family museum are being transported back to medieval times this weekend.
Archaeologists Tom Gledhill and Ros Nichol are at the Killhope Lead Mining Museum, in Weardale, County Durham, where they are attempting to smelt iron using medieval methods.
Members of the Friends of Killhope are taking turns to help keep the heat in the stone and clay furnace that is being used.
Temperatures need to be more than 800 degrees for the experiment to work.
Museum manager Ian Forbes said: "You can't let the temperature drop in the furnace and the only way to keep it steady is by manual labour, which is hard work when you're doing it for several hours."
The experiment, which is part of the North Pennines Geology Festival, is taking place throughout the weekend.
Published: 05/06/2004
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