We wanted to update you on the recent events at our beloved historical and recreational park in North Wales.

Last week, an extraordinary bout of extreme weather led to the River Alyn bursting its banks, causing a significant portion of the park to be submerged. For the first time in history, the river merged with the lake, creating a hazardous environment with fast-flowing waters. The lake and river banks became invisible, posing a danger of sudden drops into even deeper water.

We are heartbroken to witness the level of flood damage inflicted upon our park. Assessing the state of paths and infrastructure around the lake will be impossible until the water recedes. The cost of repair is anticipated to be substantial.

Despite this devastating setback, we are grateful that the Neolithic realm and cafe, as well as the Fort, remain unscathed due to their elevated positions.

Regrettably, we must inform you that the GRIMM WOODS Halloween event has been canceled. We extend our sincere gratitude to all those who booked places for the event. Safety considerations, coupled with the extensive flood damage, compelled us to make this difficult decision.

The aftermath of the floods has been nothing short of disheartening. Our new bridge, which we believed to be safely positioned above the reach of the river, has been completely destroyed. This means that even when the water levels return to normal, there will be no access across the river to the rest of the Park.

Our dedicated wardens have been diligently monitoring the site as the water gradually recedes in some areas. The damage assessment is underway, revealing a landscape marred by destruction. The loss of our bridge, damaged fences, and the displacement of portable toilet blocks and kayaks are just some of the visible impacts.

The toll on our wildlife remains unknown, as it is currently too dangerous to open the site to visitors. However, we are committed to supporting our resilient staff and meeting our financial obligations.

As we face this monumental challenge, our small but determined team is working tirelessly to restore the park to its former glory. We will keep you updated on our progress and, in the meantime, welcome any support you can offer.

Thank you for your understanding and unwavering support.

If you would like to support the clean up effort at the park, you can donate here.

We’ve been making some amazing progress here at Park in the Past on our Big Fort Build!

The first full-size Roman fort to be built in Britain for 2000 years has been coming on leaps and bounds recently and we have some amazing news to share with you.

We have added extensions to our defensive palisade to enforce our protection against large-scale attacks! Our tower ramparts have been reinforced to add extra strength to them. We now have all four corner towers installed and even have communal toilets!

There has been a lot of work as we’ve added rampart supports for the main gate as well as enhanced the whole site’s defences. We have also created a surface water drainage system in order to keep our troops dry even when the sky opens.

We will be able to accommodate 1200 auxiliary troops and cavalry once to fort is completed. Big Fort is built based on an actual fort in Scotland and is the first full-size Roman fort to be built in the UK for over 2000 years.

Through the site’s production, our incredible workforce has given groundbreaking insights into Roman buildings. With passion and drive our team has worked tirelessly to get us to this point and we couldn’t be prouder of our amazing volunteers and everything we’ve achieved.

Our expert builders and support team have worked astonishingly fast and with incredible devotion. Even when the British weather tried to stand in the way of the project our team weren’t perturbed and battled on through extreme weather conditions to hit the targets we set ourselves.

The Fabrica workshop has been a wonderful centre of construction operations and the completely authentic barracks block is historically accurate in every minute detail. We are excited to show groups around and take them back to the Roman days, travelling further beyond the veils of time with every step.

We are so proud of our progress with the largest and most ambitious experimental archaeology project in Britain -  a unique and stunning visitor attraction. We are now open to visitors and schools to see how far we’ve come… we’re sure you’ll be impressed!

We will be kicking of the year’s events in style by cooking something very exciting up for the February half term. Give our Facebook page a like and follow to be the first to receive exciting news updates about this event.

We also have some EGGciting plans afoot for Easter which we will reveal details of very soon.

Below are just some of the events that we already have booked in for 2023 and we will be organising many more alongside our Saturday Roman Builds that happen weekly.

1st May 2023

Burning of the Wicker Man

Lets welcome in the Summer with the burning of the Wicker Man, and lots of fun.

Beltane is the Gaelic May Day festival. Commonly observed on the first of May, the festival falls midway between the spring equinox and summer solstice in the northern hemisphere. The festival name is synonymous with the month marking the start of summer in Ireland, May being Mí na Bealtaine. Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man.

Folowing a tradition that dates back to the time of the druids we will burn a Wicker Man to welcome in the summer.

27th May - 4th June 2023

Auxilia

Our new flagship Roman Fort celebration of Cultural Diversity - a whole 9 days of immersive living history, demos and talks.

The Auxilia were introduced as non-citizen troops attached to the citizen legions by Augustus after his reorganisation of the Imperial Roman army from 30 BC. By the 2nd century, the Auxilia contained the same number of infantry as the legions and, in addition, provided almost all of the Roman army's cavalry (especially light cavalry and archers) and more specialised troops. The auxilia thus represented three-fifths of Rome's regular land forces at that time. Like their legionary counterparts, auxiliary recruits were mostly volunteers, not conscripts.

20th July onwards

Summer Holidays

We will be hosting lots of new art and exploration activities to keep the young people busy over the summer holidays. Check our events page for more details that will be released nearer the time.

31st October

October Fest

The year is turning towards the dark, its time to burn the Wicker Man again!

A wicker man was purportedly a large wicker statue in which the druids (priests of Celtic paganism) sacrificed humans and animals by burning. The main evidence for this practice is a sentence by Roman general Julius Caesar in his Commentary on the Gallic War (1st century BC), which modern scholarship has linked to an earlier Greek writer, Poseidonius.

Christmas

Christmas in the Past

Find out how our ancestors celebrated their Winter Festivals and Christmas, and join in.

We hope to see you at some (or all!) of our events the year and as always our volunteers will give a warm welcome to all guests and answer any questions you may have about Roman life.

Great news! We have received the discharge of planning for lake use. This means that we now have access throughout the year and active users in the lake at any one time has increased from 50 to 100.

With all year round access to the lake and up to 100 participants able to swim, kayak and paddle board we can’t wait to welcome back visitors… especially when it gets a little warmer.

During the winter period we are currently only accepting in-person bookings for Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at our Visitor Information Centre, not online. The cost for swim, kayak and SUP is £6 per person per session which includes a hot drink or cup of soup of their choice in the cafe.

For more details about updated information in the coming months head over to the Swim, SUP & Kayak page and for our upcoming events head over to the Events page.

You can also keep up to date with all the latest Park in the Past news and developments via our Facebook, Instagram or Twitter pages.

Celebrate The Festive Season With Our Winter Events

Looking for something fun to do this winter? Park in the Past in Caergwrle has got you covered! We welcome back the Nature Detectives Family Workshop in November and welcome the arrival of the Festive Wreath Making workshops and our Winter Festive Week! These are all great events to take part in. So grab your coat and hat and come on down to the park for some winter fun!

About Park In The Past

Park in The Past is managed by a Community Interest Company which has been set up to restore and manage Fagl Lane Quarry, in North East Wales, primarily for the benefit of the nearby residents of Hope, Caergwrle, and Pen y Ffordd, in Flintshire.

We’ve been busy with more work on Britain's BIG Fort Build.

We’ve had a great time recently continuing to build our Roman fort. The fort continues to evolve and grow as a testament to the wonderful support we’ve had from our supporters, volunteers and builders.

The corner towers are now in situ. They are crafted using oak and are held in position with wooden pegs. With so much variation in the build as we go we are planning to develop the palisade along the way.

The Fabrica is continuing to grow as we work on adding the roof and walls to it. The space created in this fabrica can be utilised as a workshop space or classroom area for those keen on learning about the Roman structure.

We still have roof shingles available for sponsorship of the Fabrica. If you’d like to have your name or that of a loved one added to a roof shingle that will be visible on the inside of the building just donate via our Local Giving page: https://localgiving.org/fundraising/buildthisfort/

Find out about the latest updates in our builds via the news section of our website. We look forward to keeping you informed of all the exciting developments as they happen.