BRIGG RAFT OR BOAT BEING INSTALLED WITH LINK TO VIDEO FOOTAGE

The Bronze Age Brigg ‘Raft’ is  being installed  at Brigg Heritage Centre in the Angel building, off the Market Place.
The sewn-plank boat was being preserved and stored at the National Maritime Museum in London.
In 2011 the museum agreed to loan the ‘Raft’ to North Lincolnshire Council for conservation and display in the new Brigg Heritage Centre.
The ‘Raft’ has now been restored by conservators at York Archaeological Trust and is ready to go on display for the first time.
The displays and purpose built ‘Raft’ case at the Heritage Centre are funded by North Lincolnshire Council and the LEADER programme.
The remains of the Brigg ‘Raft’ were found in 1888 by workmen digging for clay between the old and new River Ancholme. After being recorded the ‘Raft’ was reburied and lost to sight for nearly 100 years.
In 1974 archaeologists from the National Maritime Museum excavated the Brigg ‘Raft’ and took it to London.
Brigg's Coun Rob Waltham, Cabinet Member for People at North Lincolnshire Council, said: “This has been a long time coming but I am so pleased the ‘Raft’, something of such historical significance, is finally returning to Brigg to be put on display in the new Brigg Heritage Centre.
“It is going to be a magnificent display and I would encourage people to come take a look for themselves when the Heritage Centre reopens at the end of March.”

KEN HARRISON, WHO TOOK THE PICTURES ADDS...
Carbon 14 dating indicates the 'raft' to be 9th Century BC - circa 800 to 850BC.
Each oak plank, or strake, had 10 cleats.
Each strake was individually taken form the heart of an oak tree.
The cleats, in which cross members of hazel formed a structure of the boat, are integral to plank - ie not separately added - indicating that the Bronze Age craftsmen were highly sophisticated and were able to carve/sculpture each plank, or strake using primitive tools.
You can see eye-holes in which strands of willow binding bound each strake together.
Waterproofing was achieved by a caulking of moss between the bound joins.
The preserved remains of the 'raft' measures 12.2m x 2.7m - When the boat was initially unearthed in 1888, Samuel Cole, co-owner of the brick-clay workings on Island Carr in which the 'raft' was discovered – was allowed to remove part of the boat and it was never seen again.
However, in the 1970s a Bronze Age exhibit of a cleat was examined in Lincoln Museum and was established to originate from the missing section of the 'raft'.
Picture taken with permission of the National Maritime Museum and NLC. 

LINK TO BRONZE AGE RAFT AT BRIGG HERITAGE CENTRE ON TV - WELL WORTH WATCHING
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-21708572

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