In this latter capacity, it was designed so that archaeologists could learn more about the agricultural and domestic economy in Britain during the millennium that lasted from circa 400 BCE to 400 CE, in what was the Late British Iron Age and Romano-British periods.

[1] Founded in 1970 by the Council for British Archaeology, in 1972 they recruited experimental archaeologist Peter J. Reynolds to run the site as project director.

[2] Butser Ancient Farm was founded in 1970 by the Council for British Archaeology: the driving force behind its foundation was the RCHME archaeologist Collin Bowen.

In the original Bronze and Iron Ages, a farmstead had been found on Little Butser, whose occupants had farmed the valley to the north and east.

[1] In 1991 the project moved to Bascomb Copse on the slopes of Windmill Hill, Hampshire between Chalton and Clanfield, about 5 km from the original site.

Under her guidance, one of Peter's projects, a Roman building, was completed, resulting in the first full scale construction simulation of the wing of a Romano-British villa from Sparsholt, near Winchester.

The management team consists of Simon Jay and Maureen Page, running the farm under the business "Butser Education CIC".

As this building showed minimal evidence for internal posts it has been constructed so that the roof rafters are ground fast, in order to provide additional strength to the large structure.

[8] In 2021 the construction of Butser Ancient Farm's first Bronze Age house began, based on excavations from Dunch Hill on Salisbury Plain.

This project is working in collaboration with Operation Nightingale, an initiative to assist the recovery of wounded, injured and sick military personnel and veterans by getting them involved in archaeological investigations.

The second Danebury house is CS1, constructed with oak plank walls in line with the evidence of a slot trench discovered in the excavations.

[11] In 2017-18 the Villa was renovated including re-painting the walls based on excavated plaster remains showing original colours and patterns, and installing a replica mosaic floor in the central room.

[7] Chalton A2 was constructed in 2017 and the house is primarily made of English oak, sweet chestnut and hazel, all sourced from local coppiced woodlands.

The roof is panelled wattle hurdles into which the wheat straw thatch was laid using hazel spars to hold it in place.

Each building on display to the public today represents the conclusion of an experiment, conducted in response to theoretical hypotheses about archaeological features found in excavation, about construction methods and techniques, or a combination of these.

The Farm has also been used as a location in several feature films and television series including Horrible Histories: The Movie - Rotten Romans, Britannia, Arthur and Merlin, The Four Warriors and Gladiatress.