Living as a caveman would not be many people’s choice of lifestyle but living out in the wild has appealed to Will Lord since he was a young boy and we are fortunate enough to spend a few hours with him.
Up until a few years ago Will was living in a house just a few miles from here but was permitted by the Duke of Grafton to use the vast acreage of woodland on the Euston Estate to build Earth Lodge, however, with a house nearby he does pop home to see family now and then.
Just outside of Thetford, we pull off the main road onto a track where we park next to the logs then head off down the slope where smoke is visible long before we see Will, but when we do spot him he is sitting next to a huge wooden banqueting table with long benches and an even bigger chair at the head of the table, all made by the caveman himself.
Greeting us with a warm “Hello!” Will invites us into Earth Lodge what he calls ‘ home’ where the kettle is boiling over the smoking fire and offers us a cup of tea.
As we sit down on fur skins with our tea it’s difficult to know where to look first, it’s full of artefacts and I’m sure at times Will thinks we are being rude because it’s hard to listen to him and absorb what is around us, there are no mod cons here.
Will tells us as a boy he grew up at Grime’s Graves a large Neolithic flint mining complex where his parents were the previous custodians, so for Will, this was his playground and it’s here where he learnt his skills and gets his passion.
Inside his home he shows us how he has transformed the flint into tools, such as knives and axes, explaining how flint knapping evolved from Mesolithic and even earlier times to the late Neolithic period, and it’s clear. Wills’s skills and knowledge are nothing short of breathtaking.
Will, offers us a walkthrough overgrown heather and bracken, as we walk he continues to tell us how he felt stifled in a house made of bricks, so you can see why he feels at home here it’s very peaceful. As we trek further into the woods he’s pointing out trees and plants used for medicinal purposes, and tracks, where deer and badgers had, walked earlier.
During the year Will runs courses for all ages which means his obsession is now his vocation. For the adults, he offers popular four-day residential Stone Age adventures with flint knapping, bronze casting and longbow-making courses, and for the children, there’s the coolest history lesson ever, who wouldn’t love wild camping and foraging in the woods?
Since Covid Will said “It seems like people want to try out a different way of thinking and living”, which is even more prevalent in the times we live in. Will goes on to say “We all have this remarkable set of natural skills that have just been forgotten over time. Back in the Stone Age, they knew everything about how to be self-sufficient in nature”. Perhaps people are visiting him to regain these practical skills and to also find a sense of happiness too.
Having seen Will in the tv programme Ben Foggles lives in the Wild, you sometimes wonder ‘do these people really live these lives, or is it just for the cameras’ well Will is the real deal, and it’s clear he is comfortable living this way.
This has been an amazing experience, one which has allowed us to gain some feel and insight into prehistoric life and ancient technologies and the challenges they had to overcome through millions of years!
Being with nature and making use of everything that’s around you looks appealing and fun, but hunting down your dinner isn’t something we would want to do, so the reality is, I’m not sure we could survive living in times gone by, I would certainly miss my bath too much.
What a fascinating visit, I did see him on tv some years ago and was impressed by his skills then.
Absolutely fascinating, Will is so down to earth, and his skills are amazing, definitely worth a visit if you ever venture that way