A TEAM of wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans have been celebrating the completion of a building project to create an Iron Age roundhouse.

The roundhouse has been built at the Help for Heroes Recovery Centre, Tedworth House, in Tidworth in partnership with the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust.

The project has helped 49 wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans who have been involved with the build since it started in the summer of 2015.

Many famous faces, including Prince Harry, have visited the roundhouse project.

To mark the end of the build, the team decided to throw an Iron-Age themed party, where some even managed to stay in fancy dress despite the heat. They also enjoyed a hog roast, and then went to Stonehenge to watch the sunrise to mark the summer solstice.

Roy Taylor, who has been part of the project, served with the Royal Navy in the Falklands and was diagnosed with PTSD in 2010. He says being involved with the roundhouse project has helped him to sleep better, keeps him active and is great for camaraderie, he added: “Over the last 18 months, we’ve been working on an amazing project. It’s been great. If someone told me two years ago that I’d have built an Iron Age Roundhouse I wouldn’t have believed them.”

The idea was originally to build a yurt, but it was decided that an Iron Age roundhouse would be more substantial and also work as a long-term recovery programme.

The team constructed wattle wall states, installing rafters in the roof, thatching with help from Allan Wright Master Thatcher, daubing the walls, carving timber posts and installing a chalk floor.

Veteran Alan Day, who has also been involved in the building project, said: “For my wellbeing it’s been absolutely fantastic. The roundhouse has given me an anchor – every month I know I’ll be visiting with my peers, I’ll be with people who mentor me. It’s been an absolutely brilliant way of moving forward.”

The Iron Age roundhouse will now be used as a woodworking hut, where others will be able to learn new and develop existing skills and the team that have worked on the project will continue to meet here every month.

For more information about Help for Heroes go to helpforheroes.org.uk