Hrolf Douglasson, who played the boneworker; Tony Peel, who played the shoemaker; and Rona Johnson, who featured as the embroiderer told the web team about their work.

Tell us a bit about your role at this year's Live

'We are here primarily to show a small trading encampment during the early Anglo-Saxon period. We are trying to show the sort of dress, equipment and crafts that would have been seen amongst people living in late Roman and early Anglo-Saxon times.'

So what's the set-up here?

'What we represent is a small, family-based trading post. In these three tents you can see the kinds of goods they could have traded in if they were a family living in this area: animal pelts and tools made of bone or horn. They wouldn't have lived in tents, of course, they would have lived in houses.'

Is this what you do ordinarily?

'We belong to a re-enactment group. It's a hobby more than a living – and we do have other jobs – but some of us do trade the goods we make. And we also do re-enactments in schools. We are re-enactors with particular emphasis on accuracy and authenticity. Everything we have here is constructed from documentaries or archaeological sources.'

Who do you trade the goods you make with?

'We trade our wares among other groups of re-enactors who specialise in different crafts. So the bag Rona is embroidering is for a friend who will in turn make a pair of socks. Another friend traded a pair of shoes for a cloak. So we don't pay each other, we trade our skills.'

Is this characteristic of the period then, a sort of bartering system?

'Yes, that's actually what would have happened in the period. In fact, in the sixth century, you wouldn't have found any money. You wouldn't really see money unless you were a king.'

And with shoemaker Tony taking a day's hard graft to stitch his shoes from animal waste products, perhaps we can count ourselves lucky that in 2001 these chores are best done by other people. For more information about Anglo-Saxon life and times, and on re-enactment, check out www.regia.org.

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