Return to Sutton Hoo

Last year we made a visit to Sutton Hoo in Suffolk where a number of Anglo-Saxon burials have been found, including the remains of a buried ship. Shortly after that some new digs were done by Time Team. This is a UK TV show that has been running for 30 years. They would visit various locations for a few days to see what they could find using the latest technology and expert archaeologists. We have been watching from the beginning. In recent years the show has moved online and uses Patreon to fund their work.

At Sutton Hoo they were able to work for several weeks on areas away from the famous burial mounds. There was known to be a cemetery near the visitor centre and they were able to survey other parts of the site.

They were not there today, but we could wander outside the fenced-off excavations. This is a National Trust site and one of their volunteers updated me on what had been happening. They have been finding cremated remains and various artefacts.

In the little museum there was a new exhibit about the people involved in the 1930s discovery of the ship with costumes and props from the Netflix dramatisation of it.

Last time we had a tour of the mounds, but did not have time to see everything else. This time we went in the house that belonged to the lady, Edith Pretty who brought in archaeologists to investigate the mounds on her land. The main one was Basil Brown. The house has various exhibits about her and the dig with lots of photos. There are rooms in the house that you can pay to stay in and some of Time Team have been doing that.

We also walked down to the river where some other digging has gone on. We had considered coming on Saturday, but it rained quite a bit and so we picked the better day.

There have been lots of video updates on the dig and there will be more once they finish next week. This one includes the sites we visited and also some of where we went next.

Just across the river is the town of Woodbridge that is great if you like boats. The river is tidal and most of the boats were stranded on the mud. There were a lot more stored on shore and a load of houseboats.

One of the videos we saw last year was about efforts to recreate the boat that was found. All the wood had rotted away, but it left an impression in the ground along with the thousands of rivets that were all still in place. This recreation is a form of experimental archaeology as there are few recorded details of boat constructions from that time.

We had a chat with one of the volunteers who is working on the boat. He said they have problems in sourcing wood as they need large pieces with no rot or splits. You can only find out if it is suitable after splitting the tree and letting the wood dry out for some time.

They are making progress and he said they hope to finish in 2027. Then they plan to try rowing and sailing it. There is also a plan to see how possible it would be to pull it up the hill to the burial site. They are using authentic hand tools for all the work.

Upstairs in the boat shed were some tapestries that illustrate the history of the area and the excavations. We were lucky to arrive just before they closed. The town has other attractions that include a flour mill that is run by tidal power. They fill a pond at high tide and use that to run the water wheel.

We saw this boat that I assume is a test of the building techniques on a smaller scale. You can see the mill behind it. They have flood gates around the dock for when the tide gets really high to protect the nearby buildings. The railway runs right by the river.

They also have this boat section that is being used to test various elements.

Back at the car park it was a bit noisy as there was a skateboard event going on with a live band. We had a nice day out overall. It is a bit of a drive for us, but well worth going, even if we did not get to meet the dig team.