What? When? Where? Hoo!

An outing with Rosie, Thursday 15th February, a National Trust property in Suffolk. We went to Sutton Hoo. A long trip, but well worth it. As it was not half-term in East Anglia, Rosie was one of only a handful of children there, and the staff made quite a fuss of her. 

We arrived at midday, and had lunch. I had a splendid hot sausage roll, Ro's children's meal included a freshly made, beautiful cheese sandwich - and Bob had a sausage and pearl barley casserole. A packed lunch in the picnic area would have been cheaper - but it was not a warm day, and it was lovely to treat Rosie to a proper lunch, as she had been so good all week. 

Sutton Hoo is an Anglo Saxon burial ground. In the 1930s, the owner, a formidable widow named Edith Pretty, asked Suffolk Museums to investigate the grassy mounds in one of her fields. Basil Brown, a self taught, amateur archaeologist, was sent to excavate. His discovery of a wooden ship, on which was buried an Anglo Saxon king was - still is- incredibly significant.

We looked at replicas of the treasure, and stood by the half size model of the boat -we read Basil's notes, and visited Edith's house. We saw a model of the king's fabulous helmet. There were good, brief videos, costumes for dressing up, craft activities and much more. I could do a whole post on the textiles!

And we went outside and climbed the viewing tower, to look down on the field [now just grassy mounds again - their contents removed to the British Museum]

The recent film ”The Dig” starring Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan tells the story well. 

I asked one of the NT guides about it. She says it was filmed elsewhere , she was ok with that, it would have been too complex to film there. But she did feel they'd missed the chance to emphasise how much this was a women's story. Edith's determination to preserve these treasures for the nation. 

Dorothy Brown's encouragement of her husband who was constantly looked down on by others for his lack of formal education [despite his brilliance] Barbara Wagstaff and Mercie Lack, two schoolteachers on holiday, both amateur photographers, whose pictures provided an amazing record of Brown's work.

It was a great day out, I came away wanting to find out more about the treasure, and the lives of the Anglo-Saxons who rowed up the river to bury their king. This NT venue definitely gets *****