Sutton Hoo

It has been a very warm but extremely windy day.
Setting off straight after an early breakfast we have spent a good part of today at Sutton Hoo about 40 minutes away. When I checked yesterday to see that it was open I discovered it was NT so as members we got in free. What I didn’t know was that you had to book and there was an extra bookable exhibition from the Staffordshire Hoard - items from a similar period to those found at Sutton Hoo from the time of the Anglo-Saxons
By going straight after breakfast we could get into both so off we went.

The artefacts from the Staffordshire Hoard were virtually all the original finds made predominantly from gold and garnets, nearly all decorative items from swords. The swords themselves were not buried, no iron was found, so the question is why were they buried 1400 years ago?
Nobody knows.

We set off to walk to the site of the burial ground of the boat reproduced in the blip. It was the burial ship of the warrior King of the Anglo-Saxons, Raedwald. You can see the sight of the ship’s burial in the extra, taken from a viewing tower opened last year. A great way to get an overview but it was definitely swaying a bit in the wind today! You can also see how incredibly dry it has been down here.
 
We continued on a walk through the woods above the River Deben from whence the boat would have been hauled, quite a steep up hill pull. After a cuppa and scone back at the visitor centre we went into the main exhibition. 

It was very good but things here were predominantly reproductions as the real artefacts are displayed in the British Museum which we’ve actually seen a couple of times on visits to London. It was worth the visit to see where the discoveries were made and to put everything into context.

Back in Southwold this afternoon we did our bit of discount Christmas shopping at Adnams Kitchen and Cellar shop before a walk to St Edmunds Church beautifully decorated for harvest.
Then down to the pier a mistake - it started to rain, the first we’ve had. Just a passing shower but we got quite wet so made for the Sole Bay Inn on our way back up from the sea.  Once there we decided to stay put and wait till they started serving dinner at 6.00. A good job we did as there was a queue by then.
We had a delicious smoked haddock and prawn gratin, worth waiting for. 
If you think I’m a bit obsessed with meals I’m afraid it’s all part and parcel of going away in the UK at the moment unless you are self catering. Everywhere is short staffed and so getting an evening meal is problematical. The answer is to book ahead but many places won’t take bookings!

That aside we’ve had a great few days here, a lovely and historically interesting area.


I will do a Flickr link showing more  from this visit when I get back home.