Viewranger File Here
So on the 19th of November 2019 after I had walked the Rendlesham Forest UFO Trail, I drove over to Sutton Hoo for a walk to Woodbridge and back.
I parked up, clearly I had turned off the wrong way and ended up parking in front of a barn. But hey there was a sign saying car park so I parked up. The official car park is free when the exhibition is open but pay and display when its closed.
Sutton Hoo, at Sutton near Woodbridge, Suffolk, is the site of two 6th- and early 7th-century cemeteries. One cemetery contained an undisturbed ship-burial, including a wealth of Anglo-Saxon artefacts of outstanding art-historical and archaeological significance, most of which are now in the British Museum in London. The site is in the care of the National Trust.
Sutton Hoo is of primary importance to early medieval historians because it sheds light on a period of English history that is on the margin between myth, legend, and historical documentation. Use of the site culminated at a time when Rædwald, the ruler of the East Angles, held senior power among the English people and played a dynamic if ambiguous part in the establishment of Christian rulership in England; it is generally thought most likely that he is the person buried in the ship. The site has been vital in understanding the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of East Anglia and the whole early Anglo-Saxon period.
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| The area was previously Farmland until the discovery was made. |
The ship-burial, probably dating from the early 7th century and excavated in 1939, is one of the most magnificent archaeological finds in England for its size and completeness, far-reaching connections, the quality and beauty of its contents, and the profound interest of the burial ritual itself. The initial excavation was privately sponsored by the landowner. When the significance of the find became apparent, national experts took over. Subsequent archaeological campaigns, particularly in the late 1960s and late 1980s, have explored the wider site and many other individual burials. The most significant artefacts from the ship-burial, displayed in the British Museum, are those found in the burial chamber, including a suite of metalwork dress fittings in gold and gems, a ceremonial helmet, shield and sword, a lyre, and many pieces of silver plate from the Byzantine Empire. The ship-burial has, from the time of its discovery, prompted comparisons with the world described in the heroic Old English poem Beowulf, which is set in southern Sweden. It is in that region, especially at Vendel, that close archaeological parallels to the ship-burial are found, both in its general form and in details of the military equipment contained in the burial.
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| Replica of the Ship Burial |
Although it is the ship-burial that commands the greatest attention from tourists, two separate cemeteries also have rich historical meaning because of their position in relation to the Deben estuary and the North Sea, and their relation to other sites in the immediate neighbourhood. Of the two grave fields found at Sutton Hoo, one (the "Sutton Hoo cemetery") had long been known to exist because it consists of a group of approximately 20 earthen burial mounds that rise slightly above the horizon of the hill-spur when viewed from the opposite bank. The other, called here the "new" burial ground, is situated on a second hill-spur close to the present Exhibition Hall, about 500 m upstream of the first. It was discovered and partially explored in 2000 during preliminary work for the construction of the hall. This site also had burials under mounds but was not known because these mounds had long since been flattened by agricultural activity. There is a visitor centre with many original and replica artefacts and a reconstruction of the ship-burial chamber. The burial field can be toured in the summer months and at weekends and school holidays year-round.
I take footpath that leads away from the Visitor Centre towards Woodbridge.
Sutton Hoo is the name of an area spread along the bank of the River Deben at the small Suffolk village of Sutton and opposite the harbour of the small town of Woodbridge, about 7 mi (11 km) from the North Sea, overlooking the tidal estuary a little below the lowest convenient fording place. It formed a path of entry into East Anglia during the period that followed the end of Roman imperial rule in the 5th century.
South of Woodbridge, there are 6th-century burial grounds at Rushmere, Little Bealings, and Tuddenham St Martin and circling Brightwell Heath, the site of mounds that date from the Bronze Age. There are cemeteries of a similar date at Rendlesham and Ufford. A ship-burial at Snape is the only one in England that can be compared to the example at Sutton Hoo.
The territory between the Orwell and the watersheds of the Alde and Deben rivers may have been an early centre of royal power, originally centred upon Rendlesham or Sutton Hoo, and a primary component in the formation of the East Anglian kingdom: In the early 7th century, Gipeswic (modern Ipswich) began its growth as a centre for foreign trade, Botolph's monastery at Iken was founded by royal grant in 654, and Bede identified Rendlesham as the site of Æthelwold's royal dwelling.
What I failed to notice is that part of my walk takes me through Private property and I didn't see the sign (Private Property - No walkers,cyclists or runners) until I walked the same path back. Still I wasn't challenged so all was good.
From the path I had views across The River Deben to Melton.
At the end of the private Path I walk by a charming Thatched Cottage.
I turn left onto Wilford Bridge Road and over Wilford Bridge itself.
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| View down the River Deben from the Bridge. |
Just over The Bridge I take a footpath that runs along the banks of The River Deben.
The river was teaming with Wading birds of all-sorts.
Melton was covered in the Domesday Book. In 1765 a local Act established the Loes and Wilford Hundred Incorporation at Melton. The House of Industry (workhouse) operated until 1826. From 1826 the building became the Suffolk County Asylum for Pauper Lunatics. Much altered during the 19th and early 20th centuries, in 1916 the asylum became known as St Audry's Hospital, which was closed in 1993 (approx date). The buildings have been converted into residential accommodation.
Melton was originally settled around the old church in the north east of Melton, later moving to Yarmouth Road, which is the old road between Great Yarmouth and London. The bestselling Victorian novelist Henry Seton Merriman died at Melton in 1903.
Both the river-name and the name of the village of Debenham are of uncertain origin and relationship but one theory (of several on offer) is that the river's name was originally Dēope meaning 'the deep one'. The river-name, however, is not recorded in the form Deben before 1735, when it appears thus in Kirby's Suffolk Traveller. The river, though still little more than a stream, is forded twice in the village, with one ford claimed to be among the longest in England.
I pass the Deben Cafe that is now home on HMS VALE P155.
HSwMS Vale is a former Swedish Navy fast missile attack craft. Vale was built by Westermoen at Mandal in Norway in 1978, and was powered by twin MTU diesels developing 7,200bhp giving a speed of 35 knots. Vale (P155) is a HUGIN Class Attack Craft (Missile). Armament: 6 penguin Mk 2 SSM, 1-57mm/70, 103mm RFL, 24 mines or 2 DC racks instead of missiles Complement: 18
The ship arrived at Melton Boatyard in July 2019.They first opened the ward room cafe doors in September 2019, just in time for Maritime Woodbridge.
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| HMS Vale |
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| A Lapwing |
I am now approaching Woodbridge.
Archaeological finds in the area point to habitation from the Neolithic Age (2500–1700 BC). A ritual site was discovered while excavations were being made for the East Anglia Array wind farm at Seven Springs Field.
The area was under Roman occupation for 300 years after Queen Boudica's failed rebellion in AD 59, but there is little evidence of the Romans' presence. After the Roman soldiers were recalled to Rome in AD 410, there was a substantial Anglo-Saxon (Germanic) settlement. It was the Angles who gave East Anglia its name.
In the early 7th century, King Rædwald of East Anglia was Bretwalda, the most powerful king in England. He died around 624 and is probably the king buried at Sutton Hoo, just across the River Deben from Woodbridge. The burial ship is 89 feet (27 m) long, and when its treasures were discovered in 1939, they were the richest ever found on British soil. They are held now in the British Museum in London, but replicas of some items and the story of the finds can be found in the Woodbridge Museum. The National Trust has built a visitor centre on the site.
The earliest record of Woodbridge as such dates from the mid-10th century, when it was acquired by St Aethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, who made it part of the endowment of the monastery that he helped to refound at Ely, Cambridgeshire in 970. The Domesday Book of 1086 describes Woodbridge as part of the Loes Hundred. Much of Woodbridge was granted to the powerful Bigod family, who built the famous castle at Framlingham.
The town has been a centre for boat-building, rope-making and sail-making since the Middle Ages. Edward III and Sir Francis Drake had fighting ships built in Woodbridge. The town suffered in the plague of 1349, but recovered enough, with encouragement from the Canons, and growing general prosperity, to have a new church (now St Mary's, behind the buildings on the south side of Market Hill) constructed with limestone from the Wash and decorated with Thetford flint. By the mid-15th century the Brews family had added a tower and porch.
On 12 October 1534, Prior Henry Bassingbourne confirmed Henry VIII's supremacy over the Church and rejected the incumbent "Roman Bishop". Nonetheless, Woodbridge Priory was dissolved three years later.
As religious unrest continued in the reign of the Roman Catholic Mary Tudor, Alexander Gooch, a weaver of Woodbridge, and Alice Driver of Grundisburgh were burnt for heresy on Rushmere Heath. Alice previously had her ears cut off for likening Queen Mary to Jezebel. The subsequent religious settlement under Elizabeth I helped Woodbridge industries such as weaving, sail-cloth manufacture, rope-making and salt making to prosper, along with the wool trade. The port was enlarged, and shipbuilding and timber trade became very lucrative, so that a customs house was established in 1589.
Around the town there are various buildings from the Tudor, Georgian, Regency and Victorian eras. Woodbridge has a tide mill in working order, one of only two in the UK and among the earliest. The mill first recorded on the site in 1170 was run by the Augustinian canons. In 1536 it passed to King Henry VIII. In 1564, Queen Elizabeth I granted the mill and the priory to Thomas Seckford. In 1577 he founded Woodbridge School and the Seckford Almshouses, for the poor of Woodbridge. Two windmills survive, Buttrum's Mill, and Tricker's Mill. The former is open to the public.
In 1943, the Royal Air Force (RAF) constructed a military airfield east of Woodbridge. During the Cold War, the United States Air Force used RAF Woodbridge as the primary home for two Tactical Fighter Squadrons until 1993.
Woodbridge is twinned with Mussidan in France.
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| They don't like tresspassers around here. |
I reach The Woodbridge Tide Mill Museum.
The Tide Mill, Woodbridge, one of only a handful in the world still producing flour on a regular basis and among the first tide mills in the country, working on the same site for well over 800 years.
Its £5 for adults to enter but was closed on my visit.
Woodbridge Tide Mill is a rare example of a tide mill whose water wheel still turns and is capable of grinding a wholemeal flour.
The mill is a Grade I listed building. It is a three-storey building constructed from wood; externally it is clad in white Suffolk boarding and has a Gambrel roof. Its machinery reflects the skills and achievements of the early Industrial Revolution. It has been preserved and is open to the public. The reservoir constructed for demonstration purposes is roughly half an acre in extent, the original 7-acre (28,000 m2) one is now a marina.
The first recording of a tide mill on this site was a medieval mill in 1170; it is unknown how many mills have stood here, but probably three. The mill, which was operated by the local Augustinian priory in the Middle Ages, was acquired by Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536. It is possible that the Augustinians rebuilt the mill shortly before the dissolution. This mill and the former Woodbridge Priory was granted to Thomas Seckford by Elizabeth I. That mill passed through the hands of various private owners until it was rebuilt in the seventeenth century. This is the mill preserved today.
By the outbreak of World War II the mill was one of only a handful still operating. In 1957 it closed as the last commercially operating tide mill in Britain. In 1968 the derelict mill was purchased by Mrs Jean Gardner and a restoration programme was launched. It was opened to the public five years later in 1973. It is now managed by a charitable trust (Woodbridge Tide Mill Trust) staffed by volunteers, and in 2011 the trust undertook a further and more complete restoration and modernisation project, including a new water wheel and fully restored machinery, which allowed milling to begin again. It re-opened in 2012 and is now one of only two tide mills in the UK that regularly grinds wheat grain producing wholemeal flour for resale.
I leave the Mill behind cross over the Railway tracks and head into town.
Notable residents
Writers Edward FitzGerald and Anne Knight were born in Woodbridge, and fellow writer Bernard Barton lived in the town in later life. Other residents of note include musicians Nate James and Charlie Simpson; actors Brian Capron and Nicholas Pandolfi; painter Thomas Churchyard; Director-General of the BBC Ian Jacob; abolitionist John Clarkson; Roy Keane the football manager, and Thomas Seckford, official at the court of Queen Elizabeth I. The clockmaker John Calver lived in the town. Musicians Brian Eno and Brinsley Schwarz were born in the town. The world's most tattooed man, Tom Leppard, was born in the town. Actor Gavin Lee was born in the town, as was footballer Vernon Lewis.
Barretts of Woodbridge had an amazing Christmas display in their windows.
I walk along Thoroughfare and past many interesting shops.
I stop at the top and went for a drink is The Red Lion.
Located on Thoroughfare, the Red Lion is a 17th Century Grade 2 listed building full of charm sitting right at the heart of the local community.
From the kitchen, you can enjoy a delicious seasonal menu in the warmth of the pub. From the bar, we offer a range of cask ales, lager, craft beer and cider alongside a wide selection of wine and gins. Our beer range includes Birra Moretti, Estrella, some fantastic craft beers from Laine and rotating cask ales.
The Red Lion also boasts a fabulous outdoor beer garden and well-behaved dogs are welcome throughout – We have treats available from the bar and water stations by the main entrances.
I decided to have half pints so I could try two different Ales. (Black Sheep Bitter which was nice, but Laines Mangolicious was amazing!).
After my drinks I head back down to the Riverside for the walk back.
The tide is now on its way in and the river views are changing.
It has started to rain lightly but thankfully it stopped briefly afterwards and the rest of the walk was dry.
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| A Little Egret |
The Bridge is now back in view.
I cross the bridge and back along the Private Path back to Sutton Hoo. I could have walked the road all the way back to Sutton Hoo but that is a long boring horrible walk.
I take the path back up the hill , it is steep and makes you wonder how they got the Saxon Ship up here from the River Deben!
Some fun with fallen trees.
I am back at the car after being shouted at by staff that the entrance is over here and there is no car park over there. Whatever I know I mucked up ... a great walk of 5.63 miles.
