Thursday 29th May HALSTEAD
- COLCHESTER -
SUTTON HOO - LEIGHTON BUZZARD
We woke up at about 6.30 in our hotel room – amazingly late!
We got ourselves dressed and organised and downstairs for breakfast – Richard seemed
worried that I would be undernourished when I told him I only wanted sausage,
fried egg and a hash brown with my toast for breakfast, but I assured him I’d
survive. Lex had the full English breakfast (except he passed on the beans). He
then didn’t need to eat until 3 o’clock!
Colchester has a long history; it was at one point the major
city in the country, and has survived through the various eras in English history.
It was a major Roman city, but was completely destroyed (along with every man,
woman and child in it) by Boudica and her tribe. The Romans rebuilt, though,
once she’d been vanquished. Then when they left, it fell into ruins before
rising again as a Saxon settlement (they used the conveniently placed Roman
street system.) After the Norman conquest, Colchester Castle was built late in
the 1000s, and the town became a major port and trading centre. It was the
castle we came to see, as it’s now the town’s museum.
We paid for our tickets (unfortunately it’s neither National Trust or English Heritage, but run by the city council) and booked a guided tour at 12. Then we had a look around the displays inside the castle until about 11, when we headed out into the High Street again to look for morning tea. We settled on The George, a glorious regency building, where I had an amazing scone, jam and clotted cream with my cuppa. Then we headed back to the castle to look around again before our tour started.
The tour was excellent: it first took us down into the
basement via my favourite English torture, I mean thing…the spiral stone
staircase. The Romans had originally built a massive temple to Claudius on the
site. Their foundations are still there (they
were originally filled with sand, but this was excavated centuries ago and new
walls built to stabilise the castle). After the original temple was destroyed
by Boudica and co, they rebuilt. Then this fell into ruins, various locals helped
themselves to the stone to use in nearby buildings, and when the Normans came
along, they used the foundations to build their castle. Lots of recycling in
ancient times!
We went right through the basement area; some very low bits
where we had to scuttle like crabs. Then we went up onto the roof for a look –
lovely views. We really enjoyed it.
After this, we realised we’d need to head back to the Park & Ride to retrieve our car and travel north for the next stop of our day: Sutton Hoo. We just missed the first bus, but about ten minutes later another one came along, so by around 1.30, we were back in the car and off, arriving there a bit before 3. Once again, our National Trust membership came in handy (thus saving around $70AUD) and we headed straight for the café. We had Cornish pasties for a very late lunch, then went out to explore.
For those who don’t know the story: in 1939, a fabulous Anglo-Saxon burial was found at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk. It’s not known who precisely was buried there, but it was obvious that he was a very powerful and rich king or leader. The metal mask found there is an absolute icon of Anglo-Saxon Britain. It’s now in the British Museum along with most of the rest of the treasure, but I did like the Lego one which was on display! He was buried in a longboat, and it certainly was long. The replica frame on display in the courtyard puts it at about 27 metres.
For us, one of the big attractions was that Time Team is currently doing a 3 week dig there in a garden field which has not been previously dug. Tony Robinson was there last weekend, and it was late on the Thursday, so we weren’t really expecting to see any of the well-known members, but Stewart Ainsworth, the landscape archaeologist, was there, and he was really happy to chat. I donate to Patreon for Time Team every month, which meant our names are on the supporters’ flag for this year, and it was very exciting to find them! We had a look at the two trenches they’ve dug, and there was what looked like a cremation urn filled with something (presumably cremated bones) nearly excavated. The other trench had buckets covering other discoveries awaiting the next day, so we’ll have to watch the next update on YouTube to find out what they were.
After this, we took the walk out to the paddock where the royal boat was discovered. The ground is full of mounds – it’s a major Anglo-Saxon burial site. They’ve built a big tower (81 steps) up to a viewing platform so you can get an excellent overview of the site. Then we walked back to Tramner House, where the original landowners lived. It’s set up as it would have been in 1939 when the excavations first began. Apparently there is a Netflix movie called The Dig, based on these events – we must see if we can watch it some time. We had a look at some of today’s finds (pottery, flint, bone – no nice golden artefacts) then realised that time was getting away, so bought a book and fridge magnet and headed westward.
It took just over two and a half hours to travel the 110
miles back to Leighton Buzzard, some of it on various major roads but most of
it on assorted tiny roads winding around picturesque villages and death-defying
encounters with oncoming trucks and cars. I honestly don’t know why Lex’s hair
hasn’t gone completely white! Anyway, we survived, and arrived home just after
7. We went straight across to Morrison’s, where we grabbed an Indian meal for 9
pounds (two curries, rice, two naans and four onion fritters – excellent value)
then home to eat and fall into bed again. It’s been a huge day!
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