Don’t know where you are spending your staycation this year but l do know local contributor Terry Basson is currently re-living some childhood memories – and will be delving even deeper into the past of his childhood home.
Before he left for his current break, he sent me the following email:
“The movie ‘The Dig’, showed the amazing discovery of the buried Saxon ship at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, on the estate of Edith Pretty.
It starred Ralph Fiennes as Basil Brown, the self-educated English archaeologist and astronomer who discovered this intact burial site of a Saxon King and its treasure, now displayed in the British Museum.
I am soon heading off to Suffolk on holiday.
The River Deben in Woodbridge is where I spent much of my childhood during WW2. I was the same age as Edith Pretty’s son Robert when, in 1939-40, Basil Brown made this outstanding discovery.
For me to return to my childhood Woodbridge and The Dig site, is so exciting plus l hope to visit The Longshed, where the replica 90ft Saxon ship is being built by volunteer Woodbridge craftsman.
They are working near the famous Tide-Mill, where I once dropped worms to catch the big eels in 1940, as war raged in the skies over London and my dad dug tank traps in the Suffolk sand fortifying the beaches against invasion . I could write a book about it !
Charities need to pick a pocket or two or should I say sponsor a rivet or two.
Why not purchase your own rivet?”
As you can see Terry has bought his! And he has sent me another image. This time of carpenters at work on a replica!
“We are in Woodbridge – we have tickets to see the ancient ship dug up in Sutton Hoo today.
We were made welcomed in the Longsheds in Woodbridge where four craftsmen boat builders are at work on the green oak trees from Swindon.
Two years of effort ahead of them now in building a replica of the 90ft Saxon boat. It will go to sea after trials on the river.”
Check out https://saxonship.org/the-project/the-longshed/ for more information on the project and how you can help – and maybe buy your own ‘Viking rivet.’
