YEAR 6 King’s Ely Junior pupils visited the National Trust’s Sutton Hoo site in Suffolk as part of their History topic on Anglo-Saxon England.
The trip on May 22nd saw the students splitting into two groups, one of which went straight for a tour of the burial ground. As they walked around the site, they were told all about the various finds in several of the mounds, but in particular the famous seventh century ship burial under Mound 1. The pupils heard about pagan burials in Anglo-Saxon times and how the excavations were carried out. They also learnt about later burials at the site.
After a packed lunch, the two groups swapped activities. They visited the house where Mrs. Pretty lived when she decided to initiate the excavation on her land. The pupils heard how she saw ghostly apparitions on the mounds and decided to invite in the archaeologist Basil Brown to investigate the site. Three of the rooms were still furnished as they were in the 1930s, so the children could experience what life was like at the time.
The pupils also visited the Exhibition Centre, where they saw a short video on the excavations carried out in 1939 and the discovery of a unique Anglo-Saxon ship burial. The pupils then spent an hour investigating the exhibits and researching the various grave goods and other artefacts, including the iconic helmet of King Raedwald.