In CA 339 (June 2018), I explored the site of Sutton Hoo through past issues of Current Archaeology. Here, I gleefully pay a return visit to this site, a place that is one of the spiritual homes of British archaeology. It is somewhere that has defined both approaches to and the understanding of our field as a discipline.
The estate has been cared for by the National Trust since the 1990s, and my visit in this issue allows me to flag the latest developments in the long history of fieldwork there, associated with new visitor facilities that open in the late summer of 2019 (see p.44). If you’ve never visited Sutton Hoo, or if you haven’t visited in a while, then this autumn make plans to head there. I promise you will not be disappointed.
With a recent investment of £4 million, the Trust is now bringing to life long-held plans to tell the story of Sutton Hoo like never before. Thanks to the generosity of National Trust members and supporters through donations and fundraising, together with a £1.8 million grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (previously known as the Heritage Lottery Fund), this is the biggest investment that the Trust has ever made in the area. Works include, most dramatically, the construction of a 17m-high observation tower, which will give views over the entire burial ground and to the River Deben beyond, revealing the fascinating story of this landscape; a walking trail across parts of the estate not previously open; and the transformation of Tranmer House (the former home of Edith Pretty, original owner/excavator of the site). Tranmer House will host a new exhibition exploring the people and stories behind the Sutton Hoo discovery, while new displays in the site’s Exhibition Hall will share more about the lives of the Anglo-Saxons and how Sutton Hoo came to be such a significant place in English history.
