The aim is ambitious: to complete a functional reconstruction of the extraordinary Sutton Hoo burial ship by 2026 and test it on the river and sea, hopefully providing fresh insight into what life was like in Anglo-Saxon times.
But the project, run by a small charity, is struggling to get the right kind of British oak to complete the build and is appealing for donations, worried that if it doesn’t get the timber from the UK it might must search overseas.
The historian Dan Snow is among supporters who advocate for British oak from the Sutton Hoo Ship’s Companyand said it would be a shame if they had to look overseas for wood for such a project.
Described by the British Museum as the most impressive medieval tomb discovered in Europethe treasure-filled ship was found in Suffolk in 1939 by Basil Brown, whose story was dramatized in the film The Dig, starring Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan.
Since 2018, the Sutton Hoo Ship’s Company has been putting together the reconstruction of the seventh-century ship in Woodbridge, Suffolkwith help from over 150 volunteers and support from the universities of Oxford and Southampton.
It aims to generate new knowledge about the Anglo-Saxon era, its craftsmen, warriors, leaders and seafarers and has brought together historians, archaeologists, shipbuilders and project managers to lend a hand.
But getting the right wood is a challenge. The charity does not have the finances to pay commercial prices, so it is asking for donations and Tim Kirk, the master ship writer for the project, has traveled over England and Wales in search of suitable trees.
He said: “The problem is that these are veteran trees and quite a few people don’t want to cut them down. I fully understand and respect that, but without those trees we don’t have a ship.
“There must be trees in Britain that are either blowing in the wind or struggling with disease or in the way of a new infrastructure project. They have to be there somewhere. We just haven’t found them yet.”
Kirk, a professional boat builder, said it didn’t feel right to look abroad. “The most important oak forests in Europe are now in France and Denmark and Poland. We really don’t want to get to that stage where we’re looking at foreign timber.”
Project manager Jacq Barnard said: “There is just less oak than there would have been in Anglo-Saxon times. We would love to be built with English timber.”
Snow posted on X: “We need big oaks to get this great vessel on the water”, adding: “Don’t make them ask the French.”
The historian said it was a “magical project” that reconnected modern Britons with their medieval history. “It’s the stuff dreams are made of. We can learn so much from building these ships – how they can sail, what they can carry, it’s so exciting.”
But he said: “There is a shortage of the right kind of British oak – or the availability of it.”
The charity detailed on its website specific cuts of wood it needs. For example, it requires long clear runs of oak from trunks 6 meters long and up to 1.2 meters diameter (at breast height) for planks and other long timbers. They should be straight and free of knots.
It is also after curved timbers up to 4 meters long for frames, which come either as curved trunks or larger branches from the lower canopy of the tree.
They also make 60 oars from oak and ash. It should be of the straightest parts possible, free of knots and about 6 meters long.
The idea is to build a ship based on the understanding of the materials and construction methods that would have been used by Anglo-Saxon shipbuilders.
When the ship is completed, sea trials will test hypotheses such as how the vessel was propelled (with oars and sails), what it might have been used for, and where it may have traveled.
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The charity estimates it will use the equivalent of around 12 mature oak trees to build the ship. It has planted 400 oak trees to replace any it uses and so people will have the right wood to carry out similar projects in the future.
Discovery of the Sutton Hoo Ship
It was one of the most spectacular archaeological discoveries of all time.
In 1939, landowner Edith Pretty commissioned archaeologist Basil Brown to investigate a large Anglo-Saxon burial mound on her land. Sutton Hoo in Suffolk.
He found more, much more than anyone could have imagined – the richest intact early medieval tomb in Europe consisting of the ghostly imprint of a 27-metre (86ft) ship with, in the middle, a burial chamber crammed treasures, dating from the early AD600s.
The find included gold jewellery, Byzantine silverware, a sumptuous feast set, luxurious textiles and military equipment, including an enormous shield, a magnificent sword and a helmet wrapped in cloth and placed near the left side of the dead person’s head was laid, decorated with images of battles. and dancing warriors.
It clearly commemorated a leading figure of East Anglia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom and may even have belonged to a king. A popular candidate is Raedwald, who ruled East Anglia and may have held power over neighboring kingdoms.
Any bodily remains were claimed by the acidic soil and only a human-shaped gap was left between the treasures. Whoever he was, he was probably left-handed as the sword was placed on the person’s right side.
Household items were also buried, including wooden bowls and buckets, two small kettles and one very large one with an intricate iron chain that would have hung it over a fire.
The burial showed that early Anglo-Saxon England was a place of amazing craftsmanship and international connections, stretching across Europe and beyond, and the images of cavernous wooden halls, sparkling treasures and mighty kings in the Old English poem Beowulf was not fantasy.
Pretty donated the finds British Museum and they remain a popular draw, with numbers boosted by the success of the Netflix film The Dig, which dramatized the find.
