Sutton Hoo Society - Grants 1982 - 2024
The Sutton Hoo Society is a registered charity and our stated aims are to advance public education about the Sutton Hoo archaeological site and related Anglo-Saxon history and to support research to this end, including the dissemination of the useful results of research to the public. The Society raises funds through its guiding programme run in association with the National Trust, and through other events and projects. The monies raised are then used to fulfil the stated aims.
We have been able to fund a large number of projects which are listed below, and welcome applications for grants for appropriately focussed projects.
A copy of the form can be downloaded here.
2024 | Suffolk Archives
Grant to digitise the newspaper archive relating to the 1939 excavations at Sutton Hoo: £116
2019 – 2024 | Grant to National Trust, Sutton Hoo: £5,500
Magnetometry Survey of Sutton Hoo Burial Mounds and Garden Field
Grant for funding for Cotswold Archaeology Suffolk to complete the magnetometry survey of Garden Field and also carry out a magnetometer survey of Sutton Hoo’s Royal Burial Ground.
In 2014 Professor Martin Carver wrote a research plan for the National Trust’s Sutton Hoo estate. Professor Carver’s main recommendation was to focus attention on Garden Field; he felt that this area had the potential to give us a better understanding of the development of the prehistoric and Roman landscape especially the Iron Age and Roman periods. The aim of further field work was to understand the early development of the landscape and to gain a more thorough understanding of the landscape which was adopted by the Anglo-Saxons to site the two cemeteries. A second aim was to get a better understanding of the Anglo-Saxon cemetery discovered in 2000, only a part of which was investigated at the time.
A full magnetometry survey of Sutton Hoo’s Royal Burial Ground had never been completed, which given its significance came as somewhat of a surprise. Again, the Royal Burial Ground is a layered landscape that hasn’t been fully excavated, so there is potentially much more that we can learn about it through magnetometry survey.
2023 | Colchester and Ipswich Museums:
Contribution towards the purchase of the Winston Brooch: £250
Grant for the acquisition of the Early Medieval silver disc brooch found by a detectorist near Winston, Stowmarket, Suffolk. This is a very rare find for Suffolk and its acquisition will fill a gap in the archaeological collections of Ipswich Museum. The bird ornament on this brooch may be compared to that on the earlier jewellery from the royal cemetery at Sutton Hoo and the royal settlement site at Rendlesham.
The Winston Brooch2019-2023 | Grant to the Suffolk CC Archaeological Services: £8,995
Grant towards the Rendlesham Revealed Project booklet (5000 copies) to accompany the National Trust summer exhibition at Sutton Hoo and subsequent exhibition at West Stow. A National Lottery Heritage Fund grant was awarded to fund a large, community archaeological project to uncover the hidden archaeology in the Deben valley in south-east Suffolk. The project lasted for 4 years. Rendlesham Revealed would connect the unique stories of the princely burials of Sutton Hoo and the site of the royal palace at Rendlesham.
Rendlesham Revealed Project: Booklet2023 | Grant to Ipswich and Colchester Museums: £3,334
Grant given as a contribution towards the purchase of Rendlesham Project artefacts. These represent an internationally important group of archaeological finds from Rendlesham in Suffolk for the collections at Ipswich Museum. The Rendlesham finds cover a broad date range, including Roman, Anglo-Saxon and medieval. The finds include various items of female jewellery, male war gear and gold and silver coins minted in England and on the continent.
Fragment of an Anglo-Saxon square-headed brooch from Rendlesham2022 | Ship’s Company: £1,000
Sponsorship of Oar and Rivets
Donation to the Ship’s Company in Woodbridge as sponsorship for an oar in memory of HRH Duke of Edinburgh, who was the first President of the Sutton Hoo Society.
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh © Wikimedia Commons2021 | Norwich Museum: £1,200
Conservation and Safe Storage for Mound 1 Ship Rivets
Payment to Norwich Museum Service for x-raying, cleaning, stabilising and conserving the twenty-four Mound 1 rivets given to the Society by Penny Phillips, Charles Phillips’ daughter. The rivets have been packed in archival materials and transferred to a polyethylene (PE) resealable (snap lock) food storage box. This creates a localised environment using silica gel to desiccate the storage environment as low as humanly possible. The rivets are packed individually using PE gripper bags with aeration holes to allow air circulation. Jiffy foam was used to cushion and prevent any abrasion.
Part of the set of rivets boxed for storage
© Steve Cant
2019 | Grant to Colchester and Ipswich Museums: £2,000
Rendlesham Project: Purchase of Artifacts
Grant towards the purchase a batch of finds from the Anglo-Saxon royal palace site at Rendlesham, with a total purchase price of £15,500. The batch included several treasure items (2 gold jewellery settings, strap end, silver fragment and silver ingot), coins (3 gold tremisses, 49 sceattas and 5 Late Saxon pennies), pieces of female jewellery (8 brooches and a clothing pin), male warrior gear and three exotic objects.
2019 | Grant to the Parochial Church Council, Lyminge, Kent: £10,000
Pathways to the Past: Exploring the Legacy of Ethelburga
This match funding grant was used to re-excavate the remains of a very early Anglo-Saxon church first excavated by the rector Canon Jenkins in the mid-19th century. The excavation was directed by Dr Gabor Thomas of Reading University.
Excavations at Lyminge Church
© Steve Cant
2018 | Durham Cathedral: £500
Conservation of Two Log Coffins
Grant made as a contribution towards the £6,000 cost to undertake conservation work on two log coffins that were uncovered near Featherstone Castle in 1825. These coffins had been displayed in the Durham Cathedral and were dirty and dusty and had suffered some damage in the past. Both coffins needed to undergo consolidation treatment to stabilise them before being mounted and re-displayed.
2015 | To Suffolk Archaeological Unit
for magnetometry work at Rendlesham: £1,400
2015 | To Suffolk Archaeological Unit
contribution towards excavation work at Rendlesham: £5,777
2015 | Replica Spoons: £550
The spoons are of a Roman design, and one marked Saulos and the other Paulos in Greek lettering on the handles. These may be an allusion to the conversion of Saul taking the Christian name Paul, and may therefore be a baptism gift. The handles also have a small cross engraved on them. The princely burial at Prittlewell, which is certainly Christian, has a similar style spoon in the deposit.
The spoons form part of the Society’s handling collection.
Two replicas of the silver spoons found in Mound 1 © Ganderwick Creations2014 | Grant to the National Trust, Sutton Hoo
75th Anniversary of the 1939 excavation: Gold under the Bed staging of play by Peppy Barlow: £500
The National Trust applied for a small amount to help stage this play at Sutton Hoo. The play gives voice to the thoughts of landowner Edith Pretty, and Basil Brown who excavated Mound 1 and found the Sutton Hoo treasure.
2013 – 2015 | Grant to Colchester and Ipswich Museums: £7,000
Grant, over three years, to Ipswich Museum to acquire a number of objects, including Anglo-Saxon coins and jewellery and other items from Rendlesham found during systematic metal detecting. The grant was one of a number of grants from other bodies including the V&A Purchase Grant Fund, the Art Fund, the Friends of Ipswich Museum and Headley Trust.
©Suffolk County Council2012 | Girdle Hanger Project: £1,000
Girdle hangers (sometimes referred to as chatelaines) are evidenced from a number of Anglo-Saxon burials, including two from Sutton Hoo (Mound 14 and burial 16). They were worn by females probably as sign of their status in the household. They represent (or were actually) the keys or ‘latch lifters’ to the store cupboards and pantries. This was a contribution to a university project to investigate this much under-researched group of objects.
Example girdle hanger © British Museum2012 | Grant to the National Trust, Sutton Hoo: £1,650
This was to enable the purchase of copies of the sword button, sword pyramids and lyre fittings from Mound 1 burial for the display at Sutton Hoo.
Sword buttons © British Museum2012 | Grant to National Trust, Sutton Hoo: £1,700
Grant to provide replicas of the Sutton Hoo Mound 1 shoulder clasps. Two of the clasps are on permanent display, and the other is available as part of the handling collection
One of the pair of shoulder clasps © British Museum2011 | Anglo-Saxon Horse Burial project: £1,000
Horses figure in a number of Anglo-Saxon burials, both in cremations and as full skeletons. At Sutton Hoo Mound 17 there was a full skeleton in the burial along with an ornate bridle, while horse bones were found in the cremation burials in mounds 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. The cemetery at Eriswell in Suffolk also had two full horse skeleton in graves on the site near Lakenheath. This project was to examine horse burials across Europe.
Mound 17 horse burial © Lindsay Lee2011 | Fern Archaeology: £3,200
The Society provided funding towards Accelerated Mass Spectrometry to help date the burials found during the AD2000 excavation undertaken ahead of the construction of the Sutton Hoo National Trust visitor centre buildings.
2010 | Grant to the National Trust, Sutton Hoo: £1,500
Horse harness fittings.
The original of the Mound 17 bridle’s metal fittings are on display at Sutton Hoo, but give little idea of the how the bridle would have looked. The Society funded the creation of a full size replica mounted on a horse’s head model to show how splendid the bridle would have been (NB this has been removed from the current display at Sutton Hoo).
Replica harness from Mound 17 horse © C. Hoppitt2010 | Grant to the National Trust, Sutton Hoo: £1,224
Funding to create a high quality replica buckle to be used for demonstration and handling by the public on the burial ground tours. In addition, master mason Brian Ansell was commissioend to make a high quality replica of the ‘whetstone’ or ‘sceptre’ to go into the exhibition at Sutton Hoo. Ganderwick Creations made the metal terminals to complete the stone object. Both items were found in the Mound 1 burial.
Great gold buckle © British Museum
Whetstone © Michelle Abson
2010 | Grant to the National Trust, Sutton Hoo: £510
Restoration of the portraits of Edith Pretty and Robert Pretty. The two portraits by the Ipswich-based artist Cor Visser are on display in Tranmer House at Sutton Hoo. In need of restoration the National Trust approached the Society to grant the funds to enable the work to be done.
Portrait of Robert Pretty
Portrait of Edith Pretty2009 – 2015 | Suffolk County Council, Archaeological Unit: £34,777
In response to illegal metal detecting on fields in Rendlesham, it was decided to implement an organised investigation of the area which is believed to have been the site of the royal palace of Raedwald and the Wuffing kings of East Anglia. A team of metal detectorists systemically covered a large area in Rendlesham parish. As a result it became evident that there was a significant archaeological site there. The Society contributed over the period: £8,620 in 2009 and £2,300 in 2010. As a result of the findings, a four-year programme was put in place, with the Society contributing £5,880 in 2012, £5,800 in 2013, £5000 in 2014 and £5,777 in 2016. A further additional grant of £1,400 was made in 2016. A total of £34,777.
2007 | Gold under the Bed a CD by Peppy Barlow: £650
The play, written by Peppy Barlow was produced as a CD with support from the Society.
2006 | Grant to the National Trust, Sutton Hoo: £3,500
Four years after the opening of the National Trust site, the Trust launched an Anglo-Saxon Festival. Authentically costumed people plying Anglo-Saxon trades gave demonstrations and made artefacts for sale. The Society undertook to cover the start-up costs through a grant of £500, most of which was repaid through receipts.
2006 | Grant to the National Trust, Sutton Hoo: £1,500
The Society provided a grant towards mounting the Winter exhibition. In 2010 the Society also provided sound quotations from our Oral history archive, specifically from interviews with the team led by the British Museum who re-dug the Mound 1 burial ahead of the publication if the 1939 excavation.
2005 | The Sutton Hoo Research Committee: £5,000 + £2,073
The Society contributed towards the publication of the Sutton Hoo Research Project excavation and research programme published by the British Museum, Sutton Hoo: its princely burial ground and its context.
A further £2073 was given to provide extra illustrations to enhance the final report.
2005-2008 | Sutton Hoo and its landscape: The context of Monuments by Tom Williamson, Windgather Press, 2008: £9,000 + £9,000 + £4,000
Professor Tom Williamson and his assistant Sarah Harrison from the University of East Anglia investigated the development of the Sutton Hoo landscape over time through examination of the context of the cemetery and its immediate landscape, and the wider cluster of places associated with the Wuffing dynasty in south-east Suffolk.
2004-2005 | Build a Ship Project: £1,661
The constitution of the Sutton Hoo Society had originally included the goal of building a replica of the Sutton Hoo Mound 1 ship. It became increasingly clear that this was beyond the scope of the Society. A half-length reconstruction (Sae Wulfing) was constructed by Edwin and Joyce Gifford, and along with their Graveney boat reconstruction (Ottor) made a number of visits to Woodbridge and the Deben, supported by the Society. The Society also supported the publication of their article ‘The performance of Anglo-Saxon ships as derived from the building and trials of half-scale models of the Sutton Hoo and Graveney ship finds’ from Mariner’s Mirror in the form of a small booklet.
Sae Wulfing on the Deben © Cliff Hoppitt2003-4 | Suffolk County Council Archaeological Unit: £3,793 + £2,180
Intertidal Survey
The archaeological unit undertook a programme of fieldwalking and monitoring of the foreshore between the high and low water-lines of the River Deben fronting the Sutton Hoo estate. Stumps of stakes that had supported ‘fencing’ or hurdles in a ‘V’ shape strongly suggest a fish trap. Carbon dating suggested a date of around 590AD +/- 50 years. Which puts it firmly in the period of the Wuffing dynasty. A bronze-age socketed axe-head was also found near to the (possible) fish trap, indicating that occupation of the littoral had continued for many hundreds of years. See SAXON No. 38 for full report.
The Deben foreshore © Suffolk County Council2002 | Grant to the National Trust, Sutton Hoo: £928
The Society purchased hand-held radios to facilitate communication across the Sutton Hoo site, particularly for Guides leading tour groups to remain in contact with the visitor centre staff.
2002 | Grant to National Trust, Sutton Hoo: £4,500
The Society provided the National Trust with funding to purchase replica objects to be included in the reconstruction of the Mound 1 burial chamber. The burial chamber was central to the exhibition, sunk into the floor to give a vivid idea of the size and appearance of the layout of the chamber. (NOTE this is no longer part of the exhibition)
The re-constructed Mound 1 burial chamber © Cliff Hoppitt2001 | Sutton Hoo Research Trust:
Carbon Dating: £900
This was to enable dating of the horse from Mound 17, one of the few pieces of skeletal material from the site that could be dated this way.1983-1991 | Sutton Hoo Research Project.
The Society was established to support the Sutton Hoo Research Project, firstly by taking visitors around the excavations and explaining the activity. This took the burden off the archaeologists, and allowed them to get on with their work without distractions. The second role was to give local support to the Project which initially was based in Birmingham with the Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit, and then later at York University. Money raised through taking guided tours was ploughed back into the Project purchasing a wide variety of items, such as: theodolites, sieves, marquees, tarpaulins, scaffolding, answerphone, kitchen facilities, photograph tower, mobile home and more, all to make the excavation activity more efficient (and pleasant) for the excavators.
