The Ham Nomads

27 Oct 2014. <GB-ENG> West Stow, Bury Saint Edmunds, & Moulton, & Thetford (King's Forest), Suffolk —

Today we decided to stay in the Thetford/Bury St Edmonds area. First up — a four-day shop in Thetford. We wound up in a Sainsbury's, which had a great clothing section, so each of us bought a couple of garments for the winter — and Warren decided a small set of external speakers for the computer would make our movie-watching a little more enjoyable.

Then we went on to the West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village. Warren had found the place in the Road Atlas, and thought it worth a look-see. It certainly was! This place is the site of one of the earliest Anglo-Saxon villages in England, and has thrown up a large amount of archaeology. But this is not the whole thing — here they do what they call 'experimental archaeology'. They have built a number of structures — effectively a whole village — in possible Anglo-Saxon form — but there's no guarantee — and then they look at what they have and assess whether it is consistent with the archaeological evidence. The earliest houses, for example, were built over pits, with the roof coming down directly to ground level. The assumption here was that the Anglo-Saxons would have used the bottom of the pit as a floor, thus giving them ample head-room. This was the theory in the book Warren first read on the subject in about 1955! But this theory doesn't hold water, as the constant to-ing and fro-ing of the inhabitants in such a building inevitably brings in soils and raises the floor level, which doesn't gel with the archaeology. So now they think a floor was laid on beams above the pit, and the house would have had walls (wattle and daub, or timber slabs) and a roof (thatch), much like a lot of houses even into the Tudor period!

So the place is interesting on an archaeological level, and the museum associated with it is interesting as well. But today — don't say the Hams don't land on their feet! — they had a costume day, with many of the workers on the site coming in full costume and demonstrating the crafts they practice as part of their devotion to the site. One of the women was spinning wool on a drop spindle, wool that she was later going to knit (sew?) using Anglo-Saxon techniques. Another was a dyer, who was most forthcoming in describing her craft, and how she uses dyes and techniques true to the Anglo-Saxon period. And so it went on. The workers had all made their own authentic costumes using Anglo-Saxon techniques. And they had their children with them, all playing the scene to the fullest. They were even having parsnip and apple soup for lunch, with bread — totally authentic!

After spending a few hours here, and having lunch in the van, we went only a few miles further south-east, to the village of Moulton, where there is an interesting medieval bridge. We had to negotiate a couple of rather narrow lanes to get there, but Suzie is a wonder! The bridge is alongside a ford in the River Kennett, on the road that once the main route between Cambridge and Bury St Edmunds. The ford was dry today, but it was always available for horse-and-cart, but the packhorses had a special bridge to help them keep their loads dry. This four-arched late medieval bridge is called the 'Packhorse Bridge'.

After finding this bridge and exploring it, we retraced our path past the Anglo-Saxon Village and to a picnic area in the King's Forest, south of Thetford, and well within range of Bury St Edmunds for tomorrow. And tonight's a curry night...

The view from our van!

Distance driven — today, 33 miles ( 54 km ); to date, 9,271 miles ( 14,921 km )