Queen’s oaks felled to build ‘ghost ship’
Royal boost for £100k project as experts bid to bring back Sutton Hoo burial boat
THE Queen has given her blessing to a plan to chop down a dozen Windsor oak trees to build a replica of a magnificent AngloSaxon burial ship.
Containing extraordinary treasure, the 1,400-year-old Sutton Hoo ‘ship’ was unearthed in Suffolk in 1939 and is hailed as one of the country’s most important archaeological discoveries.
All that was left of the 90ft vessel was a ghostly imprint in the sandy soil. The timbers had rotted, leaving 3,000 rusty iron rivets which had held them together, but archaeologists were able to trace the outlines of almost every plank used in the hull. No human remains were found but a dark stain may have marked the spot where it is believed Raedwald, the 7th-Century King of East Anglia, was laid to rest.
Now an ambitious project to ‘bring the ghost ship to life’ has been boosted by the generosity of the Queen. She has agreed to donate the trees from the 4,800-acre Windsor Great Park, which contains one of the largest collections of oaks in Europe, including several that are more than 1,000 years old.
An archaeologist and a shipbuilder visited the park last week to identify which trees to fell.
Dr Alexy Karenowska, of the Institute for Digital Archaeology, which is helping to fund the project, said: ‘It’s a ghost ship. We don’t have the original structure – we just have the hole in the ground where it was.
‘We went to Windsor Great Park to do a first assessment of what’s available as we need a selection of different kinds of timber from quite a number of trees. There are large sections needed for the keel, which is probably one of the first things that will be cut, then some curved sections for the ribs.’
Philip Leech, a director of the Sutton Hoo Ship’s Company, which is building the replica, said: ‘Getting the timber from Windsor Great Park is very special. It is Royal oak for a Royal ship.’
The 1939 excavation uncovered magnificent gold and garnet jewels, a ceremonial helmet, weapons and a silver plate that are now among the star attractions at the British Museum.
Raedwald was the first English king to convert to Christianity but he hedged his bets and maintained pagan traditions, which included boat burials. Beowulf, the great classic of AngloSaxon literature, opens with the funeral of a king in a ship laden with treasure. Work is due to begin in the next few weeks. Volunteers will be trained to use the same tools and techniques as the Anglo-Saxon carpenters who settled in Britain after the departure of the Romans. The £100,000 project will combine ancient and modern technology. Visitors can watch the build in progress and 3D printing will be used to recreate bronze fittings and other components. Although the ship resembles Viking longships, it was constructed on different principles.
The Crown Estate, which looks after the Queen’s land and properties, said it was ‘delighted to assist the Sutton Hoo project by donating Windsor oak’.