From where we live it was a six hour round trip there and back and we were perhaps a tad ambitious to do it all in one day, but we needed a break from everything and everyone here, so just decided on a whim to go for it. And I'm really glad that we did, although it involved a lot sitting in the car and then lots of walking which hasn't particularly done my arthritic joints any favours - I've been paying for it every since! But it was worth it when you get to wander around buildings such as this;
and this;
with wonderful intricately carved door frames such as this;
to see, and touch. The mark is a sigel (sun) rune, one for good weather and protection found in the Futhorc alphabet which would have been used by our ancestors from around the 5th century onwards until around the 7th century (give or take 300 years or so) when the Latin alphabet began to replace it. Another door frame had a Tir representing the Anglo Saxon God, Tiw (the Norse equivalent being Tyr)which I think represented balance, order and integrity in all things.
All the houses are situated on the site of a real ancient Anglo Saxon village which has been excavated and well researched over the years. Those now standing have come about as a result of these findings, and where possible have been built using the information from both primary (archaeological finds) and secondary sources (written 'evidence' such as Beowulf etc)which really enables one to get a sense of how things might have been for our ancestors. Once on the site, visitors can visit a small museum to view a variety of artefacts found there, then walk freely in and out of the houses, which gives you a wonderful sense of history coming to life. It was pretty warm on Saturday but I was struck for instance how cool all the houses were inside underneath their thatched roofs. Wonderful stuff, as were some of the living crafts we got to witness (just on for that particular weekend), bread making on an open fire for example, dyeing wool with natural plant extracts;
I even got to chat with a visiting Viking;
who happily allowed me to pick up his sword and shield;
the combined weight of which nearly caused me to topple over. How the heck did anyone fight with such weighty armoury?
The best bit of the visit? Well, I'm really not sure, but I did have to chuckle at the yea olde scarecrow warding off marauding ravens in the vegetable patch;
and the two resident pigs, one of which was determined to evade the afternoon heat by wallowing in his (not very anglo saxon) water trough!
That looks like my kinda place. The 6 hour round trip was obviously worth the effort. Fabulous.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, yes! We were very tempted to go onto Sutton Hoo which is also in the area, but unfortunately ran out of time.
DeleteWest Stow looks just amazing. Are there other Anglo Saxon villages in other parts of England, that you know of, or is this the one I've heard of? I'd love to take my boys there one day. Incredible to come a bit closer to imagining what life was like for our ancestors. Looks like they've done a great job with the buildings.
ReplyDeleteIf you're interested in the dark ages specifically a lot of the Anglo Saxon places are situated around Suffolk - for example you have the burial mounds at Sutton Hoo, fairly near West Stow;
Deletehttp://www.suttonhoo.org/
Up in Northumbria there's also 'Bedes' World, although I've never been there so can't vouch for how good it is;
http://www.bedesworld.co.uk/plan-a-visit/
They have a video over on youtube which will give you an idea of what you'll see if you visit;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkhXmDRHjxo&feature=player_embedded
And in York there's the Jorvik Viking Centre;
http://www.jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk/gallery/
If you're interested, there are also a few Iron Age reconstructed settlements you could visit - near me for example in Hampshire there's Butser Ancient Farm;
http://www.butserancientfarm.co.uk/
which is small but wonderful - they often have specialised workshops and events running there, and also have an annual burning of the wicker man at Beltaine, which as you can see from the video is always great fun!;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeVer9vlsYk&feature=related
and in Wales there's Castle Henllys;
http://www.pembrokeshirecoast.org.uk/default.asp?PID=261
which Carrie, over on Windsongs and Wordhoards wrote so beautifully about in her blog entry here;
http://wordhoards.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/castell-henllys-and-journey-into-iron.html
There's also Flag Fen, which is predominantly a Bronze Age rather than Iron Age site, here;
http://www.flagfen.com/index.html
which is also on my bucket list to go visit!
Sorry it's all a bit muddled, I'm sure there are more sites of interest, I just can't remember them all right now!
Wow, Kate - thanks so much for taking the time to include these links!
ReplyDeleteYou've given me lots to investigate.
Ta!
Lol, I got a bit carried away, but you're very welcome, Lynn!
ReplyDeleteNever knew this place existed, and now all I want in life is go see it for myself. Dang.
ReplyDeleteIf you're looking for somewhere a little closer to home, there's an Anglo Saxon living history village in Yorkshire called Danelaw Dark Age Village;
Deletehttp://www.murtonpark.co.uk/html/dark_age_village.html
which again, I've not visited, and 'think' might just be open to schools, which is why I didn't include it in the list above, but it might be worth checking out to see if you can go wander round it?
And again, I wasn't there! Darn it!
ReplyDelete