The Graveney Boat
Valerie Fenwick (left) on site at the Graveney boat excavation
The Graveney, a rare example of an Anglo-Saxon clinker-built boat, dated to circa 895AD, lay hidden under more than 2 metres of marsh clay for over 1000 years, until it was discovered by chance in 1970, during the widening and deepening of Hammond’s Drain on the Graveney Marshes, in Kent.
Due to the importance of the discovery, the Kent River Authority delayed the flooding of the ditch for a week so that the vessel could be fully recorded and lifted out of the marshland.
Photographs of the Graveney boat excavation, from Valerie Fenwick’s personal archive
Charts depicting the location and plan of the Graveney boat, published by Cambridge University Press in the Antiquity journal
Read The Graveney boat by Angela Care Evans and Valerie Fenwick, published by Cambridge University Press in 2015 in Antiquity , Volume 45, Issue 178.
“Our first priority was to keep the boat as wet as possible. It had been exposed for over ten days and, although carefully dampened and covered with polythene sheeting, the wood was still losing water rapidly. ”
The sailing of the replica Graveney Boat, alongside archive footage of the original excavation. Go to 5:35 in the video to see a glimpse of Valerie Fenwick in action.
Were you part of this project? Are you depicted in any of the photographs featured here? Can you name anybody in these images? Let us know using the form below or by emailing valeriesarchive@proton.me.