The Graveney Boat
The uncovering of an Anglo-Saxon clinker-built boat, hidden under more than 2 metres of marsh clay for over 1000 years.
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.
Valerie (left) at the Graveney Boat excavation. Photo from Valerie Fenwick’s personal archive. © Valerie Fenwick CC BY-NC
THE GRAVENEY BOAT, Antiquity, Volume 45, Issue 178, 2015.
Angela Care Evans and Valerie Fenwick
In September 1970 part of a clinker-built boat was discovered accidentally during the excavation of a large drainage channel on Graveney Marshes. The boat lay under more than 2 m. of marsh clay on land belonging to Earl Sondes, whose agents gave Canterbury Archaeological Society permission to excavate. When the importance of the boat was realized, the Kent River Authority, who were undertaking the drainage scheme, delayed flooding the ditch for a week so that it could be fully recorded and lifted (Greenhill, 1971).
CONTINUE READING AT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
Antiquity , Volume 45 , Issue 178 , June 1971 , pp. 89 - 96
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00069234
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1971
Charts depicting the location and plan of the Graveney boat, published by Cambridge University Press in the Antiquity journal
The sailing of the replica Graveney Boat, alongside archive footage of the original excavation. At 5:35 Valerie Fenwick features.
Photographs from Valerie Fenwick’s personal archive
© Valerie Fenwick CC BY-NC
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.