Sutton Hoo
Uncovering the mystery of the ship-burial at Sutton Hoo, in East Suffolk
Valerie’s involvement in Sutton Hoo began in 1964, when, after joining the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities, she was tasked by Rupert Bruce-Mitford with setting up the Sutton Hoo research programme (an annexe of the British Museum), alongside the re-excavation of the ship impression, which would begin the following year in 1965.
She also took part in the British Museum’s mission to address the issue of the ‘incompleteness of the contemporary record of the ship’, and the creation of an archaeological plan of the remains of the ship’s hull.
Her work also included the reconstruction of a large cauldron, complex chain-work, and of iconic objects, such as the lyre, iron ‘stand’, and ‘whetstone’.
“Even eighty-three years after its discovery by local archaeologist, Basil Brown, questions still remain to be satisfactorily answered, or have yet to be asked...”
Read Sutton Hoo: Re-Imaging the Ship and Chamber by Valerie Fenwick, published by Cambridge University Press in 2023 in The Antiquaries Journal.
After the Basil Brown Memorial Lecture in 2014, with the Sutton Hoo Society.
Photographs from Valerie Fenwick’s personal archive
Were you part of this project? Do you have any further information or photographs? Let us know using the form below or by emailing valeriesarchive@proton.me.