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I did two day trips from London. The first one was to Ipswich, to visit my friend, Diana. While we were planning, she asked me if I was interested in Sutton Hoo. Amusingly, I had just been thinking about asking her how hard it would be to get there. Obviously, it was meant to be.
Trains from London to Ipswich go from Liverpool Street Station. I am fairly sure that I’d never been there before. It’s not exciting as train stations go, but it does have a small sculpture commemorating the Kindertransport that brought Jewish children to England during World War II.
Diana met me at the station in Ipswich and took me on a long walk around the town, which is not particularly distinguished architecturally for the most part. There are lots of modern buildings, a football (i.e. soccer) stadium, a typical pedestrianized shopping area, and an attempt at making what had been a working waterfront area into a tourist attraction. I thought the Ancient House, which goes back to the 15th century, was the most interesting building. The pargeting (decorative plasterwork) in this picture represents Asia. There are other panels representing Europe, Africa, and America.
We had coffee at a place on the waterfront, along with lots of conversation about life in general. Diana has an interesting background, with a particularly varied career, but it’s not my place to tell her story.
Anyway, we made our way back to the train station, where we caught a train to Melton. It was a little over a mile walk to Sutton Hoo from there. For those of you who don’t recognize this, Sutton Hoo was the site of a major archaeological find in 1939 - the ship burial of a 7th century Anglo-Saxon king (probably Raedwald). The actual treasures that were dug up are in the British Museum, but there’s a fair amount to see at the site. We started with the house, which has lots of pictures of the dig and a film about the find. By the way, there is still archaeological work there and I was amused by this sign on the door of one room of the house.
We walked out to the burial mounds. The weather got a bit sporty (wind and rain) so we didn’t attempt to explore very much of that area. But we saw the mound, so we can say we did it.
We walked back towards the site entrance, where there’s a museum. Outside it, there’s a reproduction of what they think the frame of the burial ship looked like. It’s huge.
We briefly browsed the gift shop and got some coffee. I hadn’t realized it, but Diana had not actually been to Sutton Hoo before, despite having lived in Ipswich for ten years. To be fair, there are plenty of tourist attractions I have only made it to when I had someone visiting from out of town.
Finally, we went through the museum. The objects in it are reproductions, with the actual artifacts in the British Museum. The most famous is this beautiful helmet.
We walked back to the Melton train station and headed back to Ipswich, where Diana left me to wait for a train back to London. It was an excellent excursion and I’d recommend it to anyone interested in archaeology.
The other day trip I did was to Canterbury. I walked from Canterbury West Station through the West Gate.
I decided to start with the boat tour on the River Stour. The boat leaves from near the Old Weavers’ House, goes under the King’s Bridge, and up to Greyfriars’ Island before returning downstream, past the Marlowe Theatre, the old Blackfriars’ Monastery, and the King’s School. Note that you have to duck low as the boat passes under the various bridges along the way. Anyway, it’s a peaceful and interesting 45 minute excursion.
There were a couple of authors who were kind of a big deal in Canterbury. Geoffrey Chaucer was one of them and there’s a statue of him more or less in the center of town.
I really should read The Canterbury Tales some day.
Christopher Marlowe is also closely associated with Canterbury. There’s a theatre in town named after him and it has this bizarre rendition of his head.
But the biggest draw of Canterbury is the cathedral. There is the inevitable renovation work going on. There is always scaffolding. Everywhere.
Fortunately, the interior is free of that blight.
The biggest draw is, of course, the site of the martyrdom of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was murdered by followers of King Henry II in 1170. It is not, in general, a good idea to piss off a king.
The Cathedral offers a number of mini tours, given by volunteers, and I took one of the Miracle Windows, a series of stained glass windows that depict miracles that follow the same pattern. Someone is gravely ill or injured and a mixture of the blood of Saint Thomas and holy water is used as a cure. This example involves a hunting accident, but it apparently worked for everything from dropsy (i.e. congestive heart failure) to having been blinded as a punishment for a crime.
I did some other general meandering around before returning to London. It was a pleasant excursion but I didn’t really need more than a day there.
Stay tuned for the final part of my time in England.
Trains from London to Ipswich go from Liverpool Street Station. I am fairly sure that I’d never been there before. It’s not exciting as train stations go, but it does have a small sculpture commemorating the Kindertransport that brought Jewish children to England during World War II.
Diana met me at the station in Ipswich and took me on a long walk around the town, which is not particularly distinguished architecturally for the most part. There are lots of modern buildings, a football (i.e. soccer) stadium, a typical pedestrianized shopping area, and an attempt at making what had been a working waterfront area into a tourist attraction. I thought the Ancient House, which goes back to the 15th century, was the most interesting building. The pargeting (decorative plasterwork) in this picture represents Asia. There are other panels representing Europe, Africa, and America.
We had coffee at a place on the waterfront, along with lots of conversation about life in general. Diana has an interesting background, with a particularly varied career, but it’s not my place to tell her story.
Anyway, we made our way back to the train station, where we caught a train to Melton. It was a little over a mile walk to Sutton Hoo from there. For those of you who don’t recognize this, Sutton Hoo was the site of a major archaeological find in 1939 - the ship burial of a 7th century Anglo-Saxon king (probably Raedwald). The actual treasures that were dug up are in the British Museum, but there’s a fair amount to see at the site. We started with the house, which has lots of pictures of the dig and a film about the find. By the way, there is still archaeological work there and I was amused by this sign on the door of one room of the house.
We walked out to the burial mounds. The weather got a bit sporty (wind and rain) so we didn’t attempt to explore very much of that area. But we saw the mound, so we can say we did it.
We walked back towards the site entrance, where there’s a museum. Outside it, there’s a reproduction of what they think the frame of the burial ship looked like. It’s huge.
We briefly browsed the gift shop and got some coffee. I hadn’t realized it, but Diana had not actually been to Sutton Hoo before, despite having lived in Ipswich for ten years. To be fair, there are plenty of tourist attractions I have only made it to when I had someone visiting from out of town.
Finally, we went through the museum. The objects in it are reproductions, with the actual artifacts in the British Museum. The most famous is this beautiful helmet.
We walked back to the Melton train station and headed back to Ipswich, where Diana left me to wait for a train back to London. It was an excellent excursion and I’d recommend it to anyone interested in archaeology.
The other day trip I did was to Canterbury. I walked from Canterbury West Station through the West Gate.
I decided to start with the boat tour on the River Stour. The boat leaves from near the Old Weavers’ House, goes under the King’s Bridge, and up to Greyfriars’ Island before returning downstream, past the Marlowe Theatre, the old Blackfriars’ Monastery, and the King’s School. Note that you have to duck low as the boat passes under the various bridges along the way. Anyway, it’s a peaceful and interesting 45 minute excursion.
There were a couple of authors who were kind of a big deal in Canterbury. Geoffrey Chaucer was one of them and there’s a statue of him more or less in the center of town.
I really should read The Canterbury Tales some day.
Christopher Marlowe is also closely associated with Canterbury. There’s a theatre in town named after him and it has this bizarre rendition of his head.
But the biggest draw of Canterbury is the cathedral. There is the inevitable renovation work going on. There is always scaffolding. Everywhere.
Fortunately, the interior is free of that blight.
The biggest draw is, of course, the site of the martyrdom of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was murdered by followers of King Henry II in 1170. It is not, in general, a good idea to piss off a king.
The Cathedral offers a number of mini tours, given by volunteers, and I took one of the Miracle Windows, a series of stained glass windows that depict miracles that follow the same pattern. Someone is gravely ill or injured and a mixture of the blood of Saint Thomas and holy water is used as a cure. This example involves a hunting accident, but it apparently worked for everything from dropsy (i.e. congestive heart failure) to having been blinded as a punishment for a crime.
I did some other general meandering around before returning to London. It was a pleasant excursion but I didn’t really need more than a day there.
Stay tuned for the final part of my time in England.
