A ghostly gate

My weekend away in Essex and Suffolk came to an end with an early morning stroll to the station to catch the 6.11am Greater Anglia service from Ipswich to London Liverpool Street.

Along the way I passed an archway on College Street which grabbed my attention and made me stop long enough to get a shot in the dark, illuminated by street lights and the glare from the occasional passing car. It struck me as such an odd but incredibly grand Tudor gate, sandwiched between the red brick offices of the manufacturers Burton, Son & Sanders (boarded up) and the medieval church of St Peters (now a music venue rather than a working church).

The Wolsey Gate

This rather incongruous group all turned out to be listed buildings. The gate is Grade II listed, while the buildings on either side are Grade II listed. It’s name rather gives away the immense history that lays behind this solitary gate.

The Wolsey Gate, was originally a Water Gate, constructed as part of a grand plan by Cardinal Wolsey to establish a school to rival Eton. To achieve his goal Cardinal Wolsey (c.1475-1530) had the priory of St Peter and Paul earmarked for suppression in 1527, with the support of King Henry VIII. The priory buildings were to be incorporated into the college alongside new buildings, while the church of St Peter was to be repurposed as the college chapel. The foundation stone of the college was laid in June 1528, but with the existing buildings the school was able to begin operations soon after.

The school was to have a rather short life span. Cardinal Wolsey was indicted in October 1529 on charges of having overstepped his authority, leading to the stripping of his offices and his eventual arrest for treason in November 1530. Thomas Wolsey, Ipswich’s most famous son, died on 29th November 1530, while on his way to London to face the king.

The college lands were forfeited to the king and the college dissolved by October 1530. It seems that this was not enough of a statement, for the college was ordered to be demolished by order of the king, with the stones to be re-used in the expansion of Whitehall Palace in London. A symbolic and brutal demonstration of the king’s retaking of power from a man who was once referred to as ‘alter rex’ (the other king).

The solitary gate to a long vanished vanity project remains, a sure reminder of the folly of man.

Sunday outing to Sutton Hoo

I have long wanted to visit Sutton Hoo, the extraordinary site where a long forgotten Anglo-Saxon royal burial ground re-emerged in 1939, while also wondering just how much there was actually to see. The finds from Sutton Hoo are actually to be found at the British Museum, so I knew that this wouldn’t be the focus of my visit, which would be more about the landscape in which these finds were located.

Many of the reviews I read online at TripAdvisor had described an underwhelming experience, despite the best efforts of the National Trust, who reopened the site in August 2019 after a significant revamp. This wasn’t necessarily a deterrent, as I have visited many a site where I have disagreed with the high expectations of reviewers (notably, a review of an extraordinary Swedish Palace where one reviewer had commented that it was not worth visiting any palaces in Europe as all were surpassed by Versailles!). However, I did wonder where I would stand with my experience of this site…

The Royal Burial Mounds at Sutton Hoo

I took a bus out from Ipswich to Melton, then walked to the site from there (about 30 minutes walk). All pretty straightforward. Once I had paid up I took one of the paths out to the royal burial grounds and took in the view. The mounds are striking in their concentration, particularly now that you can climb a viewing tower (opened in 2021) to get a panoramic view over the lot.

It must have been quite a feat for the warriors of the day to haul the three ships up from the shore to their resting place, followed by an extraordinary effort to build the mounds to cover them. As a start for a voyage to the next world it was quite something. However, as exciting as I knew the finds were and how they rewrote history, I found it hard to get too excited about the empty mounds that were left behind. I really didn’t want to be another person who found the sight a little underwhelming, but there you go…

After visiting the burial mounds I stopped off at Tranmer House, the home of Edith Pretty, whose curiosity sparked one of the greatest archaeological finds in Europe. A display on the ground floor takes you through the archaeological dig in 1938 and was probably the most interesting part of my visit. The exhibits and descriptions here helped capture some of the excitement of the thrilling finds emerging from the mounds.

I was particularly taken by one room here that focused on the work of Mercie Lack and Barbara Wagstaff, amateur photographers with an interest in Anglo-Saxon archaeology, who hoped that through their photographs ‘some idea of the process of uncovering the boat may be conveyed to later generations who cannot have the chance of seeing it emerge from its sandy grave.’

The final part of my visit took me into the High Hall exhibition which includes reconstructions of some of the finds from the graves, such as an unusual sandstone sceptre topped by a cast bronze stag; the king’s helmet, probably the most well known find associated with Sutton Hoo, and his shield; an ornate purse with gold buckle; and shoulder clasps.

Reconstruction of a Byzantine bucket

As well as finds from the royal burial ground the exhibition presents discoveries from an earlier cemetery in which a striking Byzantine bucket was found, presented alongside a reconstruction. Among the most poignant displays here is that of a young warrior who met an untimely end, buried in his finery alongside his horse, a discovery made as late as 1991.

Overall, I was glad to have satisfied my curiosity and visited the site. While it won’t be right up there with other historic sites I have visited I did gain a better appreciation for the landscape these unusual graves were created in and the archaeological dig that uncovered them. It was worth a visit and will drive me to go back to the British Museum for a better look at the array of finds.

Gallery