West Stow | |
---|---|
Location within Suffolk | |
Area | 21.29 km2 (8.22 sq mi) Includes Wordwell |
Population | 174 (2011) including Wordwell [1] |
• Density | 8/km2 (21/sq mi) |
OS grid reference | TL820705 |
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Bury St Edmunds |
Postcode district | IP28 |
Dialling code | 01284 |
Police | Suffolk |
Fire | Suffolk |
Ambulance | East of England |
UK Parliament | |
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West Stow is a small village and civil parish in West Suffolk, England. The village lies north of Bury St. Edmunds, south of Mildenhall and Thetford and west of the villages of Culford and Ingham in the area known as the Breckland. This area is located near the Lark River Valley and was settled from around AD 420–650. West Stow Hall is to the north of the village.
Its name may come from Anglo-Saxon wēste stōw = "deserted place", rather than "western place".
West Stow is home to the West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village where visitors may see reconstructed Anglo-Saxon houses, and often living history re-enactments of early medieval life.
Fullers Mill Garden run by Perennial (Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Society) is open to the public. [2]
A major archaeological dig from 1965–1972 headed by Stanley West of West Suffolk Archaeology Unit revealed a well preserved Anglo-Saxon site beneath the sands of the Breckland. West’s findings contributed to much of what is now known about this area. The site’s layout tells us much about the way of life in this period. This area is set up with a large hall in the middle of the village surrounded by other houses and structures. This suggests a tight-knit community, with the inhabitants using the large hall for events such as feasts and story-telling. During the excavation 69 houses, 7 halls and 7 other structures were found. The community lived with their extended families in their houses, with each house containing around 10 family members. The people of this area still traded with their homeland, as is evidenced by the glass in the necklaces and other metals that were found at the site, but not produced locally. The Anglo-Saxon community that was found here was not the first to settle in the area. The remains of circular huts with ditched enclosures suggest occupation by Iron Age farmers. There were also tools found that suggest that Mesolithic warriors had hunted in this area, and burial grounds and cultivation which suggest settlement of a Neolithic group.
A pagan Anglo-Saxon burial ground was also excavated. The archaeologists revealed that the village moved the mile or so east to its current location following Christianisation.
Alongside the recreated village are the archaeological collections formerly housed at Moyse's Hall Museum Bury St Edmunds. These are collections of archaeological findings that were made in the region between Devil's Dyke and the line between Littleport and Shippea Hill (i.e. along the borderline of East Cambridgeshire and Suffolk) from the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. [3] Findings include the Isleham Hoard of more than 6500 pieces of bronze, in particular swords, spear-heads, arrows, axes, knives, daggers, armour, decorative equipment (in particular for horses) and many fragments of sheet bronze, all dating from the late Bronze Age. The swords show holes where rivets or studs held the wooden hilt in place (studs were usually made of bronze except for commanders who had silver-studded swords or for a commander-in-chief who had a gold-studded sword). [4]
Among the more interesting findings of the excavations pertain to the farming aspect of this culture. This village, and others like it, replaced Roman farms after the imperial administration left Britain. The Anglo-Saxons settled in small villages that were generally self-sustaining. Within these self-sufficient communities there is evidence that these peoples were more likely to provide for themselves through a farming lifestyle than a foraging one. Within the archaeological remains there were more domesticated animal species found than wild animal species, indicating less dependence on hunting as a means of survival, and supports the idea that they were farmers. The settlers in this area were thought to be from a different area, with German descent being the most likely area, and as such it is interesting to see what farming techniques may be employed by this group. Since the landscapes are quite different, it would be interesting to see if the newly settled group would use a German style of farming in this new terrain. This area helps to provide some insight into these farming adaptations. Within animal husbandry, however, this group was more likely to use elements found within the native system of the country.
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Anglo-Saxon architecture was a period in the history of architecture in England from the mid-5th century until the Norman Conquest of 1066. Anglo-Saxon secular buildings in Britain were generally simple, constructed mainly using timber with thatch for roofing. No universally accepted example survives above ground. Generally preferring not to settle within the old Roman cities, the Anglo-Saxons built small towns near their centres of agriculture, at fords in rivers or sited to serve as ports. In each town, a main hall was in the centre, provided with a central hearth.
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Akenham is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk in the East of England. Located on the north-western edge of Ipswich, in 2005 it had an estimated population of 60. At the 2011 Census the population remained less than 100 and was included in the civil parish of Whitton.
Walton is a settlement and former civil parish, now in the parish of Felixstowe, in the East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England, lying between the rivers Orwell and Deben.
Wissett is a village and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk. It is 2 miles (3.2 km) north-east of the market town of Halesworth in the East Suffolk district. Historically, it was in the Blything Hundred.
Trimley St. Martin is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It lies between the rivers Orwell and the Deben, on the long narrow tongue of land from Ipswich to Felixstowe referred to as the Colneis Hundred. In 2011 the parish had a population of 1942.
The Isleham Hoard is a hoard of more than 6,500 pieces of worked and unworked bronze, dating from the Bronze Age, found in 1959 by William 'Bill' Houghton and his brother, Arthur, at Isleham, near Ely, in the English county of Cambridgeshire.
Icklingham is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. It is located about 7 miles (11 km) north-west of Bury St Edmunds, 4 miles (6.4 km) south-east of Mildenhall and 9 miles (14 km) south-west of Thetford in Norfolk. The village is on the A1101 road between Bury St Edmunds and Mildenhall in the north-west of the county. The area around the village, characterised by a sandy gravel-laden soil, is known as Breckland, though an arm of the fen-like peat follows the River Lark past the village.
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West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village is an archaeological site and an open-air museum located near to West Stow in Suffolk, eastern England. Evidence for intermittent human habitation at the site stretches from the Mesolithic through the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Romano-British period, but it is best known for the small village that existed on the site between the mid-5th century and the early 7th century CE, during the early Anglo-Saxon period. During this time, around 70 sunken-featured buildings were constructed on the site, along with 8 halls and a number of other features. Subsequently, abandoned, the area became farmland in the Late Medieval period.
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