Wednesday 12 November 2014

Wednesday November 12th 2014: Walking in the footsteps of Anglo Saxons at West Stow

Today Class 3 visited The Anglo Saxon village at West Stow near Bury St Edmunds. This is a site of national importance. The Romans left Britain in 410AD and in 420AD the settlement at West Stow was established. The Anglo Saxons came from Denmark, Holland and Germany by boat and they used their boat building skills to make their houses using oak and other materials they found locally. The settlers at West Stow grew crops, raised animals and made clothes, pottery and knives.

The team at West Stow have used archaeological evidence and experimental archaeology to test out ideas to find out whether they would have worked for the Anglo Saxons. For example, it was thought that houses were built without walls or floors like the Sunken House at the village. However, once the Sunken House had been built the archaeologists realised that this was not a good way to build and that the houses probably had walls and wooden floors with a pit underneath like the other dwellings. The floor probably had a pit underneath to preserve the wood.

We also heard that stories like the one we have read about Beowulf were very important to the Anglo Saxons.

After we had learnt lots about the Anglo Saxons from the curator, Joe, we went to investigate the village.


We went to try our hand at weaving in the Weaving House...





We investigated the Sunken House. We didn't like the sandy floor and lack of windows and thought that animals and rats might get inside and cause problems. Nearby we saw the forge where steel was made.


Here is the Great Hall where stories would have been told...



We acted out the story of Beowulf while we were there.


This house had a fire in it to preserve the thatch. We noticed that none of the houses had chimneys and there were very few windows. There were latches on the doors with a very unusual key that fitted all the locks in the village! Joe showed us how the Anglo Saxons would have started a fire using flints and a steel.



We had a look at the pigs and their sty.






Once we had looked around the village we had lunch.


Then we went into the museum and had a look at the artifacts and tried on some clothes. They were a bit itchy!







We also tried on a helmet like the one found at Sutton Hoo!


Afterwards we told everyone about our favourite thing at West Stow. The most popular experience was going into the smoky house with the real fire!


We all had a great day and enjoyed the fantastic weather- thanks to Mrs Ferro and Mrs Molden for helping us out.







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