The Prittlewell Prince, a Few Thoughts on Museums...and More Winter Birds

West Stow

First of all, thanks for all the lovely comments on my last post. There doesn't seem to have been much sun since I took those photos, just heavy rain, a bit of fog and an even more waterlogged garden. So gardening has been placed on hold at the moment - and with no gardening to do last Saturday morning (as planned) I decided to visit a museum instead to see some of the grave goods of the 'Prittlewell Prince'.

This royal burial was discovered a few years ago when archaeologists were excavating a known Anglo-Saxon graveyard in Prittlewell, near Southend, Essex. The grave goods unearthed included a gold belt buckle (below), coins, gold crosses, glass jars, bowls, drinking horns and weapons.  It was one of the richest Anglo-Saxon graves ever discovered.

Although there's no trace left of the body, it's believed that this was the grave of Sabert, king of the East Saxons, who converted to Christianity and died in AD 616. He would have been a contemporary of the High King, Raedwald, who it's believed was buried at Sutton Hoo. After Sabert's death his sons turned back openly to paganism and so Sabert's burial could well be a mixture of their pagan, and the old king's Christian, beliefs.

Bowl from the burial chamber

A few of the grave goods are currently on display in the Southend museum, but I must admit that I was disappointed that there weren't many of the finds on show.  It seems that there are plans to build a grand new Thames Estuary Museum to display everything properly, so I'll have to wait until then, I suppose, to see all the finds together.

My visit to see these finds from Prittlewell follows my trip to the (recreated) Anglo-Saxon village of West Stow, in Suffolk, on a very warm day last November. At that time of year, there was hardly anyone there, so we got to wander around on our own...

It's easy to imagine Anglo-Saxon life at West Stow and I love places like this.  My favourite kind of museums have always been the houses of people from the past (famous or not) where the rooms are displayed as if the occupants have just left them (rather than the old fashioned, rows-of-glass-cabinets museums).

I do like to visit the little museums you find in villages and small towns, though. I'm fascinated by all the local history and local stories and I love some of the quirky items in them (as long as they aren't stuffed animals or birds - I can't bear these). Do you have any of these tiny museums near you? If I can find the time, I'd like to visit more of these this year.

Anyway, back home and outside, it was, of course, the RSPB Garden Birdwatch at the weekend. There have been no surprises here, and there's still a worrying lack of some birds (like Sparrows and Starlings) that we used to have so many of.  But there are some birds we see more of, like the Goldfinches.  We're going to make a new, homemade feeder for them and fill it with nyjer seed...

Meanwhile the Fieldfare, after waiting under the fruit trees, has now dived right into them...

And the Little Egrets I've been watching in the field are now increasing in number.  There are now six of them.  I'm hoping to get a pic of them all together for a future post.