The Village People: West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village, Suffolk, England

Where do I come from? Dunno, actually; never been DNA’d. I may result from an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. In other words, a figment of an imagination subject to the effects of a sensitive constitution.

Anyway, enough of this waffle (mind you, Charles Dickens came out with exactly this kind of thing, and people liked him). I imagine it’s likely that at least some bits of me stem from Anglo-Saxon antecedents who rocked up on British shores after the Romans decided all this cold and wind really wasn’t worth staying for, so they made excuses about having to go and fight Goths (I’m sure Goths aren’t nearly as aggressive as all that: despite the dark make-up, they’re usually quite nice people, and I quite like some of their clothing choices. I’m also pretty certain I’m not the first person to make that sort of joke. I never claimed to be original). The Romans could have stayed in Britannia to fight off the Anglo-Saxon barbarians, but they went back to Rome to fight off other barbarians. You can’t fool me. It was about the weather, wasn’t it?

I cannot help but feel, however one tries to look at it and say this wasn’t as dark a dark age as all that, that advanced construction techniques (not to mention cleanliness) did rather go out of the non-existent window in England, post-toga times. Bricks were replaced with, well, sticks. Interior decoration took a backseat. Everything was very brown indeed. Tilers were definitely out of a job, as mud floors became the in thing. No mop required, I suppose. Every cloud, eh?

An Anglo-Saxon village existed in West Stow in Suffolk from the fifth century to the seventh. I visited much later. The West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village Trust was set up in 1976 to manage three modern replicas of houses of the period. There are now eight buildings on the site, including a hall, workshop, craft building, and weaving house, alongside dwellings. The village is a splendid example of experimental archaeology. Constructing and even staying overnight and working for a time in these buildings helps experts to understand how Anglo-Saxon people might well have lived, what building techniques, interior setups, heating and cooking arrangements and furniture worked, and which ones did not. Apparently, each house lasts roughly thirty years under normal circumstances. And they didn’t even have Building Regulations in those days.

These dwellings are heavy on wood. Burning it as well as building with it. I can only imagine the effect on one’s eyes from the woodsmoke in such a small space. Still, perhaps it mitigated the dubious aromas that hung about people’s animals and armpits, all in close proximity. Etcetera. And in the wee small hours you’d be listening out for things rustling around in the roof timbers. Alive things. Things with wings and tails. Here be dragons. Or, more likely, beetles and rats. Have some diseases, if you pleases. No proper toilet situation, either, of course. Except a cold and dark dark-age one. What if a Viking was hiding in the bushes and stuck you in the fundament when you popped out for a poop? Actually, I doubt Vikings bothered with such stealthiness. They probably preferred a full-frontal approach to pillaging. Nice. Anyway, they pitched up a bit later on in their fancy boats, but the Anglo-Saxons still mostly had brown wooden houses, minus en-suites.

It isn’t the mud huts these people brought with them which stayed the course, of course. Their greatest legacy was their language. From the gift shop I bought a CD of Old English poems, prose, and lessons, absolutely none of which I understand, but I like the sound of something which had the potential to evolve and go far across time and place, pillaging, in its own way, wordage from everywhere and everyone else, and wearing everyone else’s clothes, figuratively speaking. What a formidable force it became. From such murmurings came magic. Just ask Charles Dickens.

Website for the village: https://www.weststow.org/

above and below: Sunken house, with sand floor and no floorboards.

above: First house built on the site by archaeologists.

above: Interior of the oldest house, now falling down.

above: Loom.

above: Experimental fire pit. It isn't known if this is what the Anglo-Saxons actually used, but it does the job!

 

above and below: Hall. The hanging cauldron is a replica of the one found buried at nearby Sutton Hoo, which someone donated to the museum, but we were told it probably wouldn't have been used in most dwellings as it's unnecessary. You can just place a pot in the fire pit, and the amount of metal used in the chain would have been very extravagant at the time. You'd have more likely used it for weaponry or at least something more necessary.

above: Erm, well, options were limited in terms of interior decor, like I said.

above: Probably slightly whiffy blankets.

above: Storage area for your bits and bobs and baskets.

above: Workshop.

 above: They had door locks then, too!