Tide Mill

Tide Mill, Woodbridge, Suffolk, where the River Deben broadens under the escarpment of Sutton Hoo in a way that seems almost preparatory to its final journey out to sea…

How difficult it is to imagine them:

Those strange outrageous ancestors

Ploughing ships in movements of the earth

Riding bloodless horses over buried turf

Armed in cerements with spear and sword

In darkness under pastures of the night

War battered and brushed by the roots of trees

The broad river is a witness to these

Moments of the earthly paradise

The boats and sails clanging now

Across the trembling water even as

Cowbells in the chiming wind

And the leaves falling like man or woman in a

Sudden motion of the trees

I see them now taking a ship of ghosts into the Deben

I see them unfurl the broad square sail of history

Striking blades into gentle water

Beginning the long journey home.

Beautiful photo from here. This sea water mill has been around in various guises since the 12th century and it has a fascinating history which I will not blab on about. This is where the Deben turns tidal. The importance of this part of the river to the Anglian kings of Sutton Hoo cannot be over-imagined.