Felixstowe Ferry
In a heat haze. Yes you can believe it. This is where the River Deben meets the North Sea. The river mouth is certain to have altered considerably in 1500 odd years but a royal gateway is a royal gateway. Sutton Hoo is about seven miles upstream. In Raedwald’s time if the Deben was a royal river then the Orwell just around the coastal corner might be considered the tradesmen’s entrance.
It is quite clear that the Anglo-Saxons of this period had horses and probably used them to get around as well as for carting but there is no mistaking that boats were the transport of choice. As they were for shifting goods to market right up until the age of the railways. If Raedwald’s thanes had access to a couple of jet skis, which were much in evidence yesterday, they could have crashed a party at the royal hall in next to no time.
The shingle spits that longshore drift has made in this part of the world are home to a number of beautiful and tenacious plants. Rubbery sea kale is everywhere. Here is a snap of a yellow horned poppy.
Those with an inclination for unwinding rainbows might like to analyse it for its Darwinian adaptations.
There are a couple of Martello towers balanced on the lip of the river. These are dotted all along the coast of the south east and are a defensive remnant from the Napoleonic wars. Certain people with a circular view of history like to live in them. Not in this one though, at least at the moment. Watch out for it though on ‘Grand Designs’. There is a very famous one in Dublin where the opening scene of Ulysses takes place and in another life I paid a visit to it. It was wild, wintry and bloody windy that day on Sandymount strand. The James Joyce museum was closed. It was closed because I had made a special effort to visit it. If anybody suggests that I might have checked the opening times I will poke that person in the eye.
What else? Hmm… Across the river is Bawdsey Manor which used to be a place of hush hush RADAR research in the Second World War. It is hardly stretching it to say that it was a modern sophisticated Martello tower. Whoever had charge of the Romano-Britons when Raedwald’s kin came calling had no such defence it seems.
St Felix was a Burgundian monk who took his mission to the East Angles around 630AD and founded a monastery up the coast at Dunwich. By this time Raedwald was sleeping soundly in his death ship. There is loads to tell about this place. Well worth a visit. Felixstowe Ferry rocks. Take it from me.
Laters…
I like the idea of the Orwell being the tradesmen’s entrance to the wic at Gippeswic. In the cold war Bawdsey was some sort of missile base – there were a few places on the coast where you could get a glimpse of them, and it was quite creepy.
Rainbows are no less marvellous for understanding how they’re woven
Yes, I don’t know about Bawdsey but up the coast at Orford Ness there are those peculiar buildings to do with the MOD. As you say creepy. All for our own good I’m sure they would say…
With regard to rainbows, I guess that is moot to be Anglo-Saxon about it, some might say, including William Blake perhaps, that there is no natural religion of rainbows…
Liked your post on hell over at your blog Carla. Are you gonna do more?
They do look very strange, don’t they? Like something out of Close Encounters. One of these days I ought to get organised enough to go on one of the National Trust’s occasional boat trips to the Ness and see what they look like close to.
Intention is to do more, but it will be a ’sporadic’ or ‘occasional’ series, as time and inclination permit!
Yes it would be interesting to see them close up. I think I saw them used in a film once. This coastal landscape is so strange. I mean on the one hand these things are kind of a blot, like the great golf ball of Sizewell, but in another way these things and the contrast they evoke are dramatic and quite arty I suppose. I know exactly what drew Derek Jarman to Dungerness. THAT is one strange place but at the same time desolate and beautiful. Although I did read on somebody’s blog once that Dungerness is only attractive to those with a liking for nuclear power stations and gravel! I must be one of those people…