Priceless! My Aunt Peggy found Britain’s biggest haul of treasure
The Mail on Sunday
In the summer of 1939, a former milkman turned self-taught archaeologist called Basil Brown plunged a spade into the side of a large mound at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk. He had been hired by Edith Pretty, the wealthy widow who owned the mound, to see if there was anything inside. Possibly he might find a few ancient bits and pieces, she thought, or maybe even something a little bigger if he was lucky.
Two months later, just as the Second World War was about to break out, Brown unearthed the greatest archaeological discovery ever made in this country. What he had discovered was an enormous ship – about 90ft long – that had been buried inside the mound some time during the 7th Century. And inside it was an intact treasure chamber containing a hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold.
As well as causing huge excitement – it was promptly dubbed ‘Britain’s Tutankhamun’ – the discovery tipped historical thinking on its head.
Source: The Mail on Sunday Written by John Preston