1,400 year old royal hall discovered in Rendlesham
It's thought the building was used by some of the first kings of East Anglia
Last updated 5th Oct 2022
Evidence of a 1,400 year-old royal hall used by the first Kings of East Anglia has been discovered in Rendlesham in Suffolk.
The hall was uncovered during a community archaeological excavation, which was started as part of Suffolk County Council’s Rendlesham Revealed project.
It's thought the site is the same as a royal residence written about by The Venerable Bede, a monk from the 8th century.
Faye Minter, who works at Suffolk County Council Archaeological service, said: "This is exactly what we hoped to find. This is exactly what we hoped was there.
"We've been investigating this site out at Rendlesham since about 2008 doing survey work and metal detecting surveys and other things, not digging, to try and work out what could be there.
"And from what we have found and the ariel photography especially, we did think that we had a large timber hall.
"But until you actually do the excavation, you don't know for sure that you've got what you thought so it's been extremely rewarding to actually find what we thought was there. Which is just excellent really.
"And it's probably not the only hall in this royal complex or Rendlesham.
"It's just the one that we've targeted because it's the one we can see in the area of photography which allowed us to know where to do the excavation."
The find sheds more light on the history of our region before it became part of England.
It's thought this royal hall was an important centre of power between 570 and 720AD, when Suffolk was occupied by the Anglo Saxons.
Rendlesham is just a short distance from the world-famous Saxon burial sites at Sutton Hoo.
Faye added: "We thought it was there (but) we didn't know for sure. So it was absolutely amazing when they used a large machine to strip the topsoil off and then we could see the foundations of the building starting to be revealed.
"And that was a huge relief and also absolutely amazing because it is a very large building.
"It's at least 20 metres long in 10 metres wide. So it's pretty impressive when you see the plan of the foundations on the ground.
"It was amazing to be able to see it being revealed and then know that we had found it and we could continue to excavate and try and find out a bit more about that settlement."
"This discovery is probably internationally significant because although we've known for a long time, that was probably a royal Anglo-Saxon settlement also at Rendlesham, we didn't know exactly where it was.
"So it's only really since we've been looking over the last ten years or so that we've tried to pinpoint the location.
"And the fact that we found the hall really proves that we've found the royal settlement that was mentioned by Bede who was a monk from the 8th century, who mentions that the royal settlement at Rendlesham."
An ancient mystery solved?
cleaning the findings
cleaning the findings
This major find helps archaologists fill in some of the gaps in the early history of East Anglia, which was just one of a number of small kingdoms across what is now modern Britain and Ireland.
Faye Minter told us: "We know that we've got a large settlement around the show, which is about 50 hectares in size, which is the largest one in England.
"But we now have found the royal element within that settlement, and the royal complex within the larger settlement is active for over 150 years.
"So we know that it wouldn't have just been perhaps, one generation or one king staying there, the various kings of East Anglia would have lived at Rendlesham on this site.
"Now, King's didn't just have one residence, a bit like the modern monarchy.
"They have multiple houses and residences, so the kings of East Anglia would have moved about two other halls and other residences within their Kingdom, which would have covered modern-day Norfolk and Suffolk.
"So we do know they would have moved about, but we also know that they definitely would have stayed at Rendlesham for about 150 years.
"Different kings. We don't know exactly which kings would have stayed at Rendlesham, the only king named in the historical documents as being that is King Æthelwold of the East Angles, because we know from bead that he invited King Swithhelm of the East Saxons to come over to Rendlesham to be baptized."
All finds made on the site will be donated to Suffolk County Council's Archaeological Service and could eventually end up in Ipswich museum
Further archaology is now planned on the site in Rendlesham to find out even more.