Sutton Hoo Ship’s Company

Step into the world of the Anglo-Saxons and experience shipbuilding as it was over a thousand years ago. Join the Sutton Hoo Ship’s Company and witness a full-sized tree transformed before your eyes—cleaved, split, and shaped into planks and thwarts using authentic ancient techniques. Watch skilled craftspeople demonstrate how timber was carefully worked by hand, using traditional tools such as axes, mallets, wooden clamps, froes, and spoon augers.

Discover how smaller sections of wood were split with precision, how holes were drilled without modern equipment, and how components were held firmly in place using clever, time-tested wooden clamping systems. This is not just a display—it’s a living demonstration of early shipbuilding ingenuity, skill, and craftsmanship.

At select times throughout the day, you’ll even have the chance to get hands-on and try these techniques yourself. Come and feel the tools, hear the wood split, and witness history brought vividly to life.

Sutton Hoo Ship’s Company will be at the festival Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.