West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village

The chance discovery of fragments of pottery thrown up by burrowing rabbits led to the excavation of West Stow. Between 1965 and 1972 the site was stripped and excavated. Luckily the area had been covered with a sand dune since the 13th century, giving the archaeologists a unique opportunity to study an entire Anglo-Saxon village. Most of the timber had rotted away, but there was enough evidence to plot the changes in the village between the 5th and 7th centuries.

At the end of the excavations it was decided to reconstruct the village using the tools & techniques available to the Anglo-Saxons to try and get a better understanding of our ancestors. Each reconstruction tests different ideas.

The houses have been reconstructed complete with benches, bed boxes and other fittings.

Detail of house construction

And during the last few years at special times, the village has been lived in by groups of costumed Saxons which has turned West Stow into a truly living village.

The Anglo-Saxon Village is set in a 125 acre country park which has a heathland nature reserve of woods, a river & a lake.