Swavesey & District History Society: February Meeting Report – The Real Basil Brown: from Rickinghall to Sutton Hoo
Sarah Doig, also from Rickinghall in mid-Suffolk, spoke to 38 attendees. Basil was a modest man and was little known outside his local area until firstly, The National Trust took over the care of the Sutton Hoo estate i(ncluding the Anglo-Saxon burial mounds) in 1998 and secondly, the Netflix film The Dig was released in 2021. He undertook many archaeological digs throughout his life, and put much effort into making detailed records of each one. Sarah spent nearly five years researching over 100 of his notebooks, with his scribbled writing, and numerous sketches. He also took many photographs but had a habit of cutting people’s heads off. Thirty-five of his desk diaries and several of his scientific documents still exist.
In 1893, aged 5, he started at the local school in Rickinghall. He taught himself astronomy and gradually his interests settled on archaeology by day and astronomy by night. He left school at 13 and, to earn a living, went to work on the local farm where his father was employed but he kept up evening classes and gained knowledge in many subjects. He spent WWI at the farm having been assessed as medically unfit, but the details are unknown. Soon after the war he met his wife, Dorothy. They married in 1923 and lived with Basil’s parents at Church Farm. His first publication was on astronomy in 1932 and also in 1932 he took on the tenancy of Church Farm. He was an inadequate farmer and by 1935 he was an odd job man living in a rented part of the local schoolhouse. From the mid-1930s he became better known as an archaeological expert. In 1934 he discovered Roman kilns at a major site at Foxledge Common near Rickinghall. Then he discovered and took 3 years to excavate a Roman villa at Stanton Chare. He met Guy Maynard, Curator of Ipswich Museum, in 1934 and was taken on as assistant archaeologist.
On 20 June 1938 when aged 50 he first arrived at Sutton Hoo to investigate several large mounds. Maynard had negotiated for him to be employed by the helpful estate owner, Mrs Edith Pretty, at 30 shillings per week plus free accommodation with Mrs Pretty’s chauffer. By early July, assisted by two of Mrs Pretty’s labourers, he had found iron rivets, iron bands and very fine pieces of glass from the Anglo-Saxon period which Basil recognised as an important ship burial. During WW2 he was a special constable, a member of the Observer Corps and worked in the NAAFI in Bury St Edmunds. He continued as a casual archaeologist for Ipswich Museum without holding a permanent job. He spent much time teaching history and archaeology to children in local schools. Although Dorothy and Basil had no children, they had many godchildren. He died at the age of 89 on 12 March 1977. In May 2023 a blue plaque was installed in his honour in Rickinghall.
Next meeting-
Our next meeting is on 17 March, when Peter Tatam will speak about The Old Vicarage, Grantchester.
