We have lived in Waldringfield for two years. We came here from Nacton – the journey took 18 years – we stopped in Ipswich en route. We came to Nacton in 1979 from the Chiltern Hills just above Goring on Thames where I taught my boys to row.
Well , you may say, what has all this got to do with the history of Waldringfield.
Two things, really � it makes the point that all of us are making history as we go along. A couple of hundred years from now someone may ask the question �Why did this Thomas family migrate as they did from the Thames valley to the Eastern Suffolk peninsula � why did it all take so long � perhaps they went by boat?
The other point it makes is that in geographical or global terms we have hardly moved at all and this will come to light as we explore the history of Waldringfield.
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The appreciation of history requires a lot of imagination.
It is relatively easy to think in terms of hundreds of years � at three generations per hundred years might be talking of six generations between the early nineteenth century and the present day
It is much harder to think in terms of thousands of years or the thirty to forty generations since William the Conqueror.
I have to admit that in terms of millions of years I usually give up I cannot imagine that long ago – but the evidence of those times about us.
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100 million years ago the chalk and flint we see about us was thrown up from the seabed
70 million years ago the Eastern side of Suffolk submerged thus causing the development of estuarine shelly sands such as those found at Sutton Hoo – and inland from W�field.
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2 million years ago homo sapiens was in East Africa � 60,000 generations ago in current terms � probably more as life expectancy then would have been so much shorter and reproduction would have occurred earlier. Map of the World
By 1.5 million years ago he had reached the temperate zones of Europe
Map of Europe
By half a million years ago, in the Middle PLEISTOCENE period, he had reached East Anglia � 15,000 generations ago � there is evidence of his existence in the Mildenhall Till but for all we know he may have lived near Waldringfield – on -Thames. (I told you we hadn�t moved far- just down the Thames)
Readers Digest Map Waldringfield on Thames
Because , of course, a map of Britain now is not as it is was then
� A pre-cursor of the River Thames flowed eastwards from its current source and then north eastward from St Albans over much of Suffolk (including Waldringfield)
� Ancient gravels from this river are to be found at Waldringfield, Kesgrave and
Sproughton
� A bridge of land extended from (East Anglia) to Denmark in the region of the Dogger Bank. This made Britain a peninsular of the European mainland
Readers Digest Map – Bridge with Europe or CH4 map
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There is no evidence of man in these parts at that time but 470 thousand years ago an ice sheet covered all of Suffolk except the very south east. All the geography was erased. the This was a period known as the ANGLIAN GLACIATION. Glacier
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Then during the rest of the PALAEOLITHIC period (750k to 15 k in total), the Early stone Age, the melting ice left thick boulder clay known as Lowestoft till and outwash gravels. The melt waters drained east to south -east thus forming the
� Waveney, Gipping, Deben and Stour valleys and the basic Suffolk landscape
Geology Map of East Anglia � p19
� However it has been modified continuously by thawing, erosion, sea level
changes and subsidence at the SE end.
Homo sapiens was hunting in this area at this time as evidenced by worked flints found in river gravels.
There is evidence also that there were lions ,bears, mammoths and woolly rhinos here. Bit of a shock in the Maybush car park on a dark and windy night. Mammoth, lions
The period ended with several minor glaciations, the last of which started 24 thousand years ago and lasted until 15, 000 years ago. Between glaciations the land was forested.
Another glacier
There is said to be little evidence of man in Suffolk at this time � it was probably too cold
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15 thousand years ago Britain was still connected toDenmark and the Low Countries
There were deeper river valleys and the sea-level was 60 metres less than now
There was even more glacial outwash gravel over most of southern Suffolk peninsula.
All the eastward flowing rivers would have joined the Thames and the Rhine and then flowed westwards into the English Channel. CH4 map (possibly again)
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More hunters came by land from the Low Countries. Complex, highly organized hunting societies lived in areas suchg as the lower reaches of the Gipping, near Bramford Road .
Distinctive flints have been found
Picture of flints from the Friendly society � with Stan
There have been isolated finds from this period at Martlesham Creek and in Foxhall Road
Britain would have been very cold – like Siberia.
Ice disappeared from Britain – 11,000 BC, 13 thousand years ago. There have been no
finds in Suffolk relating to this time
8� thousand years ago � 255 generations ago Britain became an island – it was 6,500 BC Map of Britain
7� thousand years ago, during the LATE MESOLITHIC PERIOD the sea level rose and there were mixed oak forest over most of Britain.. Man hunted locally as evidenced by isolated finds just inland from Waldringfield – ? Newbourne
Mesolithic man was a hunter. He liked his dwellings to be near a river for spear fishing and to a source of flints. First boats � carved-out tree trunks
6� thousand years ago – 4,500 BC – and you will have to go back 225 generations if you want to find a connection ! �was the NEW STONE AGE and the NEOLITHIC CULTURE
� Farming hit Britain
� Man lived in stone huts with turf roofs in protected communities or settlements He wore clothes. He kept dogs and herd animals, He made pots.
� Settlements were mainly in regions of light soils � within a mile or so of water courses and river valleys and in the sandlings of south east Suffolk.
It is very likely that Waldringfield was occupied by then as it fulfils all those criteria.
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From 2700 BC to 2500 BC was the start of the BRONZE AGE
Immigration from the East brought the �Beaker people� and the use of metals incl. bronze
Of course this was immigration by sea. The River Deben and its various tributaries and landing points came into their own. It is very likely that there were settlements in or around Waldringfield. Again it had all the criteria as well as being one of the very few places where new arrivals could beach their boats.
There are barrows from this time all over the south Suffolk peninsular. There are many barrows in Kesgrave, Foxhall, Waldringfield Heath and Newbourne. They are usually a mile or so inland from the river.
� The boats were coracles
� Man also had wheels Coracle
From 700 BC – 81 generations ago � was the IRON AGE
Now I thought I was on to something here as I dug over my new garden � I have turned the whole place over and found one very long ladies shoe , two and a half bike frames and a metal bedstead. Alas not iron brought by the Celts from overseas.
These Celts were refugees from the Franco-Germanic borders who were later to be pushed westwards by people of other Germanic and Eastern European stock.
The proximity to water was all important to these people and their metalwork skills. It is known that there were settlements in the Waldringfield area. Suffolk map � p41
At first all this immigration was peaceful but as the population pressures increased so too did feuding which so often we associate with the tribes of the ANCIENT BRITONS. These were tribes with Kings and Queens.
Of note is the proximity of the dividing line between the Iceni of Northern Britain and the Trinovantes of southern Britain. This ran along the R. Lark � through Hacheston in an east �west direction.
And so it was when the Romans arrived.
Over to Michael Atkinson.
The Roman occupation of Britain lasted from 43AD to approx 410. The invasion came during the reign of Claudius & the landing place was in Kent from where the army swiftly moved northwards to take the tribal capital of the Trinovantes at Colchester. This initially became their base for conquering the rest of the country & the army moved northwards & westwards from here.
The Trinovantes were one of the most powerful tribes in the whole of the southeast of the country & the sons of its king Cunobelinus had led the opposition to the Roman invasion. The Trinovantian territory thus came under direct Roman rule & a legionary fortress was established at Colchester & then by about 48AD it became a colonia settlement for retired soldiers.
The Iceni to the north did not oppose the Romans in 43AD & were left as a self governing client kingdom. However when their king Prasutagus died in 60AD the Iceni came under direct Roman administration. The way in which Rome took possession proved disastrous & caused Boudica, Prasutagus’ widow, to rebel. The Trinovantes joined the Icenian rebellion & sacked the towns of Colchester, London & St.Albans, before being finally defeated at a battle in the Midlands.
By the end of the 1stC in Suffolk large settlements had been established at 6 locations: Coddenham, Hacheston,Scole,Pakenham,Long Melford & Icklingham & at 4 of these excavations have revealed industrial activity such as potting, metalworking & brewing. Small farmsteads were extremely common in all parts of the county & through fieldwalking & metal detecting over 1000 sites have been recorded. Looking through the Suffolk Institute of Arch. proceedings Roman metalwork has been found 6 times at different locations in & around Waldringfield village. These finds include coins, brooches, a harness fitting & even a bronze figurine of Hercules.
Two other features of the Roman landscape were villas & roads. 37 villa sites have been identified in the county, the most well known being at Whitton in Ipswich, though very few have been excavated. Some concentrate round the large settlements with the majority in the west of the county. The road system was laid down during the 1stC & most probably had a military purpose, to facilitate rapid troop movement should the need arise. Parts of this system remain with us today & are a visible reminder of the Roman prescence. A good example being the road from Coddenham via Crowfield, Pettaugh, Earl Soham &Peasenhall.
In the late 3rdC Military activity resumed in this area with the building of the coastal fort at Felixstowe. This formed part of a system known as the Saxon shore which started at Brancaster in Norfolk & went right down to the south coast. They were built in response to a threat of Saxon incursions.
The Roman army was withdrawn from Britain in 410AD & the Romanized way of life for the general population gradually declined. Germanic people of Anglian, Saxon, Jute & Frisian origin now came over in increasing numbers. Indeed some had been deliberately settled here by the Romans to help defend the province against civil unrest & raiding barbarians. They tended to settle in the river valleys, preferring the easily worked lighter soils & once established at the heads of the Orwell & Deben estuaries they used the Gipping valley to access the N.W. of the county along the Lark, Blackbourn & Little Ouse valleys. West Stow is the only settlement of this early period to have been fully examined. It consisted of a number of family units, each with a hall & up to 6 other buildings for storage, workshops & living accommodation. They had a largely self sufficient life style, growing crops, keeping sheep, cattle, pigs & trading in only luxury items such as jewellery, glassware & pottery.
The 7thC saw great changes with the consolidation of the East Anglian Kingdom under the Wuffinga dynasty & the re-introduction of Christianity. The central claylands of Suffolk, abandoned at the end of the Roman period, began to be re-occupied. By the 9thC the majority of our villages had been founded, though not necessarily on the same sites as today. The process of urbanisation began when Ipswich was founded in the late 6thC or early 7thC & by the late 9thC markets were functioning here & at Sudbury, Bury & Dunwich. It was also in the late 9thC that the Vikings arrived & settled with a number of Danish place names across the county often ending in -BY or incorporating THORP. Viking objects are being increasingly found in the county & especially in Ipswich which by this time was a major industrial centre & trading port.
As already mentioned Christianity returned in the 7thC & the first bishop Felix established his see in 630’s at Dommoc, which was probably Dunwich, with a second see at South Elmham in 680’s. 7thC monastries were founded at Bury, Burgh Castle & Iken & from the 7thC churches were constructed in almost all settlements with over 400 recorded by 1086. However they would nearly all have been originally built of timber & it was probably not until the 11thC that stone came into widespread use.
Anglo-Saxon finds recorded in the Suffolk Inst of Arch. proceedings from Waldringfield include 2x 6thC bronze brooches & 2 fragments of an 8th or 9thC gilt bronze disc with interlace decoration. An Anglo-Saxon cremation urn was found in the churchyard prior to 1864.
As far as the origin of the village name is concerned, we can divide the name into 3 elements:
WALDR is an abbreviation of the personal name Waldhere.
ING comes from the old English INGAS which originally denoted the descendants or dependants of a certain man ( in our case Waldhere ). Ekwall, the accepted authority on place name studies, states that names incorporating INGAS are very ancient & date from the time of the earliest Anglo-Saxon settlements.
FIELD comes from FELD & usually means open country, free of wood.
Thus ING & FIELD are common, standard elements. So who was Waldhere? >From the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle we know that there was a bishop of London named Waldhere in 680. We also know from an article on early wills relating to Bury that a bishop of London named Theodred gave his land at Waldringfield to Osgood, his sister’s son, sometime before 955.
>From the Oxford History of England series:- the book on Anglo-Saxon England states:- Of the 3 heroic figures whose names are attached to extant English poems, Beowulf belonged to the centre of what is now Sweden, Finn to Frisia & Waldhere to the south of Gaul.
So, bishop of London or heroic figure are just 2 possibilities for the origin of the village name. We shall most probably never know.
