On the 4 September 925 King Æthelstan, son of Edward the Elder, was crowned King in Kingston Upon Thames. Fast forwarding and the local Kingston community have been celebrating the 1100th anniversary of the coronation. Festivities started back in May and will continue through to October.
However, over the weekend of the 6th September it was the turn of the Thames to offer a stage with a large procession of vessels from all ages parading past the Duke of Edinburgh and awaiting crowds.
Although his coronation would have happened some 475 years later than the Sutton Hoo Ship burial, we were invited to play a part in the celebrations, so the Woodbridge Riverside Trust loaned the event organisers Sæ Wylfing, the half-length interpretation of the Sutton Hoo Ship built by Edwin Gifford in 1993 to transport King Æthelstan to his meeting point with the mayor. Once the ship had been safely delivered by road to Kingston, a team of volunteers from the Sutton Hoo Ship’s Company donned Anglo-Saxon costumes, kindly loaned by the textiles team at Sutton Hoo and took to the river.
The members of the crew were Jacq Barnard on the tiller, Laurie Walker and Clinton Porter in bow. Given the amount of positioning needed to stay in place, these two probably rowed twice as far as the rest of the crew who were volunteers David Keeble and Natasha Symes, in stroke backed up by Alan Gartland, John and Becky Marshall Potter and Mike Pratt.
We were joined by a group of reenactors from Haestingas (part of Regia Anglorum) who played different roles in the performance. Sam Clarkebourne as King Æthelstan can be seen standing amidships, with Russell Moore as the banner man and bodyguard (also seen rowing), Chloe and Pedro Douglas Kirk played the Archer and Priest respectively. The group were great at rallying the crowds and getting hearty responses of ‘all hail the King’ as we passed.
A special shout out goes to Roger Mutton from Thames Alive, who arranged for Sae Wylfing to be at the event and who made sure that we were in the right place at the right time and didn’t go hungry!
A very special day recreating our history and commemorating the coronation of the first King of all England
