Sutton Hoo: Photos of 1939 excavation to be conserved

Barbara Wagstaff, left, and Mercie Lack, right, photographed the excavation site near Woodbridge on the eve of World War Two

Photographs and newspaper cuttings from the 1939 excavation of Sutton Hoo will be conserved in front of an audience.

Barbara Wagstaff and Mercie Lack photographed the unearthing of the Anglo-Saxon ship burial in Suffolk on the eve of World War Two.

The National Trust said the collection "completes" a set of photographic albums gifted to it in 2018.

The photos will be conserved by experts at Sutton Hoo in front of the public throughout Tuesday and Wednesday.

Mercie Lack showing members of the excavation team a selection of contact prints, with the excavation in the background

Sutton Hoo, near Woodbridge, is believed to contain the grave, burial ship and burial treasures of King Rædwald - the 7th Century Anglo-Saxon ruler of East Anglia.

The new items were once part of Mercie Lack's personal collection and were discovered in an attic.

They have now been gifted to the National Trust by her great-nephew, Andrew Lack.

The National Trust said the collection of images and newspaper clippings "completes" a set of photographic albums gifted to it in 2018.

The newspaper clippings - including one which refers to the Sutton Hoo discovery as Britain's Tutankhamun - are extremely fragile but offer important insights into the media response at the time.

Their conservation will include cleaning, strengthening and flattening the items, which will help to preserve them for future generations.

Expert conservationists will preserve the items which have been gifted to the National Trust by Mercie Lack's great-nephew

Other items also include an original black and white print, an annotated diagram of the ship and a booklet filled with comments responding to the publication of one of Barbara Wagstaff's photographs.

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Laura Howarth, archaeology and engagement manager at site, said: "The new items reinforce many of the things we already knew about the dig, as well as highlight the two photographers' different thought processes.

"If we go through Mercie Lack's collection, her work is very neat and ordered - in fact, it's possible that she used these as part of her portfolio to become inducted into the Royal Photographic Society, although we can't be sure.

"But with Barbara Wagstaff, many of the photographs show her right in the middle of the action. They have a very different feel."

In 2021, the excavation was the subject of Netflix film The Dig.

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