‘They must be somewhere’: appeal for British oak to recreate Sutton Hoo ship

Volunteers building a replica of an Anglo-Saxon burial ship, found at Sutton Hoo, at Woodbridge in Suffolk have found it challenging to get the right wood. Photograph: Sutton Hoo Ship Company/Solent News & Photo Agency/Solent

The aim is ambitious: to complete a functioning reconstruction of the extraordinary Sutton Hoo burial ship by 2026 and test it on the river and sea, hopefully providing fresh insight into what life was like in Anglo-Saxon times.

But the project, being run by a small charity, is struggling to source the right sort of British oak to finish the build and is calling for donations, worried that if it does not get the wood from the UK, it may have to look overseas.