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April 27 , 2002
A beautiful, picture postcard
village, Hoxne nestles unassumingly in rolling Norfolk/Suffolk
border country.
But look a little closer and you’ll discover a
King’s bloody execution, a hoard of buried treasure
and, believe it or not, elephant and rhino roaming wild.
MARTIN BARSBY leafs through
the pages of Hoxne’s history guided by local historian
Julie Craven. Photographs by DENISE
BRADLEY.
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| NO HIDING PLACE: King Edmund depicted
hiding from the Danes under Goldbrook Bridge in
this frieze on Hoxne’s village hall. |
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something
blue. There are many traditions a bride may honour on
her wedding day, but in the village of Hoxne there is
one that is far more important than the rest.
As any local will tell you, no Hoxne bride will ever
cross Goldbrook Bridge on her way to church, for if
she did, it would undoubtedly bring her nothing but
back luck.
And the reason for this enduring custom? The death of
a King more than 1000 years ago.
Standing on the bridge, which is bathed in spring sunshine,
local historian and Hoxne resident Julie Craven explained
the folklore behind the tradition.
“Hoxne is inextricably linked with St Edmund, King
of the East Angles, who legend has it, was killed in
the village by the invading Danes in 869.
“Although there is no hard evidence to cement the
connection there is a very strong tradition here. It
is widely accepted that Hoxne was an important place
at the time and the suggestion is King Edmund had a
hall here. It is said that’s where he was when
the raiders came.”
The story goes that as the King tried to flee the marauding
Danes he was forced to hide under a bridge.
As Julie explained, Edmund was then said to have been
betrayed by a wedding party who saw his gold spurs shining
in the sun.
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| Julie Craven stands on the Goldbrook Bridge
where it is said St Edmund was captured. |
“That’s why, to this day, local brides won’t
go over the bridge on the way to their weddings, they
fear it will bring bad luck,” she said.
Edmund’s importance cannot be underestimated, and
some would argue he has more right to be patron saint
of England than St George.
He was born in Saxony in 841, and crowned King of the
East Angles while still a teenager.
Little is known for sure about his early life and reign,
and over the years the stories are certain to have been
embellished as they were retold.
But it is said he was crowned at Bures on the Suffolk/Essex
border in 855 when he would have been just 14.
Records are scarce about the King between his coronation
and the events which carved his place in history and
made him a Christian martyr.
Much of the story relies on a fourth-hand account made
later, which speaks of a great battle between the Danes
and King Edmund’s troops at Thetford in 869.
The English were defeated and the King fled but was
pursued and caught. Historians argue over exactly where
Edmund was apprehended and killed, but the people of
Hoxne have no doubts.
It is said the King refused to denounce his Christian
faith so he was tied to an oak a short distance away
and shot full of arrows.
The account says so many arrows were embedded in his
body they were “like the bristles of a hedgehog”.
The Danes then reputedly chopped off Edmund’s head
and threw it into the forest.
As Julie explained the legend then takes an even stranger
turn. The King’s distraught followers are said
to have heard a cry of “Here, here, here”.
They are supposed to have found the head, which had
been calling to them, and was guarded by a wolf.
“The head was retrieved and when it was put back
with the King’s body the two parts miraculously
rejoined,” Julie said.
Firstly the body was housed in a makeshift tomb and
later enshrined at Boedericsworth, which would become
Bury St Edmunds. The shrine became the most important
place of pilgrimage in the country until the death of
Thomas a Beckett,” Julie said.
Today “King Edmund taken prisoner here AD 870”
is carved in stone on Goldbrook Bridge. There is confusion
over which year he died, but who’s going to quibble
over the odd year in 1000?
A monument stands on the nearby spot where Edmund is
said to have died and the legendary oak, which fell
down in 1848, is said to have contained arrowheads from
the martyrdom.
For most villages one such an amazing story would be
enough – but not Hoxne.
On November 16, 1992 a local man, Eric Lawes, was searching
for a friend’s lost hammer in a field on the edge
of the village.
Instead of the hammer Mr Lawes discovered one of the
largest hoards of late Roman treasure ever found.
Consisting of over 14,700 coins and 200 other gold and
silver objects buried in a chest, the find shook the
archaeological world to its core.
We stood at the edge of the field in question, and Julie
pointed to where the find was unearthed.
“There is no reason as to why it was buried there,
I don’t suppose we will ever know. Investigations
were done to see if there had been a tree there or some
landmark but nothing was established.
“What we do know is it belonged to someone pretty
important. It led to a re-evaluation of exactly what
conditions had been like for Romans in Britain in this
area at the time.
It had been previously been suggested that since the
Boudica rebellion the Romans were pretty much in decline
in this region.
The latest coin in what became known as the Hoxne Hoard
is from the reign of Constantine III (AD 407-411).
“The treasure had apparently been buried in a large
chest and was full of superb jewellery, bracelets, silver
tableware – including spoons and four pepper pots
– tooth picks and ear scoops,” Julie said.
On September 3, 1993, the find was declared Treasure
Trove by a coroner’s inquest at Lowestoft. More
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