13th November 2023 - Mildenhall, Norfolk

Both members of the family arrived back within half an hour of each other soaking wet. As my daughter said, it rained in Geneva, Manchester and then Tod.

Lillie had walked up to the moor with a small group of scouts carrying an American flag, to the American bomber that had crashed up there and they had a little ceremony there.  You can see details of the crash site here.  The plane had come from Norfolk and it had failed to rise above the moor, I suspect similar to the one on Prescili Hills.

It reminded me of a visit to Mildenhall in Suffolk where another famous American air base is.  We had gone to see the Silver Mildenhall Roman treasure, that had recently been opened in the small museum in the town. The usual damp cold day made the town miserable but the replica treasure was absolutely beautiful and I wrote about it here.  Feeling sad for a dead 1500 year old Saxon horse, seems ridiculous now, but......

Also I was to learn later how the treasure had been found.  I presume as the Roman Empire fell into disarray, the wealthy family who owned the silver must have buried it and fled, hoping to retrieve it later.  So one cold miserable day in the 20th century  a farm labourer ploughing the field upended one of the silver plates.  He went to the farmer who owned the land and they dug up what was there.  But the farmer did not report it to the authorities and just like Smaug the dragon sat on his treasure for quite a time.  But one day an archaeologist called at the farm and noticed a piece of silver on the mantlepiece.  The game was up and the treasure slowly came into public ownership.

Now in the arcane rules this country so loves, all treasure belongs to the crown, and the finder has the reward, in many instances it would be the farmer but at this time it was the farm labourer.  He got nowt, the farmer pocketed the lot.  Roald Dahl came to hear of this and was so angry about it that he wrote a book, meaning to give the proceeds to the labourer.  The book was illustrated by Ralph Steadman, scary to say the least, I bought a copy for Paul, but the illustrations jump at you, a gash across the page.  

Anyway you can find part of the story in the following blog.

Mildenhall Treasures

The geese have just flown over, the world still flows into the future.  And I have decided to copy out that article about Paul, written so long ago.