Location: https://w3w.co/stews.draw.mild
Today if you walk along Priory Crescent (A1159), past the aptly named ‘The Saxon King’ pub, just before the railway bridge you will see on your left a rather prominent mound. This is the burial site of the Prittlewell Prince that was discovered by accident back in 2003. Dating back to somewhere around 580CE it likely contained King Sledd of Essex, or one of his sons. Although if you know where to look the mound could be seen in a picture from the 1920s it was only by chance that the archaeologist chose to dig a trench in the right location. It is likely that if the site had better access they would have chosen another location to dig and likely missed the burial site completely!
Invisible from the side of the road on top of the mound is an embedded plaque with a diagram of the burial chamber.
However, gone without a trace is a much more recent encampment that stood on the site – Camp Bling! After the burial site was fully excavated the plan that ironically led to its discovery, a £25 million road development, was reinstated. However not only would it remove the final traces of the burial site but it would also cause the felling of 111 trees and destruction of a strip of Priory Park. In response, a group of activists came together and established a protest camp along the side of the crescent. Eventually in 2009 the council agreed to abandon the road widening scheme and within 3 months the camp was gone.
This 22 minute documentary on YouTube was directed and filmed by James Piper in early 2009. Although it does make the space look more rural than it does today, the almost constant traffic noise remains to this day.
Links:
Anglo-Saxon Essex 