The original Sutton Hoo burial ship was built with green oak, with other freshly felled wood species used for oars.  Whilst our re-creation project uses freshly felled timber (and a small amount of modern softwoods for scaffolding), as part of our environmental policy the Sutton Hoo Ship’s Company will replace any felled trees by arranging and funding replanting.  This replanting will be of a far greater number of seedlings and saplings than the build consumes and we will form partnerships with conservation groups in order to carry this out.

In addition we

have appealed for windfall trees through social media and our website

use only FSC certified products

minimise any waste of wood through careful consideration of its use

select the pieces of green wood that are as near enough as possible in size to the part of the ship being made, so offcuts and shavings are low volume

use some offcuts to make high quality souvenirs associated with the ship project, which will also help to fund the shipbuild

use other offcuts for products (such as bird boxes or insect houses) made by associated groups in the Longshed

return shavings and any sawdust to the forest floor

We also are grateful to hear of any other sustainable uses for wood, bark or shavings via contact@saxonship.org