The driving force behind the discovery of the Sutton Hoo treasure has become the first woman honoured with a Blue Plaque by the Woodbridge Society.
The Society unveiled the plaque at Tranmer House on the Sutton Hoo estate in a ceremony with the National Trust to record the life of Edith Pretty who owned the estate in the 1930s and engaged Basil Brown to excavate the Anglo-Saxon burial mounds.
Among the Society members and National Trust staff and volunteers at the unveiling were David and Penny Pretty – Edith Pretty's grandchildren – who have donated many of the family items that are on display at Tranmer House – including the 1939 Cor Visser portrait of their grandmother.
David and Penny's father Robert was only 12 when his mother died, so they never knew their grandmother. And while they were brought up in Dorset they did visit Suffolk with their father when they were growing up.
David said: "We are really pleased to see my grandmother honoured like this. She was a remarkable woman and could have done anything – she could have been the country's first woman MP if that was what she wanted!"
Mrs Pretty turned down the offer of a CBE after donating the treasures of Sutton Hoo to the nation through the British Museum, but David felt she would have seen the Blue Plaque differently.
"She felt she was doing her duty to the country when she donated the treasure to the British Museum so didn't want a CBE for that – but the Blue Plaque is an honour that has come from the community she was part of and the local community was very important to her so she would have been very pleased with this," he said.
After visiting the site in the 1980s when the last large archaeological dig was underway, David has been a regular visitor and has been happy to donate family items.
"We haven't got room for them all anyway," he said.
He still lives in the Christchurch area of Dorset but pays regular visits to Suffolk and was very interested in the film 'The Dig' and the effect it has had on the site.
He said: "The first time I saw it I was thinking: 'That's not right, my grandmother wasn't like that! This was wrong and that was wrong.' My father was never interested in spaceships.
"But as I saw it again I came to see it was a fictionalised version of the story which has provoked a great deal of interest in Sutton Hoo and the real story behind it – and from that point of view I've come around rather."
The plaque was installed following a collaboration between the Society and the National Trust, whose archaeology and engagement manager Laura Howarth said it had been her personal "lockdown project".
Sutton Hoo has continued to be very popular with visitors following the release of The Dig and this year's exhibition 'Swords of Kingdoms' with part of the Staffordshire Hoard on display has brought more visitors again.
Garth Pollard, chairman of the Woodbridge Society, said: "The Society is delighted that there is now a blue plaque in honour of Edith Pretty, commemorating her historic generosity to the nation.
"This is the tenth blue plaque awarded by the Society and the first to a woman. We are very pleased to support the work of the National Trust in promoting the significance of the history of the town of Woodbridge and its surroundings."
He said the National Trust, and especially Ms Howarth, had been very supportive: "These things can take a time but they were very keen from the very start."
He added that the Society was already preparing to unveil a second Blue Plaque for a prominent woman from the Woodbridge area.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here