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Portal Avenue, IPSWICH, IP5 3QS

Located in the Suffolk Constabulary Headquarters at Martlesham

Located in the Suffolk Constabulary Headquarters at Martlesham

Looking especially grim and Stalinesque on a cold, grey June morning.

As this is the site of the old Martlesham Heath RAF airfield, I presume these cover fuel tanks buried here.

Despite appearing being to be brand new, these gates appear to be redundant, as the concrete track they cross only goes another 5 metres or so into the woods.

This tumulus is one of the few in this area to have survived destruction during the building of the RAF airfield at Martlesham Heath. It is tucked away in a small plot of land between houses on the north-east side of Portal Road, opposite Suffolk Police HQ. The area is badly overgrown, and it is quite difficult to make out the shape and size of the mound - the mound itself seems to be covered at this time of year by a carpet of dead bracken, brambles and gorse. One can, however, get some idea of the height of the extant mound (perhaps 2 -3 metres?) by comparing the bases of the two silver birch in the middle background of the photo - one grows out on the top of the mound, and the other (closer to the viewer) rests on normal ground level. A survey from 1962 (see the Pastscape record via the thetumulussite.com web link below) shows that nothing much has changed in 50 years: "A large bowl barrow situated on the edge of Martlesham Airfield and much mutilated by slit trenches, etc. The mound has a diameter of 30.5 m and is about 2.0m high. It is bracken-and-bramble covered and has fir trees growing upon it." This is probably what the world-famous Anglo-Saxon burial mounds at nearby Sutton Hoo looked like before they were cleaned up in the 1980s (see Sutton Hoo, Burial Ground of Kings? by Martin Carver). The status of the small patch of land (no bigger than about 20 by 40 metres) on which the mound is sited is unclear - there is a metal fence by the side of the road, but there is also a stile in the fence, so presumably public access is permitted (although it is almost impossible to closely approach the mound itself because of the depth of dead foliage covering the ground). For further information on this ancient monument see the entry on thetumulussite.com: http://www.thetumulussite.com/sm/gazetteer/summary.php?name=186

This was probably once a rather smart private house (there are others further along the road), but it is now a part of the police HQ (and is a sight more attractive than the horrible main building on the other side of the road).

This old lane leading from Portal Avenue is now closed off by the A12 and is part of a cycle route to Martlesham Heath and beyond.