Tudor Voices on the River Orwell

Bringing a medieval document to life

Dr Tom Johnson of the University of Oxford has been researching the death of Richard Astill, a young man from Suffolk who died in a boating accident on the river Orwell in 1518.

The death of this humble oyster-fisherman from Woolverstone resulted in an official inquest by the Tudor admiralty; an inquest with written witness statements made by local people, recorded on a legal document and still preserved 500 years later at Suffolk Archives .

We would like to work with the local community to bring this intriguing medieval document to life through a series of events in 2026.

The Tudor Voices on the River Orwell project seeks to:

Invite local people to be recorded narrating the witness testimonies contained in the document
To organise soundwalks where the recorded voices can be heard in situ
To hold a lecture about the inquest at a local venue
To compose a musical interpretation of the event, and to perform this at a local venue

The Death of Richard Astill

Richard Astill was a local fisherman who was probably from Woolverstone, and who drowned in the Orwell estuary on the first Thursday of Clean Lent (25th February) in 1518 when a ship, the John Evangelist of Harwich, crashed into his oyster-boat.

The weather that day was terrible, but Richard and William Short were out on the Orwell dragging for oysters in their small boat. Violent winds combined with a low tide to make maneuvering the John Evangelist very difficult as it sailed up river towards Ipswich. The large ship collided with the much smaller oyster boat causing it to sink. Richard was thrown into the water and drowned. But who was at fault for this terrible accident?

Local people, including his friend William Short who survived the accident, gave their version of events at the inquiry which was held in Shotley.

Five hundred years later, their words still survive.

A detailed explanation of the inquest is available as a pdf here

The Inquest Document

The inquiry was written on a large roll - it is around fourteen feet long unfurled - and contains the judicial commissions, proceedings, evidence, and final judgment in the case.

An example extract taken from the testimony of William Short of Woolverstone:
"... this deponent, sailed along by the shore upward nay so far as Woolverstone and there cast their drag, and so spent their time so long [there] till the same ship was at Pin Mill, that was not fully a quarter of a mile from the said boat. So that time the same Richard and William this deponent perfectly perceived the same ship, called The John Evangelist, coming towards them under sail, nor unto them about the maintenance almost of a quarter of a mile, and that same time, after they had hauled up their drag, they set at land at Woolverstone a minstrel which desired to go on the water, to sport him for his pleasure."

Recording the witness testimonies

We have now recruited nine local volunteers to be recorded reading out the witness testimonies.

Two recording sessions will be held at a professional studio in Silent Stage studio in Shotley on Friday 9th and Saturday 17th January 2026. Each session will run from 10am to 2pm, and volunteers only need to attend one session for around 30 minutes.

Each volunteer would record one of the witness testimonies in both the original Tudor text, and in a translation in modern English. We are using a studioso that we can capture the best quality recordings without any background noise.

We have secured the services of a voice coach to assist with medieval pronunciation!

The testimonies vary in length, with the each taking around five minutes to read aloud.

Scripts will be distributed in advance to allow people to become comfortable with the text. I can also print and post a copy of the script.

The final recordings would then be used as part of a geolocated sound walk along the bank of the Orwell, in a musical performance and at a lecture in a local venue. They will all be added to the Suffolk Archives.

Get in touch

If you are local, or have ties to, the Shotley Peninsula and would like to be involved in some way, please contact Matt Shenton by completing this contact form

View of the river Orwell at Woolverstone