Scraping at the dirt, earth thick under his fingernails, amateur archeologist Basil Brown came across a section of hard earth.

After further excavations, he found other patches stained with rust, and iron nails and rivets spread intermittently across the site.

Over several weeks, after a delicate and painsteaking operation, archologist Basil Brown saw the shape of a ship emerge from the ground in the Suffolk field.

He had discovered an 86ft Anglo-Saxon burial ship filled with a rich cargo of teasures.

The discovery at Sutton Hoo in 1939 went on to become one of the most important archologicals finds in Britain, hailed as Britain’s ‘Tutankhamun’, and to this day the cache is renowned around the world.

More than 260 items of treasure were recovered in the haul, including weapons, armour coins, jewellery, gold buckles, patterned plaques and silver cutlery.

The most precious find of all was a sculpted full face helmet, leading archologists to conclude the site was the final resting place of a 7th-century royal, probably Raedwald, a king of East Anglia.

The discovery at Sutton Hoo, the richest ship burial ever found in northern Europe, has been turned into a film starring Lily James, Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan.

In 1939 the imprint of an 86ft Anglo-Saxon ship was found in Sutton Hoo, in Suffolk. More than 260 items of treasure were also recovered in the haul, including this helmet, leading the important historical discovery to be hailed as Britain’s ‘Tutankhamun’

Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes star in the Netflix film as Edith Pretty and archologist Basil Brown, which follows the discovery of the Anglo-Saxon ship

The film, released in January, is based on a historical fiction novel by John Preston.

The script follows the discovery of Sutton Hoo’s treasures from the point of view of Preston’s aunt Peggy Piggott, played by Lily James, an archeologist who was bought on to help excavate the ship.

But the real story behind the Sutton Hoo archological dig is just as fascinating as fiction.

In 1939, as tensions were rising in Europe and Britain was on the brink of the Second World War, Edith Pretty became increasingly fascinated with the large grass-covered mounds in the grounds of her home.

The former nurse, who served in France during World War I, had lived in an Edwardian house on the Sutton Hoo estate, near Woodbridge on the estuary of the River Deben, since 1926.

The Anglo-Saxon ship was discovered in a field in Suffolk on the grounds of Edith Pretty’s Sutton Hoo estate

The Anglo-Saxon boat was discovered on the cusp of the Second World War, so archologists were in a race against time to preserve the precious history