I have always been interested in history, but what seems to have inspired my particular interests in the early history of the English-speaking peoples dates from a solo bicycle-ride to Sutton Hoo in 1965.  I pedalled over to Sutton Hoo again the following year, when Dr Rupert Bruce-Mitford’s excavations were underway, and given a friendly welcome.  This led to a school project and my first visit to the British Museum.  Later the interests kindled at Sutton Hoo were deepened by reading the works of Professor Tolkien, which inevitably led to me to Beowulf.

I had the good fortune to build on these foundations by studying Old English as an undergraduate at the University of East Anglia with Professor Malcolm Andrew.  He then directed me through the early stages of my postgraduate research into the origins of Beowulf, before putting me on the road to Cambridge and the supervision of Professor Michael Lapidge.  Thanks to their scholarly guidance and example, as well as the renewed encouragement of Dr Rupert Bruce-Mitford, I was awarded my Ph.D. at UEA in 1991. I then rewrote my thesis as a book, The Origins of Beowulf and the pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia, published by Boydell and Brewer in 1993. For that I received many positive reviews, including one by Professor Tom Shippey in The Times Literary Supplement, which was published on Waterloo Day that year, and he has been a friend and mentor ever since. My second book, The Reckoning of King Rædwald, followed in 2003.

As well as writing, I have been working as a free lance tutor in Wuffing and Early Medieval Studies (Old English Literature, Language, History, & Archaeology) since 1986, running courses in and around East Anglia. I have also conducted guided site-tours to Sutton Hoo, Rendlesham, and related sites across East Anglia and the wider English landscape. More recently I have been contributing to many Radio and Television programmes, especially Time Team (see further below).

In 2002 I was a co-founder of Wuffing Education, and I have been running study-days live and online ever since. For the current programme, see my homepage or the Wuffing Education pages on Facebook or Eventbrite.

I’ve also been touring far and wide as a lecturer for the National Association of Decorative & Fine Arts’ Societies (now the Arts’ Society) since 2004.

Giving a lift to a pilgrim on my old BMW K75RT on the way to St Botolf’s at Iken, July 2000 (thanks to Alan Lockwood for the picture).

At the Opening of the National Trust’s Visitors’ Centre at Sutton Hoo, March 13th 2002, with Seamus Heaney, who gave such a memorable opening address (thanks to Rosemary Hoppitt for the picture).

Just back from leading a tour of the barrows at Sutton Hoo on Summer 2003 (thanks to Jane Newick for the picture). In the foreground is my wonderful old work-horse BMW R1100RT

On site with Professor Michael Alexander, April 2009, with my replica of the royal lyre of Sutton Hoo (thanks to David Addy for the picture)

Astride my trusty old Beemer during my 1000-mile tour of Scandinavia, Autumn 2011 (thanks to dear Maria of Archaeology by the Way, Gothenberg Museum, for the picture)

Standing in the former sacrificial bog in Finnestorp, Sweden, Autumn 2011 (thanks to Maria of Archaeology by the Way, Gothenberg Museum, for the picture)

Presentations

My academic presentations include the following: the Oxford Sutton Hoo Research Conferences (1987, 1988); the Sutton Hoo Fiftieth Anniversary Conferences [Snape, Cornell, & York] (1989); King’s College London Fontes Anglo-Saxonici (1993); Leeds International Medieval Congress (1994, 1997); Visiting Professorship, 3rd University of Rome (1996); Oxford Conference on the Anniversary of the Coming of St Augustine (1997); Sutton Hoo Society Conference (2002, 2009); NADFAS (from 2004); Gothenberg Museum Conference on North Sea Connections (2011).

Television and Radio

I have appeared in and/or contributed to the following programmes: 

AD1000 (Channel Four, 31st Dec. 1999; repeated on Discovery Channel) 

Ruins (BBC Radio 4, Nov.5th 2000)  

Anglia TV News feature on Sutton Hoo (April 19th 2001)  

The Village (BBC Radio 4, 29th Sept. 2001)  

Making History (BBC Radio 4, 30th Oct. 2001) 

Anglia TV News feature on St Edmund (20th Nov. 2001)  

Blood of the Vikings (BBC 2, 27th Nov. 2001; revised repeat 9th Dec. 2002; also repeated on Discovery Channel)

The Long Search (BBC Radio 4, 27th June 2002)

Making History (BBC Radio 4, 19th Nov. 2002) 

Monarchy (Channel 4, October 2004)

Time Team Special: The King of Bling (2005) – on the East Saxon royal burial at Prittlewell, Essex

The Anglo-Saxon Lyre (BBC Radio 4, 27th Sept. 2005)

Time Team: Eastry, Kent (2005)

Time Team: Islip, Oxfordshire (2006) 

Time Team: Hooke Court, Dorset  (2007) 

Time Team: Wicken, Northamptonshire (2007)

Tony Robinson’s Series on the History of the Law  (2007)

Time Team: Knave Hill, Leicestershire (2008) 

Time Team: Portskewett, South Wales (2008)

Michael Wood on Beowulf (2009)

Time Team: Blythburgh, Suffolk (2009) 

Time Team: Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire (2010) 

Digging for Britain with Dr Alice Roberts (2010) 

Time Team Special: The Real Vikings (2010) 

Time Team: West Langton, Leicestershire (2011) 

Time Team: Bamburgh, Northumberland (2011)

Time Team Compilation: The Way We Lived  (2011)

Time Team Compilation: Burials  (2012)

Time Team: Beadnell, Northumberland (2012)     – for a clip of my experimental attempt at playing a replica of the royal lyre from Sutton Hoo while reciting the Northumbrian version of Cædmon’s Hymn, see http://www.timeteamdigital.com/2011-06-01-10-52-14/updates-day-3/270-tt-05-d3-dr-sam-newton-on-anglo-saxon-music-and-poetry.html    or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-nwqu76hQY

Time Team Special: Secrets of the Saxon Gold (2012) – on the Staffordshire Hoard.

Making History (BBC Radio 4) on the astonishing archaeology of the Iceni in Thetford (2016)

Time Team: Winfarthing (2022)

Time Team: Sutton Hoo (2024)

My Publications

(1) “The Seventh-Century Royal House of East Anglia: A Genealogy”, Saxon, 10 (1989), pp.6-7.
(2) “Beowulf and the East Anglian Royal Pedigree”, The Age of Sutton Hoo, ed. M.O.H.Carver (Boydell, Woodbridge, 1992), pp.65-74.
(3) The Origins of Beowulf and the pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia (Brewer, Cambridge, 1993, 1994, 1999) – see my book-section for reviews.
(4) “The Sutton Hoo Society Trip to Northern Suffolk”, Saxon, 19 (1993), pp.6-7.
(5) “Sutton Hoo and Beowulf“, Saxon, 21 (1994), pp.1-3.
(6) “The Sutton Hoo Society Visit to East Anglia’s South-Western Approaches”, Saxon, 21 (1994), p.5.
(7) “Wés Þú, Éadwin, hál! (An Old English Salute to Edwin Gifford)”, Saxon, 21 (1994), pp.4-5.
(8) “The Sutton Hoo Society Visit to Norfolk”, Saxon, 23 (1995), pp.6-7.
(9) “The 1996 Sutton Hoo Society Visit to Thetford, Ely, and Bury St Edmunds”, Saxon, 25 (1997), pp.5-6.
(10) “The Sutton Hoo Society Outing to Sutton Hoo and related sites in S.E.Suffolk”, Saxon, 27 (1997), pp.6-7.
(11) “King Arthur: a military history (Review Article)” Newsletter of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology & History, 48 (1999), p.12.
(12) “AD 999” (with Paul Sieveking), Fortean Times, 129 (Dec. 1999), pp.40-44.
(13) “An Autumn Excursion to the Kingdom of the East Saxons”, Saxon, 31 (1999), pp.2-3.
(14) “In Defence of the Wuffings: A Review of Martin Carver’s Sutton Hoo: Burial Ground of Kings?” Newsletter of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology & History, 50 (2000), pp.10-11.
(15) The Reckoning of King Rædwald: the Story of the King linked to the Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial (Redbird 2003).

(16) “The Battle of Newmouth and the Lost Viking History of Sudbourne. with a postscript on the place-name Orford“, Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology & History, 42 (2011), pp.292-299. https://independent.academia.edu/SamNewton

(17) “Sutton Hoo: Burial-Ground of Dissidents?”, Saxon, 62 (2016), pp.7-8. https://independent.academia.edu/SamNewton

(18) “The Forgotten History of St Bótwulf (Botolph)”, The Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, 43 (2016), pp. 521-550 .https://independent.academia.edu/SamNewton