Anglo-Saxon History

08/07/2025

Long overdue, but worth the wait!

Bayeux Tapestry will be shown at the British Museum, which will lend treasures to Normandy museums.

23/06/2025

Ovin’s Stone, Ely Cathedral.

22/06/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1YEJdJdnnW/?mibextid=wwXIfr

15/06/2025

The Newent Cross, St Mary’s Church, Newent, Gloucestershire.

Only 11 Old Testament scenes are thought to survive from the pre-Viking period, over half of which survive on just 2 sculptures - the Masham Cross in North Yorkshire, and the Newent Cross in Gloucestershire.

The Newent Cross was found in c.1907, buried upright in the churchyard with approx 12 to 18 inches showing above ground. One suggestion is that the cross was actually found in it’s original location (south side of churchyard adjacent to the main road through Newent), and that it had become buried by a build up of the ground level.

The scenes on the cross shaft are identified as:

Pic 1 - The fall of Adam & Eve
Pic 2 - David slaying Goliath
Pic 3 - Abraham sacrificing Isaac
Pic 4 - Animals, birds, & foliage

The style of the figures with deeply drilled eyes and oval heads, is similar to carvings at Breedon-on-the-Hill (the Angel), Peterborough Cathedral (Hedda Stone), & the Lechmere Stone in Worcestershire. Similarities in the plants at Adam’s feet can also be seen on the Breedon Angel, the Lechmere Stone, and in the font at Deerhurst.

These similarities (and others not shown here) have led academics to date the cross to the 8th/9th century.

12/06/2025

The Newent Stone (aka The Edred Stone), St Mary’s Church, Newent, Gloucestershire.

In 1912, during excavations ahead of building a new vestry, the Newent Stone was found in a grave containing 2 skeletons, with the skull of one resting on the stone.

The stone is thought to be Anglo-Saxon and may have been a portable altar before being repurposed as a pillow stone. Pic 1 shows what may be the legend of the Harrowing of Hell, with the reverse side depicting the Crucifixion (pic 2).

The stone has the Saxon name Edred carved in the top left corner, pic 3, whilst each edge has the name of an evangelist - Mathell, Marcus, Lucas, & Joannes.

Edred has never been identified, however one potential candidate is the Edred who came from Beckford, the church of which belonged to the Abbey of Cormeilles in Normandy. The Priory of Newent was a cell of the same abbey.

The current church at Newent dates from c.1080, however the site has had some kind of religious use from at least the 8th century - the cross in the porch was found buried in the churchyard and according to the church leaflet, dates to c.750. The front of the cross depicts Adam & Eve with what looks like the serpent wrapped around the Tree of Knowledge (pic 4).

04/06/2025

Aethelthryth and Ely Cathedral.

Founded by St. Aethelthryth in c.673, Ely Cathedral is visible from 25 miles away, and is known as the Ship of the Fens. The current structure dates back to c.1083, and is built over the remains of at least 3 other churches.

Born in c.636, Aethelthryth was the daughter of the East Anglian King, King Anna. She was first married to Tondbert, a local nobleman, who gave her the land at Ely as her ‘morning gift’. After his death, she moved to Ely before being married to Ecgfrith, King of Northumbria - both marriages were probably political unions.

According to Bede she remained a virgin throughout both of these marriages and with the help of St Wilfrid, Aethelthryth was able to leave Ecgfrith and eventually return to Ely where she founded a double monastery with herself as the first abbess.

Aethelthryth died in c.680 and was initially buried in a simple grave. 16 years after her death she was exhumed (to be reburied within the monastery church) and her body was found to be incorrupt, thought to be a sign of saintliness. A shrine was built which soon became popular with pilgrims where miracles were said to occur, especially for those suffering from neck or throat illnesses.

Her shrine was destroyed during the Reformation and the location is now marked by a stone set into the floor of the presbytery.

Notable burials at Ely include Aethelthryth’s sisters, Seaxburh & Wihtburh, Byrhtnoth (of the Battle of Maldon fame), & Alfred Atheling (son of Ethelred the Unready).

26/05/2025

This is a satchel mount found in a bed burial of a young woman on Swallowcliffe Down in Wiltshire. The woman was buried in an Bronze Age barrow that was located in a prominent position between the parishes of Swallowcliffe and Ansty. The burial dates to the second half of the 7th century. This burial is in an isolated location and follows a pattern for furnished female burials during this period.

Studies have shown that male furnished burials stopped just as an increase in female furnished burials occurred during this period. Academics have theorised that it was at this time that church burials for men became common and these burials did not require grave goods to show the importance of the man being buried or of those left behind - being buried close to God at a church was enough to show their status.

However, there is some evidence to suggest that women were not buried in churchyards at this time, hence why there was an increase in richly furnished female burials. Bede tells the story of Hildmer, King Ecgfrith’s praefectus, who approached Saint Cuthbert and asked for his wife to be buried in holy ground at Lindisfarne. This story suggests it was not usual for lay women to be buried in church grounds.

Many of the existing parish churches are built upon the earlier Anglo-Saxon churches meaning excavations cannot take place to test this theory of female exclusion, however the development of female religious houses coincided with the ending of furnished female burials which also lends support to the theory of female exclusion during this period - women could now be buried near to churches within the monastic grounds.

Becoming a Christian and being buried near to a church allied you with both a religious and secular power, which meant that the need to show who you were and which group you belonged to was no longer required.

Pic 1&2 Credit: not known

22/05/2025

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20qq4g17vzo

The coin, believed to belong to the Herefordshire Hoard, has been found for sale in Croydon, London.

21/05/2025

20/05/2025

The West Norfolk Hoard.

Lucky to have been invited to attend the press launch of the unveiling of the new West Norfolk Hoard display at Norwich Castle Museum today.

The hoard contains 129 gold coins mostly minted in what is now modern day France, Germany, Switzerland, and the Low Countries. 10 of the coins are from Byzantium, whilst a gold bracteate, a small gold ingot, & 2 pieces of scrap gold complete the hoard. Experts think this may indicate that the hoard was probably a collection of bullion, valued by weight, rather than by face value.

Based on the date of the latest coins, the hoard was buried in c.610. It was discovered over several years by 2 different detectorists (one honest, & one thief!) with the majority of coins being found between 2014 & 2020. The hoard is 1 of only 8 coin hoards of this type known in Europe, and only the 3rd from England. The other 2 are from Crondal in Hampshire (purse containing 101 coins, 1828), and Sutton Hoo (purse containing 37 coins, 1939), making this the largest Anglo-Saxon gold coin hoard found so far.

The coins consist of 118 different designs from 51 different mints - 2 of the coins (from Huys in Belgium, & Sion in Switzerland) are identical to 2 found in the Sutton Hoo Mound 1 burial (same die used).

These are some of the first type of coins made & used in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire, & pre-date the first gold coinage made in Anglo-Saxon England. Experts say that the hoard will help transform our understanding of the early English economy and European trade & exchange networks.

Declared treasure by the coroner in 2021, the hoard was able to be acquired with help from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Wolfson Foundation, the Art Fund, the V&A Purchase Grant Fund, and the Friends of Norwich Museums, and is now on display in Norwich Castle Museum in the Anglo-Saxon & Viking Gallery.

Image Credit: Norfolk Museum Service & David Kirkham.

Words taken from the official press release.

14/05/2025

Staffordshire Hoard Folded Gold Strip.

The strip is 17cm long and 2mm thick, probably solid gold. At one end is a d-shaped gem setting flanked by serpents. Along the length are 3 fixing holes suggesting that the strip was attached to another object.

Both sides have Latin inscriptions, however only one side is complete, with the inscription highlighted with a black niello inlay. The reverse side inscription looks to have been abandoned before it was finished. Differences in both texts indicate that each inscription was done by different people, however, mistakes in the formation & spelling suggest that neither of the scribes were copying from a manuscript and may have been relying on memory alone.

The inscription on the obverse reads as:

‘Surge. dne. disepentur inimici tui et fugent qui oderu ntteafacie tua’

With normal word separation, this would read as:

‘Surge domine disepintur inimici tui et fugent qui oderunt te a facie tua’

It is thought that this is a citation from Numbers 10.35 that has been either misremembered, or changed to read:

‘Arise, O Lord, and may your enemies be torn apart and those who hate you will flee from your face’

It is probable that the strip is all that remains of a cross that was attached to a reliquary or maybe even a pole with each arm of the cross having an inscription of some kind.

The research report published in 2019 dedicates 6 pages to this object (cat no. 540), unfortunately there is not enough room here to replicate all the findings!

09/04/2025

These are 3 of the items discovered as part of the Staffordshire Hoard in 2009. All of them are part of a swords fitments although their exact use is not known it is possible that they were used as scabbard fastenings.

Pictures 1 & 3 are both pyramid fittings, one low and the other tall. Picture 2 is a button fitting. Pyramid fittings are the most common item of Anglo-Saxon weapon accoutrements found in England, however, button fittings tend to be a lot rarer suggesting that they were popular for a much shorter period of time.

The standard of craftsmanship of all of these items has led the Hoard research team to suggest that they may have all come from one workshop, possibly even the one that produced the pyramid and button fittings that were found with the sword in Mound 1 at Sutton Hoo - the low pyramid fitting also uses garnets and blue glass within the decoration which is a feature of early cloisonné work in England and helps to date them to the early 7th century.

Tall pyramids are unknown in graves (their usage occurs after furnished burials stop happening) and are thought to be a later phase of the pyramid usage dating to sometime in the 8th century.

Pic credit: unknown

Weapons Museum History