Page:VCH Leicestershire 1.djvu/295

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ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS at Brighthampton, 25 Oxfordshire, one was found as at Glen Parva, with portions of an ivory armlet. The grave also contained two plain bronze rings originally gilt, a pair of bronze girdle-hangers or chatelaines ornamented with stamped rings, two flat pieces of bone with corresponding rivet holes and evidently belonging to a knife-handle, and lastly three bronze brooches of the ' long ' variety with oblong head-plates originally bearing each three bronze knobs. Except for the pin, one is complete with its three knobs in position on the top and side edges of the head. The second has the remains of the iron spring behind the head, through the coils of which passed an axis kept in place by the two side knobs now missing as on the third example. This has the foot in the form of an animal's head and is slightly ornamented on the bow with engraved zigzags : further the wings of the head-plate are separated by incisions which suggest an origin for the cruciform pattern found at Rothley Temple and Stapleford Park in this county. By comparison with Norwegian examples, 86 which are more numerous and more easily dated, the three brooches may be used to date the Glen Parva burials between A.D. 500 and 550. The animal head is more common than the splayed terminals of the other two brooches, the latter feature being possibly derived from the Baltic area through Norway. Subsequent discoveries on the site, in March, 1871, were reported by Major Knight." In close proximity to the burial just described was found the grave of a warrior buried in the usual manner with his weapons. The double-edged iron sword measured 34 in. in length and retained considerable portions of its wooden scabbard, and a spear-head, 1 1 in. long, was in a good state of preservation ; but no remains of a shield were found, and as the iron boss is generally the only portion surviving in such graves, it is unlikely that the warrior in question carried a shield. In the following year ' part of a Saxon urn, found in a Saxon interment ' in the Kirkdale Close at Glen Parva, was exhibited, but there is nothing to show whether this was a cinerary urn or an accessory vessel placed in the grave with an unburnt body. Further details of discoveries on this site were given in i877, 2?a a skeleton having been found near the last. It was that of a man lying on the right side, and having near the skull a vessel or urn of black pottery. The bones were very little decayed, but neither weapons nor ornaments were found. A fourth burial contained the remains of a skeleton much broken, but with the skull tolerably perfect ; and another yielded a well-preserved male skeleton about 5 ft. 8 in. in height, the bones fairly preserved, but the left side turned downwards and much damaged. About a mile south-east of this site, in Kirkdale Close, 28 adjoining the canal, another Saxon burial was found, but the only record is that part of an urn from it was exhibited by Colonel Knight in i 872. It will now be convenient to approach, along the valley of the Wreak, the district that contains the largest group of Anglo-Saxon sites in the county. Two spear-heads, probably from one or more interments in a " Proc. Soc. Antlq. (Ser. i) iv, 231. "Haakon Schetelig, Cruciform Brooches of Norway (Bergen, 1906), fig. 62, 30. " Leic. Trans, iv, 113, 187. 27a Leu. Trans, v, 73. The field is No. 167 on Ordnance Map xxxvii, 10, f m. E. of Blaby church, on north side of canal, and about J mile S.W. of Glen Parva station. 2 3 I