31 



Early in December last year, a friend brought me a 

 spear head and the umbo of a shield to look at. I at ouce 

 recognised them as belonging to the early Saxon period of 

 our history; and on making further enquiries I ascertained 

 that th&y came from the neighbourhood of Longbridge, about 

 a mile due west from Warwick. The next day 1 visited 

 the place, and found that some workmen engaged in digging 

 for gravel near the engine house of the Sewage Works, in 

 a field belonging to Mr. Staunton, of Longbridge, had ex- 

 humed a skeleton, which, from its peculiar position on the 

 bank between the Avon and the turnpike road, they naturally 

 presumed to be the remains of a murdered man, for around 

 Longbridge and Sherbourne there are many lingering tradi- 

 tions of a famous highwayman who once haunted the spot. 

 As the work proceeded other bones were found, and with 

 them implements of iron, scraps of bronze, iron pot-like 

 basins, and other articles; and though the space of ground 

 uncovered was not more than fifty by sixty feet square, it is 

 certain that the bones of more than thirty persons have 

 been there buried. 



The position where the bodies were found is on a gently 

 sloping bank, which lies between the engine-house of the 

 Warwick Sewage Works and the turnpike road, not far 

 from the narrow belt of trees which here forms the fringe 

 to Warwick Castle Park. The bank in question forms a 

 sort of delta between the Fisher brook and the river Avon, 

 which flows a few yards to the south, and forms at present 

 the boundary of the flood-line of the river, which frequently 

 overflows the broad expanse of meadow land which lies 

 between the engine-house, Barford bridge, and the Sher- 

 bourne road. There is no sign of there being, or ever having 

 been, any mound, barrow, or tumulus on the bank; and, 



