39 



The discovery of these Anglo-Saxon remains has given 

 an impetus to the study of the early history of Warwick. 

 They do not belong to the people who practised cremation 

 and buried their dead in the caves in the rock by the old 

 Priory road. They are earlier than the wearer of that 

 beautiful boss-shaped fibula, which with its accompanying 

 ball of crystal found at Emscote is yet preserved in the 

 Museum at Warwick. A few years ago, bodies were found 

 in Warwick Park, and at Barford, on the other side of the 

 Avon; and that, at Sherbourne, skeletons are frequently 

 revealed by the flooding of the streamlet; but as this is 

 near to the old castle of Fulbrooke, the supposed scene of 

 Shakespeare's deer-stealing exploits, and in an old deer 

 park, it is not thought that there is any connection between 

 the two. 



When the announcement of this discovery was made, it 

 brought to light another Saxon cemetery at Offchurch, situ- 

 ated between the road from Radford to Long Itchington and 

 the Rugby and Leamington Railway, S.S.E. of the church, 

 about 600 yards distant. The graves were found when 

 digging for gravel, but no particulars have been preserved 

 of the direction of the bodies or the number of the graves. 



The remains preserved consist of an umbo of a shield, 

 three bolts which have been used either to fasten the shield 

 to, or have formed studs for the shield itself. There are no 

 holes in the rim of the umbo to correspond. 



There are three spear heads, varying from twelve to 

 seven inches in length. They are of the ordinary type. 

 In one of the smaller the wood of the shaft or staff is yet 

 preserved.. One of the spear heads was found driven verti- 

 cally into the earth, apparently through the body of the 

 buried person. 



