ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



As long ago as 1757 relics of the Saxon period were brought to 

 light at Desborough.' In a gravel-pit on the north side of the parish at 

 a depth of about two feet were discovered several entire human skeletons, 

 with a number of amber and glass beads lying near the breast-bones of 

 one of them. Also, an iron ring with several ' brass clasps,' which were 

 supposed to have connected the garments in which the deceased was 

 buried. In the same pit were found tv/o urns containing bones and 

 ashes, and Desborough must therefore be classed with Brixworth, 

 Holdenby, Clipstone and Northampton, as exhibiting traces of both 

 methods of burial in vogue among the Teutonic invaders of this part of 

 the country. 



Many interments were discovered in another part of the same 

 village in 1865, accompanied by articles of bronze, but the relics were 

 dispersed and no adequate description published. By far the most impor- 

 tant discovery was made about the year 1876 in a grass field close to the 

 village, about 300 yards east of the parish church, and within an area 

 which appears to have been an ancient encampment.* A parallelogram 

 of about four acres could at that time be distinctly traced by the fosses 

 faintly indicated in the pasture, where left undisturbed by the diggers 

 for ironstone. Within the enclosure a number of ancient interments 

 were found, the bodies not having been buried in coffins, but simply laid 

 in pits sunk in the baring or top-soil. The position of the graves was well 

 marked, as they were filled up with black earth, contrasting with the tawny- 

 coloured mass. At the bottom of these dark patches the skeletons were 

 usually found very decayed and friable, and many of the graves were empty 

 or contained nothing but a few fragments of bone, with occasional pieces 

 of coarse pottery and burnt stones mixed with the earth. The sepulchral 

 trenches, of which a plan is given in the original account, were roughly 

 made, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, invariably running to 

 the east and the south-west. Where there were skeletons, the feet were 

 to the east, but in all the pits appeared traces of fire in the shape of 

 pieces of stone burnt red, either ironstone or a kind of freestone not 

 found in the village. In one instance a pit, found to be empty, was 

 lined with clay at the bottom, and in this were embedded stones set 

 edgewise and presenting traces of fire. In all about sixty interments 

 were found in the enclosure, and in two of them were discovered some 

 very remarkable objects now preserved in the national collection. Of 

 these the finest and most interesting is a gold necklace (fig. 2), which 

 lay disconnected near the head of a skeleton. It consists of thirty- 

 seven pieces, viz., seventeen barrel-shaped or doubly conical beads, 

 slightly varying in size, and made of spirally coiled gold wire ; two 

 cylindrical beads of similar make, which have been connected with the 

 clasps ; nine circular pendants of gold, convex on one face and flat on 

 the other, some with beaded edges and all provided with hoops by 

 which they are strung ; eight gold pendants of various shapes and sizes, 

 set with garnets and suspended by loops of delicate work, all the edges 



1 Gentleman's Magazine, 1757, p. 21. * Archaologia, vol. xlv. p. 466. 



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