BRONZE-GILT BROOCH FROM 

 HOLME PIERREPONT. 



A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



With the exception already noticed, the brooches were of well-known 

 Anglo-Saxon types, a gilt example of the square-headed variety, about 

 4! in. long, being illustrated (see fig.), and resembling specimens from the 



northern midlands and eastern counties. As it 

 appears to have been enriched with seven settings 

 of stone or glass, the resemblance to one found 

 at St. Nicholas, near Warwick, 1 is all the more 

 striking. This form of the square-headed brooch 

 belongs to the first half of the fifth century 

 here and in Scandinavia, and closely resembles one 

 from Kenninghall, Norfolk.' From among many 

 smaller brooches discovered at Holme Pierrepont 

 one with a trefoil head is illustrated (see fig.), and 

 belongs to a type represented in Northants. 8 All 

 were of bronze, with iron pins, and present 

 evident traces of a woven fabric on the back, 

 indicating that they had been deposited with an 

 unburnt body in the grave. The buckles men- 

 tioned were probably quoit-shaped brooches such 

 as have been found in many parts of England. 

 Numerous glass beads of various forms and 

 colours, as well as one or two of rough amber, 

 are mentioned, and two larger ones had the 



somewhat rare mosaic pattern, made in the same way as the millefiori 

 glass of the Roman period. 



Some pieces of bronze that had apparently been riveted to the sides 

 of small bronze buckets for the attachment of handles were another 

 interesting item, as they probably belonged to a bowl with 

 three hooks for suspension, such as were found at Chester- 

 ton, Warwickshire. 4 Circular enamelled plates are some- 

 times found which were attached to the side of the bowl 

 inside a frame of which the hook formed part ; but as there 

 is no mention of enamel here, the present example may have 

 resembled one from Hawnby, N. R. Yorkshire, in the 

 British Museum, which has plain attachments. 



In 1839 a discovery of human burials was made in 

 the neighbourhood of Cotgrave and Normanton, immedi- 

 ately on the line of the Roman road known as the Fosse 

 Way, at a point about nineteen miles from Leicester and 

 about thirty from Lincoln. The following account was PIERREPONT. 

 communicated to the British Archaeological Association ' 

 by Mr. Thomas Bateman some years later. Three skeletons were found 

 within a hundred yards, and a fourth about a quarter of a mile distant. 

 They were interred at full length in the line of the road (which here 



1 V. C. H. Wano. i, 258, fig. 6 on plate : Akerman, Pag. Sax. rx, I. 



1 r. C. H. Norfolk, i, 340, fig. 5. * V. C. H. Northanti, i, 243. 



4 y. C. H. Wane, i, 258, figs. 8, 9, on plate. * Joum. iii, 297. 



196 



