ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



bronze, two small circular brooches or buckles, and two small bronze 

 plates riveted together, which once served to pass the owner's waistbelt 

 more readily through the buckle/ 



Excavations at Hunstanton Park ^ have yet to be completed, but 

 promise interesting results. On the summit of a mound, at the depth of 

 two or three feet, a few days' digging has brought to light about a dozen 

 skeletons, with a number of beads, brooches, knives and spearheads, and 

 also fragments of a cinerary urn. The bodies, which had been partially 

 disturbed, had not been uniformly deposited, so that at present no deduc- 

 tions can be drawn from the discovery except that here was probably a 

 mixture or succession of nationalities such as might be expected on the 

 coast at the terminus of the principal trade route in the district. 



The third division comprises burials in which there is no trace of 

 cremation. Not only are the cinerary urns or their fragments entirely 

 wanting in these cases, but the number and condition of the brooches 

 and other relics recovered show that they have not been subjected to the 

 intense heat of the pyre. This seems to be the case at Holkham, a spot 

 that must have been open to indiscriminate attacks from pirates. The 

 evidence is very scanty, but is perhaps sufficient to justify the present 

 classification. As long ago as 1721 several skeletons, with a number of 

 glass beads, iron spearheads and pieces of brass which were no doubt 

 mutilated brooches, were found at the side of a hill in this parish,' and 

 perhaps from the same site were the three square-headed brooches 

 sketched by Stukeley in a volume of Miscellaneous Collectiotis.^ 



Three typical brooches from Sporle are figured in Akerman's Pagan 

 Saxondom^ and are now preserved at the Norwich Castle Museum. One 

 is of the square-headed variety, and practically unornamented ; another, 

 of smaller dimensions, has a cruciform head which is notched like the 

 wards of a key ; and the third is a larger cruciform specimen with what 

 has been called the 'spectacle' ornament at each extremity, consisting of 

 rude attempts at reproducing the human face. They were found all 

 together on the opening of some mounds on a farm called 'Petty Cards' 

 at Sporle in 1820. The name of the farm has been considered a corrup- 

 tion of Peddar's Gate,* and in one of the barrows which seem to have 

 flanked the prehistoric highway known as Peddar's or Pedlar's Way 

 seven skeletons are said to have been discovered, placed side by side ; 

 with some of these were remains of shields ' sufficient to show that 

 they were circular, with wooden laths converging to the centre. To 

 these the leather facing of the shield was apparently fastened with twine 

 or packthread, some yards of which were preserved. The dimensions 



1 "Journal of Archaological Institute, vol. xxvi. p. 288. 



2 Mr. Hamon le Strange, the owner of the property, has kindly communicated the following par- 

 ticulars of his discoveries, which he intends to put on permanent record when complete. 



3 Gough, Additions to Camden, vol. ii. p. 113. 



* Albert Way's Catalogue of Antiquities belonging to the Society of Antiquaries, 18+7, p. 20. 

 ^ p. 69, pi. xxxiv. fig. 1 ; pi. xxxix. fig. 3 ; and pi. xl. fig. I. 

 « Norwich Museum Catalogue (1853), p. 24. 

 ■^ Roach Smith, Collectanea Antiqua, vol. ii. p. 237. 

 I 337 ^ 



