ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



at Brighthampton, 25 Oxfordshire, one was found as at Glen Parva, with 

 portions of an ivory armlet. 



The grave also contained two plain bronze rings originally gilt, a pair of 

 bronze girdle-hangers or chatelaines ornamented with stamped rings, two flat 

 pieces of bone with corresponding rivet holes and evidently belonging to a 

 knife-handle, and lastly three bronze brooches of the ' long ' variety with 

 oblong head-plates originally bearing each three bronze knobs. Except for 

 the pin, one is complete with its three knobs in position on the top and side 

 edges of the head. The second has the remains of the iron spring behind 

 the head, through the coils of which passed an axis kept in place by 

 the two side knobs now missing as on the third example. This has the 

 foot in the form of an animal's head and is slightly ornamented on the 

 bow with engraved zigzags : further the wings of the head-plate are separated 

 by incisions which suggest an origin for the cruciform pattern found at 

 Rothley Temple and Stapleford Park in this county. By comparison with 

 Norwegian examples, 86 which are more numerous and more easily dated, the 

 three brooches may be used to date the Glen Parva burials between A.D. 500 and 

 550. The animal head is more common than the splayed terminals of the 

 other two brooches, the latter feature being possibly derived from the Baltic 

 area through Norway. 



Subsequent discoveries on the site, in March, 1871, were reported by 

 Major Knight." In close proximity to the burial just described was found 

 the grave of a warrior buried in the usual manner with his weapons. The 

 double-edged iron sword measured 34 in. in length and retained considerable 

 portions of its wooden scabbard, and a spear-head, 1 1 in. long, was in a good 

 state of preservation ; but no remains of a shield were found, and as the iron 

 boss is generally the only portion surviving in such graves, it is unlikely that 

 the warrior in question carried a shield. In the following year ' part of a 

 Saxon urn, found in a Saxon interment ' in the Kirkdale Close at Glen 

 Parva, was exhibited, but there is nothing to show whether this was a cinerary 

 urn or an accessory vessel placed in the grave with an unburnt body. 



Further details of discoveries on this site were given in i877, 2?a a skeleton 

 having been found near the last. It was that of a man lying on the right 

 side, and having near the skull a vessel or urn of black pottery. The bones 

 were very little decayed, but neither weapons nor ornaments were found. A 

 fourth burial contained the remains of a skeleton much broken, but with the 

 skull tolerably perfect ; and another yielded a well-preserved male skeleton 

 about 5 ft. 8 in. in height, the bones fairly preserved, but the left side turned 

 downwards and much damaged. 



About a mile south-east of this site, in Kirkdale Close, 28 adjoining the 

 canal, another Saxon burial was found, but the only record is that part of an 

 urn from it was exhibited by Colonel Knight in i 872. 



It will now be convenient to approach, along the valley of the Wreak, 

 the district that contains the largest group of Anglo-Saxon sites in the 

 county. Two spear-heads, probably from one or more interments in a 



" Proc. Soc. Antlq. (Ser. i) iv, 231. 



"Haakon Schetelig, Cruciform Brooches of Norway (Bergen, 1906), fig. 62, 30. 

 " Leic. Trans, iv, 113, 187. 27a Leu. Trans, v, 73. 



The field is No. 167 on Ordnance Map xxxvii, 10, f m. E. of Blaby church, on north side of canal, 

 and about J mile S.W. of Glen Parva station. 



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