ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



In 1812 the discovery of two urns in a piece of ground called 

 ' Black Lands ' near Alcester was reported to the Society of Antiquaries. 1 

 At a little distance from the smaller of the two was found the skeleton 

 of a man ' measuring nearly 7 feet.' By his left side had been placed 

 a long straight sword, which upon being moved broke into fragments. 

 It is said that human skeletons had been frequently met with in digging 

 for gravel, and were generally about 3 feet below the surface. Roman 

 copper coins were of common occurrence in the fields adjoining the 

 town, and it is not at all certain that the urns mentioned above as well 

 as similar specimens unfortunately destroyed by the workmen were not 

 of Roman date and manufacture. In any case this is very slender 

 evidence that both methods of disposing of the dead were adopted by 

 the Teutonic settlers of the district, and it is now impossible to deter- 

 mine whether the urns were of the smaller kind commonly found in 

 unburnt burials of the Anglo-Saxon period, as no measurements or other 

 details appear in the account of the discovery. 



Such are the discoveries that show a certain light on the post- 

 Roman occupation of the tract of country now known as Warwickshire, 

 or at least of the southern part of it which was watered by the Avon 

 and its tributaries and served by two Roman roads. Here are found 

 traces of a people that must have been in close contact with the 

 Teutonic conquerors of the southern midlands, from the lower Severn to 

 the Chiltern hills, and also of another tribe, more or less connected in 

 blood but probably advancing from the north-east coast, who burnt their 

 dead and foreshadowed the southern expansion of Mercia. 



But an exception to the general rule has now to be noticed. 

 In a prehistoric barrow excavated in 1824 at Oldbury near Ather- 

 stone was found a secondary interment, which may without doubt be 

 referred to the Anglo-Saxon period. It was on the east side of the 

 barrow, which at the time of exploration was about 20 feet in diameter 

 at the base, rising in the centre to a height of about 15 feet ; and the 

 iron spearhead and shield-boss 8 which determine the character of the 

 grave were found with human bones 2 feet from the surface. This is 

 the usual depth for pagan burials of the Anglo-Saxon period, but the 

 mounds raised over them were seldom more than a foot or two above 

 the ground. In the first place, this locality is isolated from what were 

 undoubtedly the main seats of the Teutonic conquerors of the county 

 and appears to have a northern connection. According to one historian, 3 

 the Forest of Arden was bounded by an imaginary line from High Cross 

 to Burton-on-Trent, and Oldbury would thus be on the fringe of a 

 difficult district right in the path of an invader from the valley of the 

 Trent or Soar. That the interment in question is of a distinct origin is 

 further suggested by a feature that has been frequently observed in 



1 Arch&ologia, xvii. 33*. 



8 These are figured in Roach Smith's Collectanea Anfiqua, vol. i. pi. xiv. figs. ;, 6 (see also pp. 33, 38) ; 

 Bloxam, Monumenta Sepukhrafta, p. 22, where the discovery is said to have been in 1835. 

 s Wm. Smith, History of Warwickshire, p. 2. 



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