A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE 



geological basis of the vast areas known as Sherwood, Arden, and Charn- 

 wood, where no Anglo-Saxon remains are found ; and it is not, therefore, 

 surprising to find that Needwood and Cannock Chase are similarly unpro- 

 ductive. Besides the two coalfields (Cheadle and Potteries) in the north of 

 the county there is an area, mainly east of Leek, consisting of Yoredale and 

 carboniferous limestone rock connected with a much larger area of the same 

 formation in the north-west of Derbyshire. South of High Peak this soil 

 was evidently appreciated by the early Anglo-Saxon inhabitants, who have 

 left numerous traces of their settlements and civilization. South of Ashbourne 

 and Derby is an unproductive area of Triassic formation continuous with 

 central Staffordshire, but Anglo-Saxon cemeteries again appear in the Trent 

 valley at Melbourne and Foremark. 8 



It is with the traces of a further advance up the Trent valley that a survey 

 of post-Roman Staffordshire may best begin ; and the first discovery on entering 



this county from this 

 side has, indeed, been 

 noticed under Der- 

 byshire, as the site 

 has only recently 

 been added to Staf- 

 fordshire. 



The most im- 

 portant Anglo-Saxon 

 discovery in the 

 county was made in 

 1 88 1 at Stapenhill, a 

 village just within 

 the boundary of Bur- 

 ton - on-Trent, 

 though on the Der- 

 byshire bank of the 

 river. 8 The site of 

 what proved to be a 

 cemetery is on the 

 crest of a ridge 1 20 ft. 

 above the level of the 

 Trent and 300 ft. a- 

 bove sea-level. The village lies to the north, the parish church being about 

 half a mile north-north-west; and the burial ground lies between the Stan ton 

 and Rosliston roads, but nearer the former. Plans and details of the burials, 

 with several plates of the antiquities discovered, were published in the follow- 

 ing year by the Burton-on-Trent Natural History and Archaeological Society, 

 and an excellent description of the excavations undertaken by a committee for 

 the society was furnished by Mr. John Heron.* From that account a good 

 deal may be learnt with regard to the first Anglo-Saxon occupation of this 

 part of the county, and the following is a summary, with additional remarks 

 as to similar finds elsewhere. 



1 The distribution is clear from the map of Anglo-Saxon remains in V.C.H. Derb. i, 265. 



* Ibid, i, 266, 273. ' Trans, vol. i, 156-93, plates i-x, and frontispiece. 



200 



nl 



FIG. i. BRONZE BROOCHES, TWEEZERS, AND CHATELAINE, STAPENHILL 



