ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



grave was found in land adjoining a Roman cemetery. It contained a 

 skeleton with the ordinary weapons of iron/ shoe-shaped studs, a 

 heavy buckle, and one object of extreme interest. This was a bronze 

 cylinder formed of thin plates riveted together and embossed six 

 times in all with a group of three figures, of which the central one is 

 seated and nimbed, the others standing with hands crossed on the breast. 

 Above the head of one is a cross, of the other a bird carrying a wreath ; 

 and below there is a border of foliage and birds. Both the lid and base 

 are wanting, and there is one ring for suspension, so that it may well 

 have been the lip of a drinking horn.° The subject is not quite clear, 

 but its Christian character is evident, and the work should be compared 

 with the stoup from Long Wittenham.' 



A further discovery* was made in 1859 when the railway was 

 cut between Strood and Cuxton, one mile west of Temple Farm. A 

 grave contained a skeleton with head at the north-west end, and a 

 spear-head and ferrule, knife, bronze buckle, shield-boss, urn of Kentish 

 type and one of the rare iron weapons usually called angons : this last, 

 with an iron buckle, is in the British Museum. 



Five miles due north of Strood, at Cliffe-at-Hoo, railway excava- 

 tions near the Rectory in 1880 brought to light an Anglo-Saxon 

 cemetery, from which very little was recovered. An iron spear-head, 

 the bronze fittings of a belt, a bronze disc with raised concentric circles 

 (evidently the base of a Roman skillet), and two coins, of Nero and 

 Maximian, passed into the hands of Mr. William Wood, but much 

 more was probably carted away with the large quantity of bones dis- 

 covered.' 



Horton Kirby lies about 9 miles west of Strood, and in 1866-7 ^" 

 Anglo-Saxon cemetery was discovered north of the railway between the 

 Farningham Home for Boys and the river Darenth." Of about twenty- 

 five graves opened most were cut east and west, the feet being at the 

 east end, but at least two had the feet towards the north and one to the 

 south-west. As the chalk is here very hard, the graves were compara- 

 tively shallow, and it was observed that they were very short, those of 

 the women being little more than 4 feet long, so that the body was 

 bent at the head and feet. Several of the interments were devoid of 

 relics, and the rest were but poorly furnished, there being no spear- 

 heads, swords or jewelled ornaments found till the latter part of 1867. 

 About eleven more graves, then discovered,' yielded a flint spear-head, 

 an axe-head, several knives and bronze brooches, one large and hand- 

 some belt-clasp, bronze mounts of sheaths, many beads, a hemispherical 

 cup of bronze without stem or handle, three urns, and among other 

 items, a large shield-boss. The form of the urns is not specified, 

 but as the largest lay at the right shoulder of a skeleton and a small 



1 Several figured Coll. Ant. ii. 158, pi. xxxvi. ; coffer, fig. I. 



2 Dr. Haigh considered it the mouth of a quiver {Arch. Cant. viii. 220, note). 



3 V.C.H. Berks, i. 230. ■> Coll. Ant. v. 129, pi. xi. ; Arch. Cant. ii. xli. 



= Arch. Cant. xiii. 502, " Arch. Joum. xxiv. 281. ' Ibid. xxv. 94. 



I 377 48 



