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A SAXON CEMETEEY AT "THE FOX," PUETOK 



By Mes. M. E. Cunnington and The Eiv. E. H. Goddakd. 



Some little distance to the east of Purton Church, and Piirton 

 House, lie a number of cottages and a farmhouse known as "The 

 Fox." Opposite these and on the other side of the road is the Quarry 

 Field, formerly arable, but now laid down to pasture. A considerable 

 portion of this field has been quarried to a depth of perhaps 15ft. 

 or more. The size of the quarry shows that it has been open for 

 very many years, possibly for centuries, and good building stone 

 was formerly got out in quantities from the Ipwer strata. The 

 rock is coral rag and there is in the flat unquarried portion of the 

 field only a depth of about ] Sin. of earth and smaller rubble above 

 the rag. For the last twelve or fourteen years skeletons have 

 from time to time been exposed in the process of quarrying — per- 

 haps, say the quarrymen, six or seven in all — but nothing seems 

 to have been found with them, or at all events nothing is remem- 

 bered except three coloured glass beads found with a skeleton some 

 ten years ago, which passed into the hands of Mr. James H. Sadler, 

 of Lydiard Millicent, the owner of the property, and have now been 

 lost sight of. No notice, indeed, seems to have been taken of the 

 interments until the finding, in January, 1912, of an unusually 

 perfect skeleton accompanied by an iron seax or short sword. 

 Accounts of this find appeared in the papers, and Mr, and Mrs. 

 J^). H. Cunnington's attention having been called to it, they went 

 to Purton and investigated the matter on the spot. 



On arrival they found the remains of a skeleton (No. 1.), and the 

 objects discovered with it in a cottage at " The Fox." The skeleton 

 seemed to have been complete, though the bones were then in a 

 fragmentary condition and much decayed. The two men who had 

 unearthed it showed the spot where it had been found ; they said 

 it was laid at full length on its back, and 1ft. or 18in. beneath the 

 turf ; they could not say in what positions the objects found with it 

 had been placed. These consisted of an iron seax, or short sword, 

 with blade, tang, and pommel of handle all in one piece ; the blade 

 is stout, single edged, and tapering to a point, 14fin. long, and 

 2in. at its greatest width ; the tang and pommel together are 7Jin., 



