Saxon burial, gravel pit behind Clobb's Row, Broomfield (EHER 5546)

Saxon burial, found in 1888, in gravel pit behind Clobb's Row. The site was excavated in 1894. The grave was dome-shaped, perhaps because of gravel subsidence, and about 8ft (2.4) long with curious extensions at the corners.

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import. Saxon burial, found in 1888, in gravel pit behind Clobb's Row. <1> Workmen digging gravel found remains of a sword, spear and knife 6-7 feet down. The sword's wooden sheath seemed to have been bound with tape-like material. With the sword were a gold pyramid and buckle plate, both set with garnets. Excavation, 1894 The site was excavated in 1894. The northern part of the grave had been cut away. The grave was curiously formed , dome-shaped and with curious extensions at the corners, and was around 8 feet (2.4 m) long. The grave walls were covered with soot or charcoal. At the end of the grave were rows of large flint nodules. Flints and Roman tile fragments were found throughout the fill. A two-handled circular bronze pan 13 inches (33cm) in diameter with iron handles, was found on the eastern side of the centre of the grave. It lay on a mass of folded woollen fabric of two qualities and some coarse material, apparently flax (including perhaps reddish tufts from a hairy cloak, of which there are quantities in the British Museum) and supported by logs of birchwood lying E-W, close together. In the pan were the tips of two cow's horns, two blue glass bowls, two lathe-turned wooden cups with gilt bronze rims. Nearby were two wooden buckets with iron mountings, sunk into the earth. A hemispherical iron cup on a tall stem, with four feet, was found in the middle of the south side of the grave; it was full of a hard, compacted mass of sand. In the south-west corner of the grave was an iron cauldron. At the north end was a sword, spearhead, shield boss and sherds of a wheel- thrown pot, ornamented with an impressed lozenge stamp. Between the pan and the west end of the grave a good deal of very dark matter was found, presumably charcoal, fragments of wood, parts of flat iron bars, angle irons and rivets. No sign of a body, the excavators thought it had been placed in a coffin and then burnt. The finds had no signs of fire damage. Possibly it was a southerly example of a half-burnt burial. <1><2> Listed as an inhumation burial by Meaney. <3> The burial has many similarities to the Taplow, Bucks., burial in its richness and the arrangement of the objects. Both are considered to be 'princely burials'. <3><4><5> Finds in the British Museum. <6> Site Assessment = A potential development site. All applications to date have been rejected. Requires excavation if developed. No immediate threat. <1><7><8> Site visit, 1988 OS published siting located to centre of gravel pit shown on OS 6" 1881. The indicated site of the burial is now an uncultivated field. It is unclear if a small saddle of land in the middle of the field is a natural eminence on which the burial was originally placed, or whether this is quarry upcast. <9> TL 714095. M. Gee for Essex County Council kept a careful watch throughout the removal of topsoil from an area of around 8ha immediately adjacent to the rich 7th-century burial found in 1888. Some 25-30 per cent of the area was found to have been disturbed by earlier quarrying. Some Neolithic/Bronze Age flintwork was found in topsoil. Three oval pits containing early Saxon pottery were found. No further burials were discovered. However, the presence of the pits suggests the existence of nearby settlement which on the basis of the pottery may have been contemporary with the recorded burial. <10> Anglo Saxon gold foils from jewellery at Broomfield listed. <11> Squat glass Anglo Saxon jar illustrated. <12> Description of the 1985 excavations with plans and illustrations. <13> Additional references. <14> <15> <16> One unstratified grass-tempered sherd found in Broomfield churchyard (70501043), dated by Sue Tyler to the 6th to 7th centuries. This gives further indication of settlement. Sue Tyler believes that pottery referred to in <10> is 5th to 6th century. Evidence for ironworking referred to in <10> is very important. <17> A watching brief undertaken by an Essex County Council archaeologist in 1985 found.... some domestic pottery hinting at an otherwise unknown (Saxon) settlement in the vicinity. <18> Additional references <19> <20>