Page:VCH Bedfordshire 1.djvu/235

ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS no handles or any traces of them, unlike another well known class chiefly found in Kent with a pair of drop handles, or a third kind, found in various parts of the country, that had three hooks for suspension attached by means of enamelled discs to the side just below the moulded rim. Discoveries of Anglo-Saxon burials have been made in Toddington parish on several occasions, but all on Sheepwalk Hill. In i 86 1 a skele- ton was found close to a gravel pit there, but the only object associated with it was a bronze spiral finger-ring which was presented to the Society of Antiquaries by Major Cooper Cooper, from whose reports to the society 1 the following account is compiled. At the close of 1883 the ground was opened about 100 yards distant, almost in a direct line be- tween Toddington and Harlington churches, one mile from the former, half a mile from the latter, and one mile north of Foxborough Hill, the site of a Romano-British cemetery. On a spot where a skeleton had been found seven years before, another was discovered lying on a bed of concrete 4-6 inches thick, and not less than 9 feet square. It was nearly perfect and lay face downwards, the accompanying spearhead and knife of iron determining the sex. Close by was a third skeleton lying at right angles to the last and with the head to the south-east. On the shoulder were two bronze brooches 2 of the small square-headed variety, similar to many found at Kempston (as fig. 4). They are of very frequent occurrence, and do not seem to have been confined to any particular locality. A year later bones that had been previously disturbed were found 5 yards off, and on a lower level, 3 feet from the surface, the skeleton of a woman with the head to the north-west. Below the waist lay an iron knife, and an iron object which seems to have been a 'girdle-hanger,' or chatelaine, with holes for attaching a bag of some kind by means of thread. At the head was a small urn (see fig.) rightly described as of Merovingian type, with a white incrustation on a si the inside. Six other skeletons were found here without any article of note, but in a woman's grave about 3 feet from the surface, with the head to the south, was a circular brooch 1 1 inches in diameter (apparently of the ' applied' variety) laid upon the chest, with beads of jet and glass, a bronze pin and two finger- rings. Early records of discoveries at Bedford are imperfect and unpro- 1 Proc. Soc. Antiq. ser. 2, i. 399 ; x. 36, 173. 3 They are compared with fig. 451 (from Peterborough) of LI. Jewitt's Grave-mounds and their contents. 1 185 2 4