“Anglo-Saxon Burials at Willoughby on the Wolds ”
March 2002 Meeting Report
Guest Speaker - Keith Barton
The March meeting of the Keyworth & District Local History Society began with the Annual General Meeting. Keith Barton, the Society’s Chairman, presented his annual review of the Society’s year and conducted the elections for those offices within the Society, which were vacant. He then stood down as Society Chairman having fulfilled that role for the mandatory two years. The current Vice-Chairman, David Charles, then thanked him for his contribution to the Society and officially took up office, and replaced him as Chairman of the Society.
The meeting then continued with a slide presentation and talk by Keith Barton on his personal experiences of the excavation of Anglo Saxon graves at Willoughby-on-the-Wolds. The audience were told how a farmer near Willoughby decided to try to plough some of his land, which had remained uncultivated for as long as anyone could remember. The land in question was next to the A.46 Fosse Way where the road branches off for Willoughby. Whilst ploughing several skulls were unearthed and these were identified as being very old. A local expert, Malcolm Dean, was called in and with the help of several sixth form students the site was explored. At the same time road improvements were taking place on the A.46 and these caused the site of the dig to be extended. In all over 100 burials were unearthed, making the site one of the richest Anglo Saxon burial sites in the region.
It was something of a coincidence that, as a result of road improvements, a part of the original Roman Fosse Way was uncovered on the site of the dig. On the site of the excavations the path of the current Fosse Way is some fifty or sixty metres away from the original Roman road. The structure of the Roman thoroughfare was very well preserved and the Roman construction could be clearly identified.
The Anglo Saxons that inhabited our region, so the audience were informed, comprised of two separate tribes. One tribe had its origins in the North and extended southwards towards our locality. The other tribe had its origins in the South and spread northwards into our part of the country. Thus, both tribes settled our region. One of the main differences between the two tribes was the manner in which they disposed of their dead. The Northern tribe cremated their dead and placed their remains in pot urns. The Southern tribe buried their dead in shallow graves. In the East Midlands evidence of both tribes exists. Graves have been found at Cotgrave, (19 burials), and Rutland, (25 burials). At Barton-in-Fabis evidence suggests that the two tribes co-existed in the locality.
One of the more remarkable features of the skeletons, which were unearthed at the Willoughby site, was the size of the adults. In general the males were over six feet tall whilst the females were over five feet eight inches tall. Apparently there is a tradition, in Willoughby, of the males being exceptionally tall; the specimens from this dig would tend to suggest that this is not a recent phenomenon. Many of the skeletons were incomplete, hands and feet being the parts, which were most often missing. This is attributed to the belief that, as the bodies were buried in such shallow graves rats and other small rodents were able to get at the bodies and eat the smaller bones. Indeed, many of the bones from the hands and feet, which had survived, had evidence of gnawing on them. A sure sign of rodent activity. Many of the skeletons also had parts missing, this being a result of agricultural activity, i.e. ploughing had taken its toll of skulls and lower limbs. One or two skeletons bore testimony to having had fence posts erected through the site of their burials with the consequent loss body parts.
One particularly interesting skeleton was that of a woman whose head had been severed and placed at her feet. The hands appearrred to have been tied behind her back and large stones placed over the corpse. These are all classic signs of the burial of a supposed witch. Another common feature of the graves was the profusion of earthenware pots with food; usually grain, which had been placed with the bodies to provide them with food for their journey into the afterlife. Many of the bodies had grave goods buried with them. These usually took the form of spears and knives for the men and combs and jewellery for the women. A large number of infant skeletons were also discovered. There were also a few skeletons of horses, which had been buried with their owners.
At the end of the talk the audience were shown of few examples of the artefacts that had been unearthed during the dig. These unfortunately were few in number due to a very tragic accident. The person largely responsible for the organisation of the excavations was Malcolm Dean, a local man of considerable knowledge of Anglo Saxon life in the region. He was sadly killed in a car accident on the Fosse Way at the time of the excavations. The vehicle that he was travelling in was in collision with a lorry and caught fire as a result of the crash. Many colour slides and other records relating to the dig were lost in the ensuing fire with the result that there is now precious little evidence of the dig itself.
When the talk was completed a few of the surviving artefacts from the dig were exhibited for the audience to view. These were mainly in the shape of pieces of pottery, though a bronze hairpin was of particular interest. During the excavations the weather had been remarkable fine with the result that quite large numbers of visitors had attended the site. One unfortunate result of this was the amount of material that had been stolen from the site, (including a whole skeleton!). All in all the talk was very interesting and was very well received by an enthusiastic audience.