Information for record number MWA649:
Site of Saxon Cemetery on Pleasant Hill, Burton Dassett.

Summary The site of an Anglo Saxon cemetery, dating to the Migration or Early Medieval period. About 35 individuals were found. Some of them were buried with objects which included various pots and a seax. The cemetery was located on Pleasant Hill, Burton Dassett.
What Is It?  
Type: Cemetery, Burial, Inhumation
Period: Anglo-Saxon (410 AD - 1065 AD)
Where Is It?  
Parish: Burton Dassett
District: Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire
Grid Reference: SP 39 52
(Data represented on this map shows the current selected record as a single point, this is for illustrative purposes only and does not represent an accurate or complete representation of archaeological sites or features)
Level of Protection National - Old SMR PrefRef (Grade: )
Sites & Monuments Record
Description

  
Source Number  

1 1908. The remains of about 35 skeletons were discovered on the summit of Mount Pleasant by men quarrying for ironstone. According to the manager, the bodies, with one exception, appeared to have been laid in 2 trenches, the head of one being towards the feet of the other. They were buried in about 1m of gravelly soil. The trenches were due E and W, and the bodies had 'feet towards the dawn'. In two instances they were buried side by side. According to the workmen one skull was found about 2m from the rest of the body. Another had been battered in and had a hole pierced with a weapon of some sort. Most of the skeletons were re-interred near the spot where they were discovered. In one of the trenches were found two kinds of pottery; some of these were of thick reddish brown ware and formed pots of some considerable size, the other kind was rather finer and black [photo in source]. The pottery was dated AD 500-700. About 7m N of the trenches at a depth of 1.2m were the remains of a man grasping a rusty iron weapon. The iron weapon was identified as a seax. Suggested as casualties of a battle in the area though reference also made to burials discovered at nearby 'Gallows/Gibbett Hill'.
2 Leeds had a sketch of an unpublished scramasax, 2.5cm wide, 35.5cm long, found in a grave on the hills at Burton Dassett.
3 Pottery and seax in Warwick Museum.
4 Parts of an Anglo-Saxon pot and iron seax are in Warwick Museum. The skeletons are said to have been exported to America as soldiers slain in the battle of Edge Hill!
5 The seax and fragments of at least 2 Anglo-Saxon pots are in the Warwick Museum stores. The Saxon sherds are the finer black wares mentioned in ref
1. There are also fragments of 2 probable Iron Age pots which are the thick reddish brown ware (PRN 6186).
6 The 2 probable Iron Age pots mentioned in
5 are Anglo Saxon.
7 Letters relating to the sceax.
 
Sources
Source No: 2
Source Type: Bibliographic reference
Title: Gazetteer of E AS Burial
Author/originator: Meaney A
Date: 1964
Page Number: 259
Volume/Sheet:
   
Source No: 1
Source Type: Bibliographic reference
Title: TBAS vol 50
Author/originator: Westacott E C
Date: 1924
Page Number: 58
Volume/Sheet: 50
   
Source No: 7
Source Type: Correspondence
Title: Seax found at Burton Dassett
Author/originator: Carrdus K. A.
Date: 1981
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet:
   
Source No: 4
Source Type: Record Card/Form
Title: Accession card
Author/originator:
Date:
Page Number: A3094
Volume/Sheet: Accession Card
   
Source No: 3
Source Type: Record Card/Form
Title: OS Card 25NE6
Author/originator: Ordnance Survey
Date: 1968
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet:
   
Source No: 6
Source Type: Unpublished document
Title: Unpublished document
Author/originator: Booth P
Date: 1991
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet:
   
Source No: 5
Source Type: Verbal communication
Title: R. Hingley personal comment.
Author/originator: Hingley R
Date: 1988
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet:
   
Images:  
There are no images associated with this record.  
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Glossary

 
Word or Phrase
Description  
source OS Card Ordnance Survey Record Card. Before the 1970s the Ordnance Survey (OS) were responsible for recording archaeological monuments during mapping exercises. This helped the Ordnance Survey to decide which monuments to publish on maps. During these exercises the details of the monuments were written down on record cards. Copies of some of the cards are kept at the Warwickshire Sites and Monuments Record. The responsibility for recording archaeological monuments later passed to the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historic Monuments. back
source TBAS Transactions of the Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society is a journal produced by the society annually. It contains articles about archaeological field work that has taken place in Birmingham and Warwickshire in previous years. Copies of the journal are kept by the Warwickshire Sites and Monuments Record. back
period Iron Age About 800 BC to 43 AD

The Iron Age comes after the Bronze Age and before the Roman period. It is a time when people developed the skills and knowledge to work and use iron, hence the name ‘Iron Age’ which is given to this period. Iron is a much tougher and more durable metal than bronze but it also requires more skill to make objects from it. People continued to use bronze during this period.
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period Medieval 1066 AD to 1539 AD (the 11th century AD to the 16th century AD)

The medieval period comes after the Saxon period and before the post medieval period.

The Medieval period begins in 1066 AD.
This was the year that the Normans, led by William the Conqueror (1066 – 1087), invaded England and defeated Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings in East Sussex.
The Medieval period includes the first half of the Tudor period (1485 – 1603 AD), when the Tudor family reigned in England and eventually in Scotland too.

The end of the Medieval period is marked by Henry VIII’s (1509 – 1547) order for the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the years running up to 1539 AD. The whole of this period is sometimes called the Middle Ages.
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monument SITE * Unclassifiable site with minimal information. Specify site type wherever possible. back
monument INHUMATION * An interment of unburnt, articulated human remains. Use specific type where known. back
monument GRAVE * A place of burial. Use more specific type where known. back
monument MUSEUM * A building, group of buildings or space within a building, where objects of value such as works of art, antiquities, scientific specimens, or other artefacts are housed and displayed. back
monument GALLOWS * A structure used for execution by hanging. Usually two uprights and a cross-piece, from which the offender is suspended by the neck. back
monument CEMETERY * An area of ground, set apart for the burial of the dead. back
monument TRENCH * An excavation used as a means of concealment, protection or both. back
monument BURIAL * An interment of human or animal remains. Use specific type where known. If component use with wider site type. Use FUNERARY SITE for optimum retrieval in searches. back

* Copyright of English Heritage (1999)

English Heritage National Monuments Record