Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemetery identified at Otterham Creek in Upchurch from 1847. Grave goods including glass vessels, a disc brooch, beads and Roman finds including samian and a coin were recorded. Some of the finds are in Maidstone Museum accession number 272:2, 273: 3-4. (see also TQ86NW21).

The lies on the lower part of a gentle west-facing slope, on the eastern bank of Otterham Creek. OD 5-10m, geology gravel.

Monument Types

• INHUMATION CEMETERY (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD to 649 AD)

Associated Finds

• COIN (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• PATERA (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• BEAD (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD to 649 AD)
• DISC BROOCH (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD to 649 AD)
• DRINKING VESSEL (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD to 649 AD)

Full description

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Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemetery identified at Otterham Creek in Upchurch from 1847. Grave goods including glass vessels, a disc brooch, beads and Roman finds including samian and a coin were recorded. Some of the finds are in Maidstone Museum accession number 272:2, 273: 3-4. (see also TQ86NW21).

[TQ 8306 6725] Anglo-Saxon interment found 1852. (1)

One of two glass vessels of evident Saxon manufacture, found in a gravel-pit at the edge of the high ground, at the top of Otterham Creek, near Upchurch, was exhibited by Mr Bland of Hartlip in October 1846. (2)

Otterham Creek. In 1852 a richly furnished grave was found containing a circular brooch of silver-gilt with star centre, a cup of light green glass, amethyst beads, a bottle-shaped pot and a Samian dish stamped TITTIVS.F, a survival from the early part of the Roman occupation. (3)

Note on the 1852 grave. Colour illustration of disc brooch.
Illustration of glass cup. (4)

Two Anglo-Saxon glass squat jars, with trailed decoration, spiral on neck, from Upchurch are in Maidstone Museum, 272:2 and 273:3-4. This type is rare on the continent inferring that a British glass house specialised in this kind of jar, perhaps Faversham. No doubt some of these jars belong to the 6th century, but the majority are not earlier than the 7th century, and the type lasted on into the 8th or even 9th century.

An Anglo-Saxon glass palm-cup, plain with folded rim, outward, from Upchurch was formerly in the collection of J. Woodruff, now lost. This type does not occur before the 7th century. (5)

Upchurch: a Jutish cemetery. A disc fibula inlaid in a star pattern, a green glass cup, amethyst beads, and a piece of Samian ware discovered in 1852. (6)

Siting in Authority 1 checked against Kent Archaeological Society 6" in Maidstone Museum; area now a rubbish dump. Two Jutish glass vessels were seen in Maidstone Museum. (7)

[TQ 828671] An Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemetery. Before 1847 two Saxon glass vessels found near Otterham Creek. 1852: gravel diggers found a skeleton with a silver-gilt and garnet "star" brooch, amethyst beads, a bottle shaped vessel of darkish red
ware, a Samian patera and a glass cup. (See also TQ 86 NW 21) (8)

[TQ 83066725] Anglo-Saxon remains found [NAT] (9)

Andrew Richardson, 2000, Gazetteer of Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries and Burial-Sites in Kent (Unpublished document). SKE29253.

<1> Annotated Record Map (Unspecified Type). SWX20719.

<2> Journal of the British Archaeological Association Vol 1 (1846) - vol 50 (1894) (Bibliographic reference). SKE6336.

<3> Page, W. (ed), 1908, The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Kent Volumne I (Monograph). SKE7882.

<4> C Roach Smith, 1852, Collectanea archaeologica : communications made to the British Archaeological Association (Miscellaneous Material). SKE54253.

<5> Dark Age Brit 1956 (Ed D B Harden) Glass Vessels in Brit AD 400-1000 141 163 (D B Harden) (OS Card Reference). SKE39579.

<6> The Arts in Early England 4 1915 737-8 (B Brown) (OS Card Reference). SKE50102.

<7> OS Card / NAR index (Unpublished document). SKE6461.

<8> A Gazetteer of Early Anglo Saxon Burial Sites 1964 132 (A L S Meaney) (OS Card Reference). SKE32787.

<9> OS 1:10000 1972 (OS Card Reference). SKE48157.

<10> Helen Geake, 1997, The use of grave-goods in conversion-period England, c.600-c.850 (Monograph). SKE54254.

Sources and further reading