Exploring Kent's Past

It should not be assumed that this site is publicly accessible and it may be on private property. Do not trespass.

Monument details

Summary

Anglo Saxon composite brooch, possibly associated with the Anglo Saxon Cemetery on Priory Hill, was located at some point before 1879. The brooch dates to between 615-620 A.D. and is of a very high quality, it is now located within the British Museum. (location accurate to the nearest 100m based on available information).

Monument Types

• FINDSPOT (Unknown date)

Associated Finds

• BROOCH (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD to 1065 AD)

Full description

If you do not understand anything on this page please contact us.

Taken from source: The brooch itself is 55mm in diameter and 5mm thick, like other composite brooches, it is made up of two plates sandwiched with a paste or plaster and bound together by a ribbed gold rim. The back plate is silver, with bronze fittings of the usual type for the pin and catch. The heads of pin and catch are lightly grooved. The back of the brooch also has slight traces of a coarse textile in a plain tabby weave. Between this base plate and the hidden inner plate lies a thick layer of whitish paste, apparently a variety of lime plaster, which both bonds the plates and one to another and gives body and weight to the whole structure. The inner plate is of gold. Onto this the cloisons of the face have been soldiered, and it also serves as a base for a further layer of plaster in which the filigree panels and foil backed garnets are set. The front of the brooch is divided into three main zones around a central boss. The two other zones are sub-divided into segments by four subsidiary bosses. The outer zone is a cloisonné band in which each segment is composed of step shaped garnets set around a T-shaped cloison containing opaque blue glass. The garnets are laid over closely hatched gold foil. The middle zone is over twice the width of the outermost zone, and consists of four flat gold plates decorated with minutely wrought filigree. Each plate is edged on all sides and divided lengthwise by band of ‘Pseudo-plait’ filigree, set between narrow beaded wires. The remaining fields are densely packed with S-coils of wire. The innermost zone consists of a further band of cloisonné; here the four T-shaped cells of opaque blue glass recur, alternating with curving fan shaped garnets which are set around a central boss in the form of a cross. The effect is subtly emphasised by the use of differentially patterned foils beneath the garnets; the fan shaped garnets overlie simple cross hatched foils like those used on the outer zone, while the garnets between them and the glass cells are set over a more boldly patterned foil in which every fourth line is a heavy one, producing a tartan effect. The four minor bosses are each attached to this inner band by a single sub-rectangular slab of garnet. All five bosses originally consisted of a dome of a grainy white substance, in this case probably a cuttle-fish bone, surmounted by a cabochon garnet over foil and set in a double headed collar. This sat upon a sturdy tube of god which was embedded into the plaster filling and held down by four splayed tabs at its base. Of the original bosses, only one of the minor ones now survives in anything like its original state; another has gone altogether, and one has been replaced, apparently before the burial, by a crude lumpish carbochon garnet, too big for any of the existing subsidiary settings, and bearing no sign of ever having been set properly at all. The broad gold rim is folded firmly over at the back and front, and decorated with two horizontal grooves, surmounted by a thick beaded wire between the two finer ones. Typologically the brooch dates to c.615-620, the evidence of the pieces acquired with the brooch tallies with this date, though there is no actual record of their being associated with it, they make a convincing grave group. (1)

The Brooch is now located in the British Museum, it is not on display by photos and a description are available on the online collection (2)

<1> S. E. Rigold and L. E. Webster, Archaeologia Cantiana: Three Anglo Saxon Disk Brooches. Vol 85, Arch Cant 85 1970 13-17 (L E Webster) (Article in serial). SKE31917.

<2> The British Museum, British Museum online collection, Museum number 1879,1013.1 (Website). SKE32302.

Sources and further reading

Related records