Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Anglo Saxon inhumation cemetery found at Beakesbourne Aerodrome 1914-9, and excavated in 1958. A range of grave goods including beads, spears buckles and a hanging bowl were recorded. The finds are in the British Museum and the Royal Museum Canterbury. 5th century until circa 575.

The site lies on the crest of a chalk hill on the SE side of the Stour valley. OD c.40m.

Monument Types

• CEMETERY (CEMETERY, Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD? to 575 AD?)

Associated Finds

• BEAD (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD to 575 AD)
• BROOCH (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD to 575 AD)
• BUCKLE (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD to 575 AD)
• SPEAR (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD to 575 AD)
• VESSEL (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD to 575 AD)

Full description

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TR 200555 Approx: An early Saxon cemetery was excavated by F. Jenkins who examined thirty-three graves out of a total of thirty-six. A strong Frankish element is reflected in the brooches and belt buckles associated with the typically Frankish shoe-shaped belt rivets. Three fragments from a hanging bowl, comprising two identical bronze enamelled escutchions and a large open-work disc were discovered by the late H.Jones of Bekesbourne, "hanging on a nail in a hut on the aerodrome". From this it is supposed they were found by workmen erecting huts circ. 1914-18 and suggests an area in the vicinity of the Saxon cemetery. The ornamentation of these fragments is Irish-Celtic closely parallel at Whitby where a small group cannot be earlier than A.D. 657. Hazeloff suggests second half 7th c. to beginning 8th c. (1,2) The cemetery was centred at TR 19995549 (a), in a part of Cowslip Woodwhich has been cleared. All finds are in the Royal Museum Canterbury.(3)

Andrew Richardson, 2000, Gazetteer of Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries and Burial-Sites in Kent (Unpublished document).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

<1> Arch. Cant. 69, 1955, XLII (OS Card Reference). SKE36944.

<2> Md. Arch. 2, 1958, 69 (S. Chadwick), 72-103 (G. Hazeloff) (OS Card Reference). SKE46718.

<3> F1 ASP 09-FEB-65 (OS Card Reference). SKE42012.

<4> Gaz of Early Anglo-Saxon Burial Sites 1964, 109 (A.L.S. Meaney) (OS Card Reference). SKE43512.

Sources and further reading