Della Hooke

The ‘Staffordshire Hoard’: the Fieldwork

Abstract The Staffordshire Hoard was found by a metal detectorist on arable land in the parish of Ogley Hay in south Staffordshire in July 2009, and was recovered by archaeologists from Staffordshire County Council and Birmingham Archaeology. More than 3,940 pieces were retrieved, mostly of gold or silver alloy and mostly representing what appear to be martial battle goods. The date of the material has yet to be ascertained but the artefacts appear to range from the late sixth to the early eighth centuries AD. The reasons for burial remain, as yet, largely unknown. The choice of location, on the north-western spur of a prominent ridge, could have been intended to facilitate its rediscovery, unless the locale held a symbolic significance within the wider landscape. The second stage of fieldwork, in March 2010, identified a number of undated field boundaries and undated palisade trenches perhaps associated with a small farmstead of pre- or post-Roman date, unlikely to be associated with the hoard. Résumé Le soi-disant Trésor du Staffordshire fut découvert par un détecteur de métaux sur des terres arables dans la paroisse de Ogley Hay, au sud du Staffordhire, en juillet 2009, et fut récupéré par des archéologues du conseil régional du Staffordshire et de Birmingham Archaeology. Plus de 3,940 objets ont été récupérés, pour la plupart en alliage d’or ou d’argent. La date du matériel reste encore à établir mais les objets fabriqués semblent dater du milieu du sixième siècle au début du huitième siècle. A l’heure actuelle, les motifs de l’enterrement et du choix de l’emplacement restent largement inconnus. Cette courte communication offre un aperçu des circonstances de la découverte et de la récupération du trésor et donne un résumé de son contexte archéologique. Zusammenfassung Der sogennante ‘Schatzfund von Staffordshire’ wurde mit Hilfe eines Metalledetektors auf Ackerland in der Gemeinde von Ogley Hay in Südstaffordshire im Juli 2009 gefunden, und von Archäologen des Staffordshire County Council und Birmingham Archaeology ausgegraben. Es wurden über 3,940 Objekte geborgen, die meisten aus Gold oder Silberlegierung. Das Datum der Herkunft dieser Funde wird noch untersucht, aber erste Befunde weisen auf einen Zeitraum von der Mitte des sechsten bis ins frühe achte Jahrhundert hin. Die Gründe der Einlagerung oder die Auswahl des Begräbnisortes sind bis jetzt unklar. Diese kurze Abhandlung beschreibt die Umstände der Entdeckung und Bergung des Hortfundes und fasst den archäologischen Kontext zusammen.

Pre-Conquest estates in the west Midlands: preliminary thoughts

Abstract Pre-Conquest charters from the est Midlands provide evidence which cannot be revealed by archaeological means of the type of administrative organization within the Hwiccan kingdom. Estates comprising a number of parish units may be reconstructed but appear to have been carved out of larger territorial divisions. Nodal areas, frequently in riverine locations, appear to have been linked to areas of secondary development in more heavily wooded countryside. This association between complementary regions gave rise to a system of organization based upon sound economic foundations and the resulting pattern of regional complementarity was still apparent in the landscape at a later period. Fragmentation of administrative units was well-advanced by the mid-Anglo-Saxon period and minor units of parish or subparish size had come into being, many of which were clearly recognized as independent communities. In some areas these units had become well-established early enough for their boundaries to influence those of the ecclesiastical parishes. In the secondary areas subdivision occurred at a later date and yet other areas remained largely undeveloped without lasting demarcation. The charters also show, however, that settlement had been established throughout the Hwiccan kingdom by the later Anglo-Saxon period, with a number of minor settlements in existence beyond any village nucleus.

Early Cotswold woodland

Abstract Many “wold” names are derived from the OE wald, meaning “woodland”. In a recent paper Everitt examined the evidence for Kent and suggested that areas of wold downland had been wooded in the Anglo-Saxon period. They had also been territorially linked to river-estates as areas of outlying wood-pasture. The present paper examines the evidence for the Cotswolds. Here the name “wold” is applied to an area which was largely open pasture by the medieval period and the use of the term in its later sense of “high, open country” would not have been out of place. Yet the evidence from early place-names and pre-Conquest charters suggests that a great deal of woodland was present in the Anglo-Saxon period, especially in the valleys dissecting the escarpment and along the scarp face. Although this was a watershed area, divided between adjacent valley-based estates, as in Kent, there is little direct evidence here of an early interest in woodland-pasture. The importance of the area seems to have arisen in the middle and later Anglo-Saxon period as a result of an increased use of the upland for sheep pasture. Nevertheless, the term “wold” seems to date from an earlier period when woodland was indeed extensive.

The Staffordshire (Ogley Hay) hoard: recovery of a treasure

The Staffordshire (Ogley Hay) hoard was found on the 5–10 July 2009 by Mr Terry Herbert while metal-detecting on arable land at a site in south Staffordshire in the English Midlands (Figure 1).Mr Herbert contacted Duncan Slarke, the Portable Antiquities Schemes Finds Liaison Officer for Staffordshire and the West Midlands, who visited the finder at his home and prepared an initial list of 244 bags of finds. These were then taken to Birmingham Museum and HM Coroner was informed. Duncan Slarke also contacted the relevant archaeological authorities including English Heritage, the Staffordshire Historic Environment Record, the Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and the Portable Antiquities & Treasure Department at the British Museum. A meeting was held in Birmingham on 21 July at which it was agreed that the controlled recovery of the remaining objects of the hoard and an archaeological investigation of the findspot was a priority. It was also agreed that one of the Portable Antiquities Schemes National Advisors, Dr Kevin Leahy, should compile a hand-list of finds in preparation for the Coroners Inquest.

Royal Forests – Hunting and Other Forest Use in Medieval England

Hunting in wooded regions was a major part of the lives of kings and their followers from early medieval times. Under the Norman kings huge areas were deliberately set aside for this purpose. It gave rise to a rich body of documentary evidence and literary works, playing a noteworthy role, too, in medieval lore and legend. The use of the woods for pasture was not normally precluded by this usage. However, economic forces were increasingly to conflict with the preservation of so much woodland and the forest law that was so restrictive, especially the requirement for additional land for agriculture. Deer-parks were enclosed and forests diminished in size and in later historical times the latter were seen primarily as a source of timber. Hunting itself, however, continued but in a very different form, moving to the rural countryside over most of lowland England until it faced present-day legislation.

The Sutton Hoo story: encounters with early England

empirical evidence rather than theory, and as a consequence there are certainly some parts of the collection where conceptual issues deserved greater emphasis, although for the most part the interpretations and conclusions drawn are full of insight drawn from deep knowledge of difficult evidence. Not all of the content of this book is for the faint of heart, and archaeological readers will certainly find the technical elements of some contributions challenging. Nevertheless, most contributions have done a good job of communicating their specialism, and the editors should be commended for bringing together such an excellent array of scholarship.

Groves in Anglo-Saxon England

ABSTRACT Sacred tree cults, including those concerning groves, have a long-established history in the Classical World, lingering on in England under Roman rule; groves had also played a central role among the Druids in late Iron Age Britain. However, such ‘pagan’ beliefs involving trees were to be curtailed under Christianity, especially following the late tenth/eleventh-century reforms within the Catholic Church. In early medieval literature woods were generally (but not always) seen as dangerous wilderness areas, places likely to try the faith of hermits. Early medieval documents and place-names are more pragmatic: the terms used are often indicative of the nature or use of woods and the grāf term seems to have been used for relatively small managed woods that often appear to have been coppiced for timber and small wood.

Founders: Oliver Rackham

In 1986 Oliver Rackham published The History of the Countryside. For many of us – those who had not had the privilege of being taught by him – his confident stride out of the woods into the wider countryside beyond was a surprise, but the 445-page book was unmistakably his from the moment you opened it and saw his distinctive hand-drawn figures with their black-lettered labels. And wherever your eye fell on the page you were drawn in to read on, by the detailed yet vivacious prose, by the firmly expressed opinions, and perhaps most of all by the tumble of things you never knew about the countryside: nature, man and landscape in combination. The book was an enormous success, attracting praise from a wide range of reviewers. It was a surprise best-seller (reprinted twice in 1986) and winner in the same year of the Angel Literary Award. Soon it appeared in paperback and has rarely if ever been out of print since. For Richard Mabey it was ‘a classic of scholarship and imagination...a monumental work...written with humanity, dignity, concern and a great deal of humour’. What is so noticeable, looking through the reviews 30 years on, is how many of the writers rehearsed long strings of individual sentences or phrases which had caught their eye, whether new-found truisms, or deliberate provocations: ‘A moment’s thought will show that the average English country churchyard will contain at least 10,000 bodies’; ‘Archaeologists record landscapes, Vol. 16 No. 2, November, 2015, 182–192

Old English wald, weald in place-names

ABSTRACT Old English wald is a not uncommon term used in place-names and pre-Conquest charter boundary clauses. The interpretation of the term is discussed and its association with woodland, together with brief references to other woodland terms, especially British *cēto and related terms. Some early recordings of wald names appear to refer to relatively large well-wooded areas such as the Weald of south-eastern England. Some area names, like ‘Cotswold’, are not recorded until the medieval period when the meaning of ‘wold’ was beginning to change and when some such regions were becoming characterised by more open countryside; the names, however, may be much older. The term was consistently associated with upland, often in marginal areas, and it seems likely that it originally implied the presence of considerable amounts of open woodland.

Early Wood Commons and Beyond

Wood-pasture commons played an important role in the economy of early medieval and medieval England but their area diminished drastically over the following centuries. Today, surviving wood-pasture landscapes are recognised as of immense value for the protection of traditional ecological habitats and the preservation of countryside character, but with limited relevance to much modern farming, deliberate steps have to be taken to ensure their survival.