Page:VCH Staffordshire 1.djvu/244

 A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE geological basis of the vast areas known as Sherwood, Arden, and Charn- wood, where no Anglo-Saxon remains are found ; and it is not, therefore, surprising to find that Needwood and Cannock Chase are similarly unpro- ductive. Besides the two coalfields (Cheadle and Potteries) in the north of the county there is an area, mainly east of Leek, consisting of Yoredale and carboniferous limestone rock connected with a much larger area of the same formation in the north-west of Derbyshire. South of High Peak this soil was evidently appreciated by the early Anglo-Saxon inhabitants, who have left numerous traces of their settlements and civilization. South of Ashbourne and Derby is an unproductive area of Triassic formation continuous with central Staffordshire, but Anglo-Saxon cemeteries again appear in the Trent valley at Melbourne and Foremark. 8 It is with the traces of a further advance up the Trent valley that a survey of post-Roman Staffordshire may best begin ; and the first discovery on entering this county from this side has, indeed, been noticed under Der- byshire, as the site has only recently been added to Staf- fordshire. The most im- portant Anglo-Saxon discovery in the county was made in 1 88 1 at Stapenhill, a village just within the boundary of Bur- ton - on-Trent, though on the Der- byshire bank of the river. 8 The site of what proved to be a cemetery is on the crest of a ridge 1 20 ft. above the level of the Trent and 300 ft. a- bove sea-level. The village lies to the north, the parish church being about half a mile north-north-west; and the burial ground lies between the Stan ton and Rosliston roads, but nearer the former. Plans and details of the burials, with several plates of the antiquities discovered, were published in the follow- ing year by the Burton-on-Trent Natural History and Archaeological Society, and an excellent description of the excavations undertaken by a committee for the society was furnished by Mr. John Heron.* From that account a good deal may be learnt with regard to the first Anglo-Saxon occupation of this part of the county, and the following is a summary, with additional remarks as to similar finds elsewhere. 1 The distribution is clear from the map of Anglo-Saxon remains in V.C.H. Derb. i, 265. 200 nl FIG. i. BRONZE BROOCHES, TWEEZERS, AND CHATELAINE, STAPENHILL
 * Ibid, i, 266, 273. ' Trans, vol. i, 156-93, plates i-x, and frontispiece.