Page:VCH Staffordshire 1.djvu/256

 A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE According to the plan the knife would be as usual at the waist, and the sword, as occasionally elsewhere, 8 * beside the right leg. Special interest is attached to the discovery of an Anglo-Saxon jewel at a point between the burials of the north-east and Barlaston. The latter site now appears to be an outpost of the community centred in the Peak district, and in contact with the Celtic population which had not been displaced by the Teutonic advance westward. Jewellery of the period is specially abun- dant in Derbyshire, and extremely rare in the Trent valley cemeteries already noticed, so that the connexion is practically demonstrated in spite of the absence of details as to the discovery. All that is known is that in levelling a hedge bank at Forsbrook, about half a mile from Blyth Bridge station about 1879, the coin-pendant here illustrated (fig. 10) was found by a labourer and subsequently passed into the British Museum. Its excellent condition sug- gests that it accompanied an unburnt burial, but nothing further was noticed on the site or in the neighbourhood. The centre of the pendant consists of a gold casting from a coin of the Emperor Valentinian II (37592), but the reverse is hidden by a plain gold plate at the back, and round the edge are slight mouldings separated by two twisted strands of gold. The front border is inlaid with garnets relieved by blue glass in the semi- circular cells, the whole being a typical example of Anglo- Saxon cloisonne work in gold. Some of the settings are now missing, both from the border and barrel-shaped loop for suspension, but otherwise the pendant is perfect. This style of ornament is particularly common in Kent, where the richest graves belong to the sixth and early seventh centuries, and any erroneous conclusions from the inclosed coin of the Staffordshire specimen may be avoided by FIG. 10. COIN-PEN- r, 1-1 i DANT, FORSBROOK (*) reference to other examples in the national collection. Thus a pendant from Bacton, Norfolk, which bears a striking resemblance to it, incloses a coin of the Emperor Mauritius (582-602) ; and a jewelled cross from Wilton, in the same county, with a coin of Heraclius and Heraclius Constantine (6 1 0-4 1 ), 34a must be of about the same date, though of somewhat finer workmanship. That the coins of earlier emperors were utilized in the seventh century is shown by a somewhat plainer pendant, of the same type as that from Forsbrook, contain- ing a coin of Valens (36478) ; and one of Valentinian II was again copied for a bracteate found in England, and now in the British Museum. The embossed discs of gold-foil that are known under that name are plentiful in Scandinavia, and exceedingly rare in this country, but two specimens S4b are preserved from the adjoining county of Warwick ; and though the choice of a Valentinian coin for the design was no doubt accidental, everything points to a close agreement in date between the bracteates and coin-pendants set with garnets. Imperial coins had no doubt already become rare curiosities in England when the Anglo-Saxon goldsmith showed his skill upon them. According to the Ordnance Survey map (6 in. scale, xx, SW.) a Saxon sword and celt were found in 1834 about a quarter mile west of Alton 84 At Sibertswold, Kent ; Inventorium Sepulchrale, 1 18, 124. The position varied, but the left side was more usual. Ma Both are illustrated in colours in V.C.H. Norf. i, 3412, figs. 2 and 7 on plate. " b y.C.H. Warw. i, 263-4, ^gs. 10, n, on coloured plate. 212