ANGLO-SAXON OXFORDSHIRE

STANDLAKE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries gravel digging and other work uncovered an Anglo-Saxon cemetery with over 87 burials on Standlake Down.

Record made by E.T. Leeds of an early find from Standlake Down. (Click on the image to see a larger version)

In around 1830 Stephen Stone collected fragments of a brooch and a work-box from a gravel pit, which is also thought to have contained over 40 burials, although most of these were not recorded at the time. During gravel digging a further 5 graves were discovered in 1857. Then in 1897 a single burial was found to the east of the cemetery site. This included three brooches which were acquired by Percy Manning and are now in the Ashmolean Museum.

Further quarrying destroyed several more graves in 1943. Then in 1954 W.H. Catling discovered 4 additional inhumations and finally in 1971 three more were uncovered.

REFERENCES:

S. Stone (1859) "Account of certain (supposed) British and Saxon remains, recently discovered at Standlake, in the county of Oxford", Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries 4, p92-100

"Notes and News" (1943-44) Oxoniensia VIII-IX, p199.

A. MacGregor and E. Bolick (1993) A Summary Catalogue of the Anglo-Saxon Collections (Non- Ferrous Metals), BAR British Series 230.