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Research issues in the Post-Roman to Conquest period in
Warwickshire
Sally Crawford
s.e.e.crawford@bham.ac.uk
I. Introduction: the current state of knowledge.
The study of Anglo-Saxon England is characterised by a number of debates common to
the whole country. These include questions about Romano-British survival, early AngloSaxon settlement, ethnic divisions and groupings, state formation, the impact of
Christianity, processes of village formation and urbanisation, and land use.
Warwickshire contributes to these debates through a relatively large number of sites, and
our understanding of the county has benefited from a number of research projects,
including Della Hooke’s work on the landscape of the West Midlands (Hooke1985 and
1996), Margaret Gelling’s work on place-name evidence (Gelling 1992), and, at a more
local level, Steve Bassett’s work on the Wootton Wawen project (Bassett 1983-1991).
Warwickshire boasts a few sites which are of national significance in these debates, such
as Wasperton Anglo-Saxon cemetery, and sites which have the potential to answer some
of the problems of the period, such as the palace sites at Hatton Rock and Long
Itchington, and the production site at Bidford-on-Avon.
Data sources
Cemeteries
The best evidence for earlier Anglo-Saxon presence comes from the cemeteries (Ford
1996, 70). While many sites have only been identified from the presence of a single
grave, a quartet of cemeteries in the Avon valley are known to have contained more than
a hundred burials: Bidford, Alveston, Baginton and Wasperton (Ford 1996, Webster and
Cherry 1973, Wilkins 1975, Wise 1991). In Warwickshire, there are examples of both
inhumation and cremation cemeteries – at Churchover in 1823, for example, a shield boss
and spear head were recovered, while the following year, a cremation urn and further
skeletons were uncovered, indicating the presence of both rites within the same area
(MacGregor and Bolick 1993:18).
The grave goods from the earlier Anglo-Saxon cemeteries show a ‘striking distribution’
of Anglian and Saxon brooches, which offer real insights into the ethnic affiliations and
trade contacts of the settlers in this area (Gelling 1992: 34, Ford 1996: 96).
The re-emergence of Christianity in Warwickshire (if, given the possible survival of a
Romano-British population, it ever disappeared) is not well understood. There are
tantalising suggestions for the presence of elite 7th century ‘Final Phase’ burials in
Warwickshire, the most convincing being the finds of a jewelled pendant and gold
bracteate associated with burials, found at Compton Verney in 1774, and these burials
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may provide evidence for the Christianisation of the local elite (Crawford 2003).
However, recent excavations at Compton Verney by the Warwickshire Museums
Archaeological Services, undertaken with the 18th century discoveries in mind, have
produced no further evidence for Anglo-Saxon presence.
More accessible as evidence for the emergence of an elite are the many burials which
have produced great square-headed brooches - Ragley Park, Alveston, Baginton, Bidfordon-Avon, Offchurch, Wasperton - which, as both Margaret Gelling and John Hines have
discussed, shed interesting light on the interface between Christianity and pagan burial
practice, on the development of regional elites, and on the wider elite circle (Gelling
1992, Hines 1997).
Settlements
Settlement evidence for this period is sparse in Warwickshire. Excavations on a hill-top
site at Broom, around 2 kilometres North West of Bidford-on-Avon, in 1993, have
produced evidence for three large sunken-featured buildings and two possible post-built
structures, which were only identified through a watching brief after excavation, and
which produced pottery dated to the 6th century (Palmer 1999:197). Other Anglo-Saxon
sites with sunken-featured buildings in Warwickshire include Baginton (Wilkins
1975:122) and Brandon Grounds (Bateman 1978, 8-9), both poorly recorded; Stretton-onFosse (unpublished), and Hatton Rock, where perhaps 3 sunken-featured buildings were
seen in a pipe-trench excavation (Hirst and Rahtz, 1973:160-77). Post-built structures are
known from Bidford-on-Avon and Alveston Manor (Webster and Cherry 1973, 163-4)
and less certainly at Wooton Wawen (Barnie, Hirst and Rahtz 1974:70).
Ritual and elite sites
Blacklow Hill is one of the most enigmatic sites in the Anglo-Saxon corpus. Two burials
and a series of findless pits suggest a ritual structure of a scale and layout not found
elsewhere in Anglo-Saxon England, although parallels might be drawn with Slonk Hill,
Sussex, and perhaps Yeavering, Northumberland (Blair 1995:18-19). Is it a temple? A
full, published report is still awaited.
In addition to the exciting ‘pagan’ site at Blacklow Hill, and the suggestive evidence for
high status, rich 7th century burials, Warwickshire also possesses at least one, and
possibly two, palace sites, in the form of Hatton Rock and Long Itchington. The
excavation of either of these sites could provide evidence of national importance. Hatton
Rock, identified by aerial photography, was ‘excavated’ by means of a narrow pipe
trench, in three days, with frozen ground and, on the third day, snow (Hirst and Rahtz
1973). However, this was enough to provide some desperately-needed information.
Anglo-Saxon pottery was recovered, and the site would appear to be in a relatively good
state of preservation. The excavators suggested that the site had at least two possible
phases. The likelihood that building J was a church, associated with Roman brick and
possibly Roman building stone, was mooted (Hirst and Rahtz 1973; 169). Hatton Rock
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has the potential to give us desperately needed evidence for the creation of, and function
of, palace sites in this area, as well as providing extremely rare evidence about the
earliest churches in the Midlands, and perhaps providing crucial information on the
relationships between elites, Christianity, pre-existing landscapes, and the local society.
Productive and urban sites
Finding ceramic evidence for middle and late Saxon presence is a serious problem in
Warwickshire and the West Midlands (though this problem is not one suffered by the
neighbouring counties of Leicestershire and Northamptonshire). Sites in Warwickshire
producing pottery in this period include: sherds found during the excavation of RomanoBritish enclosure ditches and surfaces at Chesterton Fields Farm (reported in West
Midlands Archaeology 42, 1999:100-101), at Coton Park DMV, which produced late
Saxon pottery (WMA 41, 1998:95), at Alveston Manor during recent excavations (Nigel
Palmer, pers. comm.), at the possible palace site of Hatton Rock (8th/9th century pottery);
the possible palace site at Long Itchington, where recent excavation in Area B2 of the
Churchover to Newbold Pacey Transco gas pipeline revealed quantities of Roman
combed flue tile, suggesting a hypocausted building nearby, as well as several AngloSaxon pottery sherds (Palmer 1999:118-9); and the minster site of Wootton Wawen
(Hooke 1996:104).
Minsters and churches
Steve Bassett’s programme of research at the church Wootton Wawen, where AngloSaxon stonework survives, provides the benchmark for work of this kind. On the whole,
though, evidence for the early church in Warwickshire is limited.
II. Gaps in knowledge
The question of what happened in the 5th century, as Germanic culture replaced RomanoBritish, is still a major area of discussion and disagreement. Was there continuity or
cataclysm? The archaeology of Warwickshire has the potential to play a crucial part in
answering this question, since two sites in the county – Wasperton and, possibly, Stretton
on Fosse, provide almost incontrovertible proof of Romano-British mortuary culture
being superseded by Anglo-Saxon culture within the same cemetery. Sampling of human
bone for DNA, combined with high precision radio-carbon dating of the material from
these two sites could make a significant contribution towards the advance of population
studies in this region.
The question of Romano-British survival would also be helped by a systematic survey of
settlements this county. Compared to other parts of the country, Warwickshire is
desperately lacking in settlement evidence for the earlier Anglo-Saxon period. There
have been no large-scale, open-area excavations of settlement sites at all, and current
costs and attitudes towards excavation on the scale required to uncover an earlier AngloSaxon settlement make it unlikely that such an excavation will take place in the near
future. This means that we know almost nothing about the shape and form of earlier
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Anglo-Saxon settlement in Warwickshire, or about the density of settlement distribution.
It is not possible to make any meaningful comment on the extent of woodland in earlier
Anglo-Saxon Warwickshire, and its impact on settlement patterns, nor about the location
of earlier Anglo-Saxon settlement relative to Romano-British settlement.
Even without excavation, it might be possible to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge
about earlier Anglo-Saxon settlement through systematic survey to locate and
characterise settlements in this county. Both Keith Wade’s work in Suffolk and
Williamson’s experiment in intensive fieldwalking in North West Essex demonstrate that
systematic and focussed fieldwork can produce results, and does represent one way to
find Anglo-Saxon settlements (Wade 1988, Williamson 1986).
The social organisation of the earlier Anglo-Saxon period is also one which would bear
further research. The cemetery evidence supports the idea that there was a significant
ethnic division within the county, with two separate groups based around the upper and
lower Avon, which is echoed in the later documentary sources as a division between the
tribes of the Hwicce and the Mercians (Hooke, 1996:100). Modern Warwickshire also
straddles a religious divide: in the Later Anglo-Saxon period, Warwickshire was divided
between the sees of Worcester and Lichfield, a division almost certainly reflecting the
tribal differences in the county (Gelling 1992: 98). However, although a relatively large
number of earlier Anglo-Saxon cemetery sites have been identified in the county, the
majority of them were not excavated to modern standards, and there remains a
disappointing publication backlog.
Middle and Later Anglo-Saxon Warwickshire are relatively poorly served by the
available data. It can be argued that one of the biggest problems in this period is the lack
of evidence for Middle and Late Anglo-Saxon presence. Two palace sites are known
from this area, but neither have been excavated in detail, so questions about state
formation, and the relationships between palaces, ecclesiastical sites and trading places
cannot be answered by the evidence available. The Middle Saxon period is known for
the ‘Middle Saxon Shuffle’, where old settlement sites appear to have been deserted and
new ones founded, but the scant excavated evidence from Warwickshire can contribute
little to our understanding of this phenomenon, nor even confirm whether it happened in
the county.
The Later Anglo-Saxon period saw changes in the economy, increased craft
specialisation, and urbanisation, but again, Warwickshire has relatively little to offer to
the debate. Metal detecting to the East of Bidford-on-Avon has indicated a possible
market ‘productive’ site (Palmer 1999:8), but detailed survey and excavation is needed if
we are to understand how this site operated, and how it may have fitted into the
ecclesiastical and elite political landscape around Bidford.
Settlement in Later Anglo-Saxon England was characterised by urbanisation and rural
nucleation. Warwick itself was a town which grew on the boundary of two kingdoms,
and was fortified by Aethelflaed in AD914 as part of the organisation of the burhs against
the Danes (Hooke 1996:100). However, the town has produced disappointingly little
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archaeological evidence for its Anglo-Saxon past, not least because no large-scale
excavations have been conducted in Warwick in recent decades. We know almost
nothing about urbanisation within Warwickshire, nor about the impact of the
Scandinavian presence in this county.
Some research into landuse and settlement patterns in this area has taken place, most
notably W.J. Ford (1976) and Della Hooke (1985). However, such studies are severely
hampered by lack of archaeological evidence. Our knowledge about all facets of
agriculture in this period are extremely limited.
Environmental evidence for this period is in equally short supply. As the analysis of the
Broom settlement evidence provoked the specialist to expostulate for the earlier AngloSaxon period, ‘we can not yet be sure of the intensity of the agricultural regime, or indeed
if there was significant scrub regeneration from the preceding Roman period, and it is
unlikely that these questions will be answered without corresponding pollen evidence.’
(Palmer 1999 p210). These reservations are equally true for the later Anglo-Saxon
period.
III. Potential
Warwickshire missed out on the era of large-scale, open-area excavations in the 1970s
which provide the springboard for research strategies in other regions.). However,
numerous sites have been identified and catalogued, and, within the constraints of
modern excavation practices, it continues to be possible to reconsider sites of known
interest. Warwickshire Museums Archaeological Services undertook work at Compton
Verney, for example, with the 18th century discoveries there in mind, and at Emscote,
although no further evidence for Anglo-Saxon presence was found (Nicholas Palmer,
personal communication). Excavation of pagan period cemeteries continues in
Warwickshire, adding modern excavations to the corpus of known sites. The
Warwickshire Museums Archaeological Services continued excavation at Bidford on
Avon in 1990, for example, added valuable and reliable information to the data base. A
number of excavation reports await publication, in particular Wasperton and Stretton-onFosse. These sites, once in the public domain, will help to improve our understanding of
the period.
Modern excavation does favour the likelihood of an increase in our understanding of the
environmental aspect of the Anglo-Saxon period. Discoveries such as the Anglo-Saxon
enlosure ditches at Tiddington in 1988 are encouraging.
The West Midlands Portable Antiquitites Pilot Scheme is also making a very significant
contribution to the distribution map of Middle and Late Anglo-Saxon presence in
Warwickshire. Whilst middle to late Anglo-Saxon pottery is difficult to track down,
metalwork of the period is being reported in growing numbers. Recent metalwork finds
include: a 7th c gold clasp, probably from the cover of a religious book at Mancetter
(Wise 1998, 84-85); a middle/late Anglo-Saxon brooch at Burmington (Bolton 1999:99100); a middle/late Anglo-Saxon pin at Honington (Bolton 1999:115): a late Anglo-
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Saxon buckle frame from Long Compton (Bolton 1999:117); a middle/late Anglo-Saxon
strap end from Shipston on Stour (Bolton 1999:123); a late Anglo-Saxon mount from
Wishaw (Bolton 1999:132); a 6th century brooch, an 8th/9th century strapend and a 7th/8th
century pin from Bidford-on-Avon (Bolton 1998:84); two 6th c sleeve clasps (near the
known Anglo-Saxon cemetery) from Churchover (Bolton 1998:86); a late Anglo-Saxon
stirrup mount from Maxstoke (Bolton 1998:93); and a late Anglo-Saxon stirrup mount
from Toddenham (Bolton 1998).
IV. Research topics
Choices for research topics within this county are very similar to those in other parts of
the country for this period (e.g. Brown and Glazebrook 2000, Williams and Brown 1999).
For Warwickshire, as for other parts of England, there is a continuing need to understand
more about population; settlement; land use changes; craft production; the impact of
colonisation (Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian and Norman); the impact of Christianity; the
development of urban centres; and the definition of territorial and other boundaries (this
last being particularly relevant in a county at the western edge of Anglo-Saxon
settlement, apparently colonised by two different Anglo-Saxon ethnic groups). However,
there are some areas which could be prioritised, and these are discussed below.
Cemeteries
Cemeteries in Warwickshire are providing food for thought, and are clearly going to
continue to play a large part in our understanding of Anglo-Saxon/Romano-British
interrelations, as well as providing evidence for intra-regional differentiation by AngloSaxon tribes. Margaret Gelling’s thoughts on the subject in 1992, that ‘a re-examination
of the material from the cemeteries of this area [the Avon Valley] is a major requirement
of modern Anglo-Saxon studies’, still holds true, and of all the suggestions for future
research directions in Warwickshire, is the one that might most cheaply be done
(Gelling1992:30). This said, evidence from Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in Warwickshire is
sufficiently plentiful for it to form the basis for discussions of Anglo-Saxon penetration
westwards, the Romano-British/Anglo-Saxon interface, and on tribal identities,
settlement and communications. The known cemeteries provide ample information – as
Gelling suggests (1992:34), further excavation is unlikely to alter the distribution maps;
but a program of DNA analysis could yield very important results. Given the crucial
evidence from Wasperton of Romano-British survival, a program of high precision C14
dating at selected sites is more relevant in this county than in most.
Settlements
Settlement study is needed to fill in the picture provided by the cemeteries. There are
known settlement sites in Warwickshire: not one has been subject to an open area
research excavation. It might be too much to ask, yet the desperate lack of excavated
settlement evidence for this area should put the need to conduct a more careful
excavation of a settlement, should the ghost of an opportunity arise, at the top of the
research agenda. Lack of evidence is beginning to colour the interpretation of this
period: Stuart Palmer has argued that ‘so few early Anglo-Saxon settlements have been
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identified [in the Arrow Valley] that it is commonly supposed that village formation
occurred in the mid-late Anglo-Saxon period’ (Palmer 1999:221). A ‘common
supposition’ is not good enough, and absence of evidence, in these circumstances, does
not constitute evidence of absence, as Palmer worries. We have enough material from
cemeteries to be able to form a model for Anglo-Saxon trade links, ethnic and cultural
links, and presence in Warwickshire. For settlements, we lack even basic information.
For this period, there is an urgent need to understand settlements, or at least to understand
absence of earlier settlement evidence in areas such as the Arrow Valley, which can only
be addressed by a thoughtful program of fieldwork.
Environmental evidence
Environmental work is a similarly high priority. Extensive sampling across the county is
crucial for understanding the agrarian economy of the period. All aspects of AngloSaxon agricultural production and consumption, including animal husbandry; crop
production; field systems; fishing; and hunting, are poorly understood in this county.
Middle to Late Saxon Presence
The most glaring gap in the Anglo-Saxon record for Warwickshire is the absence of a
Middle to Late Anglo-Saxon presence. There are a number of ways in which this might
be rectified.
1. There are a number of undated burials unassociated with church yards. These
may not be Anglo-Saxon, but they may well represent the missing late and middle
Anglo-Saxon presence in county (Ford 1996:96). Such sites exist, for example, at
Milcote, Hall, Bardon Hill, Stratford-on-Avon, Clifford Chambers, Tredington,
Morton Bagot, and Bloom.
2. Emphasis should be placed on cataloguing, analyzing and doing fieldwork in the
area of metal detected finds.
3. A review of the aerial photography and excavated evidence, combined with a
serious research program, could produce worthwhile results.
4. Given the huge potential of the archaeology of this county for shedding light on
some of the great ongoing debates in Anglo-Saxon archaeology, there is good
cause for arguing that it would be worth focussing resources on the re-evaluation
and further excavation of selected sites of national significance, such as Hatton
Rock, or Bidford-on-Avon, which could answer serious questions about state
formation processes, the relationship between royal vills, production sites and
early estates, and the impact of Christianity on Anglo-Saxon England.
Monasteries and churches
Beyond the evidence for a church associated with the royal centre at Hatton Rock, there
is very little evidence for the location and development of Christian communities within
Warwickshire. A detailed study of any possible ecclesiastical site, including those where
‘Final Phase’ burials have been found, would make good sense.
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Trade, towns and production centres
Environmental sampling to give information on agricultural regimes, and careful
collation of metal-detected finds, could help to give insights into these themes. Several
Roman roads run through Warwickshrire, and it has been suggested that a study of sites
relating to Roman roads (such as burials and settlements), looking for explanations for
deviations from Roman roads, and dating of the metalling on Roman roads, holds
potential for providing information about authority, trade routes and trade dislocation.
Similarly, dating the establishment, use and abandonment of unmetalled routeways
(perhaps focussing on fords and bridges, which are likely to survive archaeologically) in
this period also holds potential (Vince, undated). While a collation of metal-detected
finds, combined with careful survey and reconsideration of routeways through
Warwickshire, could shed further light, there is no substitute for high-quality excavation.
The themes highlighted for further research should not mask the fact that there is almost
no aspect of Anglo-Saxon archaeology in Warwickshire which would not repay further
consideration, but I have attempted to point up the particular themes for which
Warwickshire could provide distinctive, nationally significant, or regional data. The
potential for further research in Warwickshire is enormous, but its significant lack of
major, modern, high-quality research excavations, even within an urban context, is what
really characterises the archaeology of this county.
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