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A Saxon treasure hoard found at Chester, 1950

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

Graham Webster ,
R. H. Dolley  and
G. C. Dunning
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Extract

On 29th November 1950 workmen employed by the Merseyside and North Wales Electricity Board were relaying a cable on the west side of Castle Esplanade, Chester. In cleaning up the western side of the trench with a spade, 18 in. below the present pavement level and 29 ft. to the south of St. Martin's Court, one of the men cut through a small earthenware vessel and a shower of coins and silver bullion poured into the bottom of the trench. It is distressing to record that although the Grosvenor Museum is only 100 yards from the site, the discovery was not reported. No significance was attached to the find; one of the men stated later that they thought they were milk checks. Three of the men put handfuls of coins into their pockets; others were distributed to children near, and the rest shovelled back into the trench. The engineer-in-charge took several to his office for thepurpose of identification, but later forgot about them. One of the men sent some of the coins to Hunter Street Girls' School, by his niece, for identification, and the mistress immediately sent them to the Curator of the Grosvenor Museum.This happened on 10th December, and the Curator at once appreciating the significance of the discovery, set to work to recover as much as possible of the hoard, and reported the matter to the City Coroner. As a result he recovered a hundred coins, twelve ingots of silver, and a fragment of the vessel.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 33 , Issue 1-2 , April 1953 , pp. 22 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1953

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References

page 22 note 1 The writer is indebted to Mr. A. Warhurst, atthat time his assistant, and to Mr. G. B. Leach for considerable help.

page 23 note 1 The writer is indebted to Mr. W. F. Irvine, M.A., F.S.A., for drawing his attention to certain aspects of these problems and discussing them with him.

page 23 note 2 C. A. J. xxxviii, 44.

page 23 note 3 A.D. 907“…. and Chester was rebuilt.” The word used is geedniwod; it was usual to use getim-brede, which refers specifically to building in timber.

page 23 note 4 d. 1513, but he may have used earlier sources.

page 24 note 1 Chetham Soc. xv, 157.

page 24 note 2 Much of the area on the west side thus presumed to have been enclosed appears to have consisted of fields and gardens, referred to in early documents as ‘crofts’.

page 24 note 3 Note also Shetelig's general remark: ‘Judged by our standards, the A.S. boroughs of that time were very primitive, consisting only of earthworks and palisades. They were built in a hurry by the peasants of the neighbourhood under the cover of the King's army, but they answered their purpose and on the whole they served to ward off all Danish attacks’ (Viking Antiquities in Gt. Britain and Ireland, pt. i, p. 92).

page 24 note 4 Chetham Soc. lxxv, 37 and 85.

page 24 note 5 Cheshire Sheaf, 9544.

page 24 note 6 Ormerod, , History of Cheshire, i, 356; ii, 546.Google Scholar

page 24 note 7 Cheshire Sheaf, 9544.

page 24 note 8 C. A. J. xxiv, 16.

page 24 note 9 Details given in fig. 1.

page 26 note 1 Cf. Arch. lxv, fig. 14; Shetelig, , op. cit., pt. ii, figs. 60Google Scholar and 63 a; pt. iii, fig. 90; pt. iv, figs. 7, 11, 15, and 16.

page 26 note 2 The writer is grateful to Mr. R. L. S. BruceMitford for drawing his attention to this parallel. Cf. also Rygh, , Antiquités Norvégiennes, no. 485Google Scholar.

page 26 note 3 A Hundred Years of Welsh Archaeology, pl. IX, no. 14.

page 26 note 4 Shetelig, , op. cit., pt.iii, fig. 79Google Scholar; pt. iv, figs. 8, 10, and 12; Arch. J. iv, 115 ff; see also Proc. R. Irish Academy, xlii.

page 26 note 5 Shetelig, , op. cit., pt.iv, fig. 9.Google Scholar

page 26 note 6 Shetelig, , op. cit., pt.iv, figs. 20 and 21.Google Scholar

page 26 note 7 Ibid., fig. 59 and p. 127.

page 27 note 1 Arch. J. iv, 112.

page 27 note 2 Cf. a silver torc from the Douglas hoard, Shetelig, , op. cit., pt. iv,Google Scholar fig. 18.

page 27 note 3 Cf. Cuerdale hoard, Shetelig, , op. cit., pt. iv,Google Scholar fig. 12 and p. 42, and a silver scourge from Trewhiddle, Cornwall, in the British Museum, Proc. Soc. Ant. xx, 49.

page 27 note 4 Arch. J. iv, 110, and Shetelig, , op. cit., pt. iv, p. 32Google Scholar.

page 27 note 5 Proc. I.O.M. Nat. Hist. & Antiq. Soc. i, no. I, p. 437.

page 27 note 6 P.S.A.S. xxvi, 225; Shetelig, , op. cit., pt. ii, p. 113Google Scholar.

page 27 note 7 P.S.A.S. x, 575; xv, 286; Arch. J. lx, 469; Shetelig, , op. cit., pt. ii, p. 119Google Scholar.

page 27 note 8 P.S.A.S. xviii, 318; Shetelig, , op. cit., pt. ii, p. 135Google Scholar.

page 27 note 9 Shetelig, , op. cit., pt.iii, p. 105.Google Scholar

page 28 note 1 All weights are given in grammes. The writer is much indebted to Mr. H. Robinson, Chief Inspector of Weights and Measures, Chester, for assistance in weighing the bullion.

page 29 note 1 C.A.J. ii (O.S.), 289.

page 32 note 1 Interim reports in Archaeological News Letter, January and August 1950. Summary in Arch. Journ. cvi, 72Google Scholar.

page 32 note 2 Proc. Cambridge Antiq. Soc. xxxiii, 137.

page 32 note 3 Antiq. Journ. xvi, 402 ff.Google Scholar

page 32 note 4 Kenyon, K. M., Excavations at the Jewry Wall Site, Leicester (1948), pp. 222–8.Google Scholar

page 32 note 5 Chester Arch. Journ. xxxviii (1951), p. 46.Google Scholar