The principal authority for the early history of the church of Worcester is the famous Cartulary compiled about the end of the eleventh century by the Worcester monk, Hemming. Written partly in Latin, and partly in Anglo-Saxon, the volume contains for the most part transcripts of the various privileges and charters by which the monastery proved its title to the vast estates which it held at that time in Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Warwickshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, and Oxfordshire. It is not known with certainty when the cartulary passed out of the possession of the cathedral, but it is probable that it was amongst the many manuscripts dispersed after the dissolution of the monastery in 1540.

It is almost exactly twenty-five years ago that Sir Arthur Evans, then President of the Society, read his annual address at the first anniversary-meeting after the outbreak of the last war. On that occasion he had to deplore the extensive destruction of churches and houses, of libraries and works of art, which had marked the advance of the German armies through Belgium into northern France. Sir Arthur then cited the pronouncement of the Prussian General Disfurth in which he set forth the German Army's view of such matters: ‘Even though all the monuments, all the works of art, all the masterpieces of architecture which happen to come between our guns and those of the enemy are blown to the devil it will be nothing to us.’ We can, I think, be assured that the same views are current in the same quarters to-day and, when and if the opportunity arrives, a destruction, enforced by a deeper malice and a wider capacity, will be loosed upon the monuments of our history and our culture.

Poundbury Camp is situated on a bluff of the Upper Chalk overlooking the river Frome and its water-meadows (pl. LXVII). The approach from the south and west slopes gently riverwards, but to the east the site is separated from the outskirts of Dorchester by a shallow combe. Though its situation is hardly that of a hill-fort, usually isolated on a detached hill or promontory, nevertheless the camp holds a commanding position in relation to its immediate surroundings, and its multiple defences, now sadly defaced, must once have presented a considerable obstacle to enemy attack. Though not comparable in size to the oppidum of Maiden Castle, for it encloses an area of only 15 acres, the existence of such a stronghold less than two miles distant from the major hill-fort seemed to require investigation. By whom had it been constructed, for what purpose, and to what extent had it been occupied, were questions demanding explanation. It was with the intention of bringing some light to bear on these problems that excavations were carried out at Poundbury in the spring of 1939.

The following account of the recent discovery near Woodbridge, Suffolk, requires a word of preliminary explanation. The work was brought to an unhurried close on 26th August 1939, and all the finds and records were removed to London and Cambridge. It had comprised not only the finding and removal of the burial but also the complete excavation and study of the ship in which the burial was placed. The latter part was under the direction of Lieut.-Commander J. K. D. Hutchison of the Science Museum, who, within a few days of the close, had taken his place in the service of the Royal Navy. The finds had, for the most part, only been in the laboratory of the British Museum for a matter of days when they had to be packed up and taken to a place of safety. Under these circumstances it is not possible to give a complete account of the discovery in all its aspects, since much new information is bound to come from the examination of many objects now packed away after only a cursory inspection. The writer therefore aims at giving an objective report of what has come within his experience. With Lieut.-Commander Hutchison's consent he is also offering a layman's account of the ship, the full technical description and discussion of which is a work of the future.

The ruins of Dudley Priory lie a short distance north of the town in the valley below the castle. The surrounding grounds belonged to a house recently acquired by the Borough Council. They have been laid out as a public park, and the plan included the clearance and preservation of the monastic remains, a task which was entrusted to the Ancient Monuments Branch of H.M. Office of Works. In the course of the clearance small trial excavations were undertaken in order to explore the earlier history of the conventual buildings. The results of these excavations and the following survey of the architectual remains are recorded by the courtesy of the Town Council of Dudley and of the Office of Works. In particular I am indebted to the Borough Surveyor and to Mr. A. Heasman, then Chief Architect in charge of Ancient Monuments. I have also to thank the Office of Works for the plan and the photographs which illustrate this paper, while in the preparation of the text I owe much to Dr. Rose Graham, F.S.A., and to Mr. A. W. Clapham, President of the Society of Antiquaries.

The collection of continental European and Anglo-Saxon jewellery dating from the second half of the first millennium of our era in the Ashmolean Museum, though of no great size, has for many years been noted for its quality, including, as it does, the fine series of ornaments and rings collected by Sir John Evans and presented in 1908 by Sir Arthur Evans, together with such outstanding pieces as the Alfred Jewel and the Minster Lovel jewel. To these have more recently been added important gold rings, a further gift from Sir Arthur Evans, and the magnificent brooch from Sarre, Kent, purchased in 1934.

In the early half of this year an unexpended balance of a grant from the bequest of Mr. George Flood France, allotted by the Visitors of the Museum for the purchase of objects of art, allowed the Department of Antiquities to contemplate the acquisition of yet another important jewel, and by the help of a supplementary grant which the Trustees of the National Art-Collections Fund generously promised to contribute if needed, there has now been added to the collection a gold ring of the finest quality, its interest enhanced by the presence of a runic inscription engraved on the inside of the hoop (pl. L).

In a recent report (Proc. Prehist. Soc. iv, 1938, 249) we described the contents of a pit situated on Stockbridge Down on the ridge that runs south-west from Woolbury Ring Camp. This pit, the site of which is marked as X on the sketch-map which accompanies the present paper (fig. 1), contained an occupation or refuse layer of Middle Bronze Age date, the rarity of which warranted in our opinion examination of anything in the immediate vicinity that might have a bearing upon it.

At least seven round barrows can be identified upon the down, but no record appears to exist of their having been examined. Their relative positions are also recorded on fig. 1, which is based partly upon the aerial photograph of the site published and described by O. G. S. Crawford and A. Keiller (Wessex from the Air, 1928, pl. xxv), and partly upon field work.

The present paper describes the structure and contents of the round barrow that lies some 300 ft. south-west of the pit above mentioned. This barrow, which we have numbered no. 1 on fig. 1, is small and relatively insignificant, being only 25 ft. in diameter and about 18 in. in height. It had been constructed on ground that slopes gently to the south, and lies upon that area of the down that appears from both ground and aerial observation never to have been cultivated.

Throughout his episcopate Wulstan maintained intimate relations with the monastery, and the evidence of his charters makes it clear that he surrounded himself with his monks. The Alveston and Tapenhall charters of 1089, and the Westbury of 1093, for example, include amongst the officials of the bishop, Ailric his archdeacon, Colman his chancellor, Fretheric his chaplain, Maurice and Frewen his clerks, Ailwin and Ordricus his stewards, and, in an unnamed capacity, Ailwin the priest. All these we can identify from various records as members of the monastic household. We shall see later that their names occur in a list of monks of the Worcester house which is found in the Durham Liber Vitae, and dates about the beginning of the twelfth century.

The village of Egginton (now officially spelt Eggington to distinguish it from Egginton in Derbyshire) lies some three miles east of Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire. By the courtesy of the former owner of the manor, Mr. Harry Sear, and more lately by that of his son, Mr. Gains Sear, I have for some years been able to watch the more or less incidental disclosure of archaeological remains in the excavation of sand on a site near Egginton Manor Farm. This site, where the large Sand Pit is marked on the map, 1 fig. (after 6-in. O.S. Beds. XXVIII SE.), lies upon the top of the Gault hill which rises along the north side of the village. The summit is here just above the 400-ft. contour-line, and the Gault has a thick capping of glacial sand, which dies out westward within about 200 yards, but extends for some distance to the east. This sand consists of redeposited and current-bedded material, derived mainly from the escarpment of the Lower Greensand two miles or so to the north, but of course including many stones and fossils from the Gault of the intervening valley. The bed has been superficially worked from medieval times, no doubt chiefly for building purposes, but it is only of recent years that it has been systematically and deeply dug.

The work of art here to be published was found in the excavations of 1938 at Elmswell, about two miles west of Driffield in the East Riding of Yorkshire (6-in. O.S. Yorks. E.R. CLXISE.). These excavations, following on those carried out by our Fellow Mr. A. L. Congreve from 1935 to 1937; have shown the site to be that of a native settlement of the Parisi, occupied—probably continuously—at least from Flavian times until the end of the Roman period, and again in pagan Saxon times. Of the pre-Roman Iron Age nothing has yet come to light beyond two British coins, one of the Iceni (c. A.D. 25) and one possibly of Cunobelin, but the site is separated by little more than the line of the Driffield—Malton railway from the Eastburn area where, in building operations in 1938, as many as seventy-five Iron Age graves were discovered even in the relatively small plots of ground excavated. These contained the remains of flexed inhumation-burials, each originally covered by a small barrow, exactly as in the well-known Danes' Graves and Arras cemeteries; and the date within the three centuries directly preceding the Roman Conquest was confirmed by several finds of grave-goods, notably an iron sword of La Tène type, bronze ornaments, an ‘involuted’ brooch, and several vessels of pottery. Further, in another part of the same site, Parisian pottery of Roman age was found, the earliest of which agrees exactly with the earliest from Elmswell. There can in fact be little doubt that this whole area was an important centre of settlement in the east Yorkshire equivalent of La Tène times, where ‘the Iron Age B’ culture of the Parisi passed directly into the romanization that was introduced at the Flavian conquest of the early seventies A.D.

The Island of Jersey being now (August 1940) in the occupation of the enemy, I should like to put on record the present state of the thus interrupted excavation of the Palaeolithic site known as La Cotte de St. Brelade. Here, as is well known, important finds have been made in the past, notably during the years 1910–16. There was every reason to believe, when operations were suspended in the course of the last Great War, that more remained to be discovered near by; but the far greater bulk of the ‘head’ covering the untouched parts long deterred us from so laborious and expensive an undertaking. At length in 1936 we were moved to make a fresh start, thanks largely to the generosity of the Royal Society, which made us grants of £50 for two successive years, followed by three more of £25 per annum, the last of which could not be used. This money has been entirely spent in securing the expert assistance of quarrymen in charge of Mr. W. Bichard; tools and other material aids being provided at the expense of the Société Jersiaise.

For more than seven years the Fenland Research Committee has been investigating the post-glacial history of the Fenland with a view to correlating archaeological remains and recent geological deposits. By this means evidence has been collected which bears upon the age of early phases of human settlement in East Anglia and upon the natural conditions prevailing at different periods. It has sometimes been possible to undertake systematic and purposive excavations at key sites in the confident anticipation of definite results, but stray finds made in the course of drainage works or of agriculture have also played an important part. The Stuntney hoard, which it is the primary purpose of this report to record, was discovered by a man ploughing near Stuntney Hall in January 1939.

The author, having on 10th November 1938 laid before the Society a paper on the Palaeolithic contents of the higher part of the Boyn Hill Terrace between 160 and 200 ft. O.D., as represented at East Burnham, Bucks, now desires to discuss the archaeology of the lower division. As researches have also been conducted on the Berkshire side of the Thames, the present record includes a summary of discoveries made on both banks.

Rams Hill is an inconspicuous knoll of the Berkshire Downs (Berks. O.S. 6 in. XIX, NW. and NE.) on the ridge overlooking the Vale of the White Horse. It lies within the 700-ft. contour, with the ground sloping gently to the south and falling steeply to 400 ft. on the northern escarpment. To the west, a mile away, the land rises to White Horse Hill, a bluff over 800 ft. high, crowned by the hill-fort of Uffington Castle and with the eponymous turf-cut Horse on the westward slope slightly below.

The Ridgeway runs along the crest of the downs, south of Uffington Castle but on the north edge of Rams Hill, while along the bottom of the escarpment the Ickneild Way winds in and out of the coombes between the 400- and 500-ft. contours.

Of the two linch-pins which form the subject of this article, one was found at King's Langley, Herts., in 1937, and has recently been acquired by the British Museum. The second was found in 1938 at Tiddington, near Stratford-on-Avon. It was exhibited at the Exhibition of Recent Archaeological Research, 1933–8, at the Institute of Archaeology, Regents Park, and is now in the New Place Museum at Stratford-on-Avon. To the authorities of both museums I am indebted for permission to publish this article. I have also to thank the curators of the Musée Nationale de St. Germain, of the Musée Municipale d'Évreux, and of the Maidstone Museum respectively for allowing me to illustrate the linch-pins from Nanterre, from Évreux, and from Bigbury. I had hoped to include the specimens from Cirencester and from Chedworth, but circumstances have not permitted. Mr. C. F. C. Hawkes and Mr. M. R. Hull have very kindly put the as yet unpublished material from Colchester at my disposal. Mr. H. N. Savory called my attention to the linch-pin from Merlin's Cave, and Mr. R. R. Clarke to those in the Santon Downham hoard.

Preparation of an airport at Ronaldsway, Isle of Man, revealed several matters of archaeological interest. Some conjectural ancient graves were destroyed before information was given, and wall bases were left which probably are related to an entry in the Object Name Books of 1866 at the Ordnance Survey Office: ‘A number of years ago, stone cists containing human remains were turned up on improving circular eminence situated in the field west of Ronaldsway farmhouse. The mound is apparently artificial, higher on the east and west sides, being hollow in the centre; it is about 4 ft. in height, and about 100 ft. in diameter. Supposed by the authority quoted to have been a place of burial. Many cartloads of stones were also removed.’

During excavations carried out in 1937 by Mr. G. J. H. Neely on a Viking and pre-Viking site at Ronaldsway in the Isle of Man, a bronze balance-beam was discovered on the edge of a disturbed grave with a lead weight close by. A full account of the excavations appears in this number of the Antiquaries Journal. The balance-beam is, however, of unique interest, and it has been decided to make it the subject of a separate paper which is based on a comparison of the balance with recognized Viking, Saxon, and Romano-British types and on the results of an experiment conducted at the Science Museum, South Kensington. The balance and weight are now in the Manx Museum.

It is to the ancient practice of suspending the funeral insignia of the deceased over his tomb that we owe the survival of our few existing English helms. Foreign visitors to our country churches often express their surprise at finding these relics still in situ. The practice also obtained on the Continent, but surviving instances there are very much rarer than here. Despite our innate conservatism, many church helmets must have disappeared through decay, indifference, and, latterly, the avarice of collectors. That they are not yet safe from spoliation was shown by a case which came before the Courts last year.

A small but interesting find of Roman coins was made recently by Mr. Stuart Piggott during his examination of the site at Rams Hill, near Uffington, described in the preceding paper; and I may here recapitulate his description of the discovery. Two adult skeletons were found, buried one above the other, in a ditch which appeared to belong to an enclosure of the Ditchley–Wootton–Fawler–Kiddington type, and of which three sides were defined, suggesting a square 260 ft. across. There had evidently been occupation within this (although a trench encountered no foundations)—probably a wooden building on analogy with Ditchley; and the pottery in the ditch was first-century, with abundant Belgic types. Into the filling of this ditch, or rather in a cleared-out portion of it (since no grave dug through the filling could be detected in the section), the two burials had been deposited, the upper on his back with no grave-goods, the lower on his left side with the coins. Two coins, one silver and one bronze, were enclosed between two thin silver-foil discs folded over each other in the mouth; the other coins (seven) were all together in a compact mass high up against the ribs, a fact which suggests the previous existence of a bag or purse slung round the neck. Thus there is no doubt of the strict contemporaneity of the whole group. There was nothing else to suggest late Roman occupation of the site.