Livery Buttons and Famous Names

Livery buttons were made from polished, gilded or tinned brass and once adorned the jackets and uniforms of staff and retainers working for large households in the later 18th and 19th centuries. A common type of detecting find, they were designed to demonstrate status and wealth and bore distinctive crests derived from the heraldry of the families employing them. It is easy enough to envision objects like this being lost in the landscape during the course of outdoor activities such as hunting or riding and they are particularly common in areas (like Surrey) containing a lot of aristocratic estates.

Although of relatively recent date, these objects can potentially offer social historical connections to famous individuals and families of the past. The challenge as a finds recorder is then to try to demonstrate such associations; typically family crests, being simplified components from much more complex family schemes of arms, are not quite unique to individual families and may connect with quite a wide range of names. Narrowing these down requires a bit of local knowledge as we would generally expect the represented family to have local properties or social connections. The reverse of these buttons often bears a maker’s mark which can also help date it.

This particular example, recorded with the Portable Antiquities Scheme as SUR-7404E8 is 25.7mm in diameter, with a convex face depicting a crest of a Griffon walking left with front paw upraised (passant) and gorged with a coronet. The reverse is concave with a stump of a broken loop shank around which is the maker’s inscription REYNOLDS & CO / 50 St MARTINS LANE / LONDON. This mark dates the button to 1871-1873. This crest is listed in the pre-eminent reference work Fairbairn’s Crests (plate 61/14) as related to the names Cleve, Cliffe, Clive, Evelyn, Finch, Finche and Watson.

A livery button from Surrey, SUR-7404E8

Given these options and the location of the find, a likely potential association is to the family of diarist and writer John Evelyn (1620-1706) whose estates and birthplace were at Wotton, very near to where this button was found. The family member contemporary to the manufacture date for this button is William John Evelyn (1822-1908), who inherited these estates and lived at Wotton House. He was, among other things, MP for Surrey West in 1849-1857 and High Sheriff of Surrey in 1860. The house at Wotton was extensively rebuilt during this period after a fire and his monogram can still be seen decorating the building’s exterior.

It is relatively unusual to be able to link a button to a famous local name like this, with such diverse connections bridging the local historical, literary and archaeological worlds. Finds like this add a social historical element to the archaeological information recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme and although they may not be routinely recorded given their recent age, when we can establish such connections it is important to document them.

A Zoomorphic Medieval Object from Surrey

From an art historical perspective the transition from the “Early Medieval” to the “High Medieval”, (broadly centred on the years following the Norman Conquest in England) shows a complex mixture of influences. This period contains the final gasp of Scandinavian Urnes and Ringerike styles co-existing with insular Anglo-Saxon developments of similar themes (the Winchester style) all mixing with incoming continental interpretations from the Romanesque style. As a result ornamental metalwork of the later 11th and 12th centuries can be both striking as well as somewhat enigmatic in form and composition.

This small find from Surrey (SUR-74414C) is a good example of a decorative fitting from this period. It has a central convex plate cast in the form of a prominent beast mask, defined by deeply incised lines with lenticular eyes, ridged brows and protruding snout all clearly visible. From the top of the head projects a loop with a strap bar, from the snout a small rounded attachment or suspension loop and in the middle is a hole. This could perhaps be for a rivet, or to fix onto a peg or perhaps hold another component. This combination of features suggests that it was clearly intended to connect a small leather strap (attached at the bar) to another element, perhaps forming part of a book clasp.

SUR-74414C: A medieval cast copper alloy strap zoomorphic strap fitting, possibly a strap link or suspension mount.

With its distinctive combination of features this object joins a small corpus of similar items recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme (www.finds.org.uk), including SUR-B6ED40, DOR-B9F6C9, WAW-BC817E, CORN-0AF153 and SUR-61A772. The zoomorphic design, together with framing tendrils and other elements, represent the final flourishing of a diverse and widespread north west European artistic tradition stretching back to the end of the Roman empire. These forms were also to find variations of expression in later medieval stone carving and manuscript art, but would never be quite so distinctive on metalwork again as they were in this 11th-12th century period.

A unique farthing token from the Thames

The third quarter of the 17th century saw a serious deficit of circulating copper small change caused in part by the English civil wars of the 1640s and the cessation of the royal (rose) farthing coinage of Charles I. With everyday transactions desperately in need of usable currency, local and regional traders, craftsmen, civic corporations and hostelries stepped in to address the problem by issuing their own individual token farthings and halfpennies. Primarily functioning at a very local level, these tokens would be given out and exchanged by the issuers and those who trusted their business. Over 14,000 varieties are recorded as having been produced before they were banned by order of Charles II in 1672 whose government then issued an official copper coinage in the same recognisable form as persisted until decimalisation, some three hundred years later.

The distribution patterns and imagery of these tokens can tell us much about the activities of the issuers, many of whom were prominent characters with civic offices and roles who are named in historical documents of the period. Despite the huge recorded diversity, new issues come to light every so often, perhaps now more so than ever through the work of the Portable Antiquities Scheme which provides an easy channel for new discoveries to be documented and shared.

This particular token, recorded as SUR-7B4C77, is a previously undocumented variant and also a very well preserved example. It names a tavern or inn called the Ship Carpenter’s (or Shipwright’s) arms in Rotherhithe Wall, Southwark. On the obverse it has the arms of the name, on the reverse are the issuers’ initials I & T W, most likely for the tavern’s proprietor and his wife . Both the identity of the owner and the precise location of this establishment are apparently not now known.

Surrey benefits from having an extremely comprehensive and up-to-date study of these tokens (Tim Everson’s (2015) “Seventeenth Century Trading Tokens of Surrey and Southwark” ), but even so only one other example was previously known of a token issued by this particular establishment – itself also known from a unique specimen, but with a different design to this latest find. Consequently this variant becomes a new addition to the corpus of tokens for the historic county of Surrey and Southwark and is now the reference example for its type, Surrey 284B.

Newly discovered 17th century Farthing token of the Ship Carpenters Arms, Rotherhithe Wall

Commios or Tincomarus? An Iron Age coin quandry from Surrey

Of all the finds recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the one specific group which probably has the potential to contribute to archaeological and historical knowledge more than any other are Iron Age coins. These date from a period when the only extant written records were those of Roman writers who often viewed the peoples of Britain disparagingly as barbarians and, frequently, the enemy. Consequently their histories provide only latinised names for the tribes and rulers of the time and are contradictory and frequently pejorative. The coins issued by the peoples of Britain on the other hand often record the names and dynastic claims of rulers ignored or mis-named by these histories. By recording the incidence and distribution of the various types we can plot the extent of territories and the waxing and waning of the power of the British polities and their rulers in the decades prior to the Roman invasion.

Iron Age silver unit from Surrey (SUR-7E7764)

A recent discovery recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme is this small silver unit from Effingham, Surrey (SUR-7E7764), which was issued by a local tribe in the late Iron Age, either the Atrebates (north east Hampshire) or the Regini (west Sussex). The obverse shows a head with a characteristically “celtic” lentoid eye, a curved ladder for hair and a stylised face in front. The reverse depicts a horse left, with unclear letter(s) above and an unclear animal below.

A feature of coins from this period, amply demonstrated by this specimen, is that the designs on the dies were often slightly larger than the actual struck flans, which often consequently display only part of the complete whole. In this case, the precise identity of the coin is dependent on elements which are not included in this strike; specifically letters above the horse on the reverse which on this example are off of the area of the flan. A letter “E” would signify a type issued by Commios (50-25 BC: cf. ABC p. 67, nos. 1037 or 1040). If however the lettering was “TIN” then the type could be a near identical type of Tincomarus (c.20 BC-AD 10: cf. ABC p. 68, no. 1097). The latter is listed as “potentially unique” in the references, so if this were the case this coin would be a very significant thing indeed! The condition and location of the reverse strike makes this a difficult question to satisfactorily resolve, but other similarities in the dies suggest that this may possibly be a second recorded example for the Tincomarus type.

Recorded metal detecting finds are constantly adding to the variety and quantity of types of Iron Age coins that we know of. Alongside this progress, the number which are also dug up but go unrecorded and are sadly lost is difficult to estimate. Such is the impact of the hobby on this particular area of numismatics however that the one thing you can safely say about it is that the rare types get less rare every year and “unique” types are unlikely to stay unique for long.

References:

Cottam, E., de Jersey, P., Rudd, C. and Sills, J. 2010 Ancient British Coins Aylsham Chris Rudd

A Medieval Floor Tile from Newark Priory, Surrey

The Portable Antiquities Scheme for the most part records metal finds, as a consequence of the ever-growing hobby of metal detecting. We do however frequently encounter interesting objects which are not metal and which also have really interesting stories to tell.

This find, recorded on the PAS database as SUR-9A7323, is a fragment of a medieval two-colour ceramic inlaid and glazed encaustic floor tile of 13th century date from Newark Priory, Surrey. It is not a recent find, being discovered back in 1972 by a sharp eyed 14 year old boy on a family walk across the fields, laying in soil on the surface in the area of the North transept chapel. The farmer at the time allowed the local public free access to the site, which would later be scheduled. Picked up and taken home, the finder thought that it was significant and was keen to report it to the local museums but in those pre-PAS days nothing came of it and it had to wait 50 years before being finally recorded and added to the archaeological record.

Medieval floor tile
SUR-9A7323: a Medieval encaustic floor tile from Newark Priory, Surrey.

The tile has a red clay fabric, with an inlaid design filled with whiter clay (this inlay is visible in the edge section) and covered by a glaze. The partial design incorporates a quatrefoil made of five lozenges set within a double ringed border which has a cusp visible on one side suggesting it comprises part of a larger quatrelobed frame. A portion of another comparable frame is visible on the outside edge. Tiles such as this were a major feature of the interiors of medieval churches and high-status ecclesiastical buildings and Surrey was particularly famous for them, with examples produced down the road at Chertsey abbey being the very highest quality of them all. Examples are on display to this day in the medieval galleries of the British Museum (e.g. floor-tile | British Museum).

What is particularly interesting about this latest recorded find is that it can be matched to a complete example excavated from Newark Priory in 1928-1929 (Surrey Archaeological Collections 40, 1932: Plate X). The full design (below) was geometric, with four quatrelobed double-line frames surrounding a small rosette at the centre of the tile and with each quatrelobed frame containing quatrefoils in the lobes and a pentafoil rosette at its centre. Another example of this same design has been recorded from the nearby site of Waverley Abbey (Brakspear, 1905: Plate 17), suggesting a common local source of manufacture, perhaps the well-known tile kilns at Chertsey Abbey. This find may have even been made with the same wooden pattern stamp as other recorded examples.

A complete example of the design (Source: Surrey Archaeological Collections 40, 1932: Plate X, accessed from the ADS)

This object, with its direct connection to a site and period, is of considerable local historical interest and has been flagged as a “find of note” on the PAS database. It is also interesting in that it embodies such a prolonged post-depositional object biography; as a chance find kept for half a century before finally being recorded, identified and then linked to other finds from both this and nearby sites recorded a century or more earlier. It serves as an example that the work of the PAS is not just about things found today; an important aspect of what we do is to also convert the legacy of private collections and finds from years past – as long as (of course) we can be provided with that all-important findspot!

References:

Brakspear, H, 1905, Waverley Abbey, Guildford: Surrey Archaeological Society

Pearce, C.M.H, 1932, An Account of the Buildings of Newark Priory, with a note on its Founders’ Family, Surrey Archaeological Collections 40, Guildford: Surrey Archaeological Society

A rare Medieval Continental Sterling Penny from Dorking, Surrey

This unusual silver medieval coin was found by metal detecting just to the north of Dorking, Surrey and has been recorded on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database as SUR-A17568. It is an example of a type of coin known generically as a “continental sterling” penny, more specifically by the French name ‘au château brabançon‘. Its obverse shows a castle gate flanked by two towers with the legend DVX DE BRABAnTIA; the reverse has an English style long cross with three pellets in each angle with the legend MOn/ETA/BRV/XEL.

 

SUR-A17568: a medieval continental sterling au château brabançon

This coin, only the sixth of its type yet recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme (www.finds.org.uk), was minted in Brussels by John III, Duke of Brabant, which at the time was part of the Holy Roman Empire. It dates to the first half of the 14th century (c. 1312-1355), a period when the silver coinage of England, following Edward I’s reforms in 1279, was the finest in Europe – the very term “sterling” being a reference to the purity of the silver (at 92.5%). This was a far cry from earlier English issues which were often plagued by poor quality, clipping, forgery and variable weights which undermined confidence in their use.

The new Edwardian coinage was widely imitated by continental rulers seeking to boost confidence in their own economies. Typically such copies are of lower grade silver and initially closely imitated the design of the originals, with similar facing portraits and legends. The type seen here however, with its distinctively different “castle” obverse, superceded such imitative issues in the low countries. It represents an example of a distinctively new form of continental coinage, generated by the growth and increasing confidence of the economy of Brabant as it profited from the English wool trade and cloth production in the early 14th century. Nevertheless, the continued influence of the English currency remains clear on the coinage, with an English-style reverse still evident on this issue.

During this period the polity of Brabant became an important regional power and John III, who was also a grandson of Edward I, became a useful ally to his cousin Edward III during the early part of the hundred years’ war. He even attempted to marry off his daughter Margaret to Edward, the Black Prince, Edward III’s heir. This alliance disintegrated before that could actually happen and John subsequently switched sides to ally with the French in 1347, an event typical of the turbulent politics of the time.

Throughout this period, coins like this circulated informally in England with varying degrees of acceptance and legality. Consequently finding a coin of this type, even a rare one like this, doesn’t necessarily indicate a specific or unusual connection. Instead it speaks more broadly of the wider context of the country within the northern European economy, the strength of the English currency and the complex politics during the early stages of the Hundred Years’ War.

References:

Allen, M, 2012, Mints and Money in Medieval England, Cambridge University Press

Grierson, P, 1991, Coins of Medieval Europe, London: Seaby

J. Chautard, 1871, Imitations des monnaies au type esterlin frapées en Europe pendant le XIIIe et le XIVe siècle, Nancy

Mayhew, N.J, 1983, Sterling Imitations of Edwardian Type, London: The Royal Numismatic Society

A papal bulla from Guildford

This finely preserved example of a medieval papal bulla, or seal, was found at Compton near Guildford in Surrey and recorded with the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) as SUR-D520A7. It is named to pope Innocent III (1198-1216), one of the most powerful popes of the era. The obverse read INNO/CENTIVS/PP III and the reverse displays the heads of St. Peter (right) and St. Paul (left), facing inwards and separated by a small central cross patonce, with legend SPASPE (‘Saint Paul and St. Peter’) above. There are slots on the upper and lower edges for a ribbon which would have attached the bulla to a document.

SUR-D520A7 – a bulla of Innocent III from Guildford

A bulla like this was affixed to a document issued by the papacy in order to demonstrate its authenticity to the recipient. The associations with important church documents and the papacy often resulted in these objects being subsequently destroyed to decommission documents or modified for re-use as amulets or in another apotropaic fashion. This example has suffered none of these fates and remains intact and in remarkably good condition.

Beyond its intrinsic interest, this find has a potential local historical connection, being directly contemporary to the First Baron’s War (1215-1217), a time when nearby Guildford castle was a royal possession and the scene of dramatic events. The named pope on this bulla, Innocent III, was notably the pontif to whom King John turned in his attempts to annul Magna Carta and oppose the barons’ demands in July 2015. He dutifully proved to be a supporter of John’s royal cause and condemned the original charter signed “under duress” at Runnymede. Following this annulment of this iconic agreement the civil war intensified and on June 6th 1216, Prince Louis of France invaded with the support of the rebel English barons in a concerted attempt to unseat the King. The French army advanced across Surrey, arriving at Guildford on June 8th. The castle surrendered to him immediately, apparently without conflict and was briefly occupied by the French – an episode which saw it suffering damage and partial demolition. Across the rest of the country the war dragged on for a year and a half before Louis, having lost the support of the English barons, was finally defeated at Lincoln in May 1217.

Despite this historical context, the nature of the document to which this bulla was attached will of course never be known and we can only speculate as to the identity of the individual or establishment to which it was originally sent. It nevertheless offers a glimpse of a dramatic period and an interesting example of how a metal-detected stray find, when properly recorded and documented, can directly connect to wider historical events within the area in which it was found.

A Rare Survival of a Medieval Textile Girdle from Betchworth, Surrey

Found in the environs of the Betchworth estate, Surrey and recorded with the Portable Antiquities Scheme as SUR-1CD215, this trapezoidal copper alloy plate was one of a pair which flanked a forked spacer element as part of a late Medieval strap end of composite type (Egan and Pritchard, 2002: p140-146). In of itself, this is a common type of find and is 14th or 15th century in date. The plate is decorated with an abstract geometric motif comprising a central band of alternating triangles each with a single small slashed line at the centre, surrounded by two rows of rectangular and triangular panels, each with decoration in the form of rocker-arm patterns or short incised lines.

SUR-1CD215: a late Medieval strap end with preserved textile fragment

What makes this particular object interesting however is that despite having lost its partner plate and spacer it retains a portion of the girdle or belt to which it was attached, in the form of a small patch of textile which remains on the rear edge of the plate. This fragment of organic fabric, measuring 19.8mm by 12.5mm, retains the full width of the girdle or belt (around 2cm) and is tablet woven from a coarse fibre, with neat parallel sides. It is most likely made of linen or worsted. Originally it was likely to have been dyed or patterned – however any colours have now faded and bleached due to the years of burial.

The strap end was attached to the textile strip using two copper alloy rivets mounted on the decorated rear edge of the plate. The corrosion of these rivets created a high concentration of toxic copper salts in the immediate environment of the surrounding cloth which inhibited bacterial action and prevented decay – but only in the area where these salts penetrated. Consequently the rest of the textile has been lost. This surviving fragment demonstrates that only a short length of the end of the belt or girdle was retained within the strap end, clamped between the plates and spacer with the rivets at the rear, as was the typical method of attachment (Egan and Pritchard, 2002: 37). The survival of the textile also suggests that the rest of the strap end has only recently become detached and may remain to be recovered.

Girdles and belts were ubiquitous elements of later Medieval dress, likely produced in standard widths and often subject to sumptuary laws. The changing fashions for tighter fitting clothing in the 14th century added to their social importance and they had a role in expressing identity (Gilchrist, 2012: 99, 103). They were often highly decorated with mounts, buckles and strap ends which today are ubiquitous detect finds and recorded in vast numbers on the PAS database. Despite being made variously from leather, silk, linen and worsted cloth, surviving examples are usually leather and almost exclusively recovered from waterlogged (usually urban) contexts. Consequently this textile fragment recovered from open agricultural land is a very rare survivor.

References

Gilchrist, R, 2012, Medieval Life: Archaeology and the Life Course, Boydell Press

Egan, G, Pritchard, F, Dress Accessories 1150-1450, Museum of London

A Ptolemaic Coin from Leatherhead, Surrey

This extraordinary copper alloy coin (SUR-4EA551) was found by a walker in a nature reserve in Leatherhead, Surrey, apparently lying on the ground surface. Although heavily worn, it is identifiable as being from the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, possibly a dichalkon (1/24 drachm) or diobol of Ptolemy II (Ptolemaios II Philadelphos), minted in Alexandria and dating to 285-246 BC. The obverse depicts the diademed head of Zeus-Ammon right; the reverse shows an Eagle standing left on thunderbolt, with wings open and the letters ΛΞ in left field.

A Ptolemeic coin from Leatherhead (SUR-4EA551)

This exotic find was recorded with the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) with, as is so often the case, absolutely no archaeological context and presents us with a real mystery. On the face of it, two possible origins can be suggested; as either a modern or ancient loss. Perhaps the most likely suggestion is that it can be dismissed as a relatively modern deposition, perhaps dropped in the last century by children playing with something acquired as a souvenir from service in Egypt during wartime or the period of the country’s incorporation within the British Empire. There is however, the tenuous possibility that it may represent a contemporary import from the late British Iron Age, perhaps exposed on the ground surface by a burrowing animal or weathering. If so it may offer tantalising evidence of pre-Roman trade networks and contacts with the Mediterranean.

This idea is not quite as ridiculous a suggestion as it sounds. There are now more than 20 examples of similar Ptolemaic coins which have been recorded as finds from England and Wales on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database (www.finds.org.uk) alongside dozens of contemporary exotic coins of Helenistic, Punic, Numidian and Greek origin dating to the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC. Many of these on the PAS database have been flagged as “finds of note” – that is, finds where the recorder is sufficiently convinced of their validity as a part of the local archaeological record to mark them as significant within it. In these cases, attributes of site association, the presence of contemporary finds or the condition of the patina (which can differentiate coins originating from desert environments as opposed to British soils) can be used to suggest that the coin is not to be immediately dismissed as a modern loss.

Even so, in isolation as stray finds outside of an excavated archaeological context, these types of unusual finds can always just be written off as most likely being modern losses. The strength of the data recorded on the PAS database is however in being able to look beyond such finds in isolation to examine their wider occurrence across the country. Combined with increasing numbers of other early (pre conquest) Roman colonial and provincial imports which are being recorded (including notable examples from Surrey such as SUR-D6E275 and SUR-E28078) it is possible to suggest that at least a few of these coins represent a genuine archaeological insight into Iron Age trade. Perhaps such exotic coins, whilst not retaining exchangeable value as currency in the early British monetary economy, were regarded as curios or keepsakes by traders and travellers, occasionally making their way back into the possession of local people in this part of the country. The findspot of this example is particularly interesting from the perspective of the county’s archaeology as it lies close to the transportation corridor of the Thames, known to be a major trade route to the continent in the late Iron Age. Of course, in order to corroborate such ideas we would need examples found within a unambiguous depositional context of the period; until then all we can offer from the PAS evidence is the suggestion.

This coin is currently on display to the public at the Surrey History Centre in Woking.

An Early Medieval Architectural Censer Cover from Guildford

A censer, also known as a thurible, was a container which was swung from chains to produce scented smoke during church services. It comprised a metal vessel containing incense, ignited with burning embers or charcoal, with an openwork cover which allowed the resulting smoke to disperse. These covers were often highly decorative objects, but today are extremely rare survivors from the Medieval period, with less than twenty examples known. A particularly rare type are the early “architectural” style covers, modelled on the square towers of late Anglo-Saxon churches, which date to the 10th-11th centuries. Recently an object resembling one of these and likely either a small censer cover or an associated fitting, has been discovered near Guildford and recorded with the Portable Antiquities Scheme as SUR-777720.

A 10th-11th century censer cover from Guildford (SUR-777720).

The object is 45.4mm in height and decorated in a simple style which is comparable to the Winchester style or Romanesque traditions, with cast openwork panels to the side walls and four lozenge-shaped fields forming the roof. The base comprises a plinth with two projecting rounded perforated lugs which contain rusted iron. These are possibly the remains of narrow rods which would have attached to a suspension chain, allowing the cover to be raised so that the bowl beneath could be filled with incense.

The side wall panels on the long axis contain trefoils, probably stylised depictions of angels, with small central bosses; these alternate with panels above the fixing lugs which depict a flower bud between a pair of facing scrolls. The perforations in these panels would have allowed the incense to disperse. The four lozengiform roof facets have five-leaved foliate motifs, possibly palm fronds. These form pointed arches to each of the four sides. One of these roof panels has a small hole drilled into it near the apex. The top of the object has a rounded terminal knop and there are eight smaller decorative knops at the angles between the roof and sides.

According to Zarnecki et al (1984) only three examples of this style of architectural censer cover were known from this period before the PAS, including an elaborate example from Canterbury (1927,1116.1) one from Pershore, Worcestershire (1960,0701.1) and an incomplete example found in the Thames in the 19th century (1837,0328.1), all of which are held by the British Museum.  Another, much simpler example has since been recorded by the PAS (NMS-DFB8F0) which has been infilled with lead and re-used as a weight. A couple of comparable objects in the British Museum collection of near identical size, form and decoration albeit labelled as “finials” (1997,0403.2 and 1997,0403.1) have also survived by being infilled with lead for re-use. 

The object must have come from a relatively wealthy church and is certainly contemporary to the foundation of the royal castle complex in Guildford at the end of the 11th century, a time when wealth and power were concentrating on the area following the Norman Conquest. The reasons why this object was found in a field outside the modern town however, are unclear. Perhaps the most likely explanation is that it was stripped from a local church during the chaos and religious zeal of the reformation or the English civil war and subsequently thrown away. A late Medieval gilded mount, probably from an altar cross or mazer (SUR-3D236F) has been previously found in the area which could perhaps add weight to the idea that a number of Medieval liturgical fittings were once dumped here and have since become dispersed across the site.

References

Clinch, G, 1903, Old English Churches: Their Architecture, Furniture, Decoration, Monuments, Vestments, and Plate, London

Tonnochy, A. B. (1932). A Romanesque censer-cover in the British Museum. The Archaeological Journal 89. Vol 89, pp. 1-16.

Zarnecki, G., Holt, J. and Holland, T.  1984, English Romanesque Art 1066-1200, London    Arts Council of Great Britain in association with Weidenfield and Nicolson