STIRRUP

Cast copper alloy stirrup-strap mount, sub-triangular in plan with a slightly convex (domed) front and a concave rear face. The openwork decoration is in the form of three pairs of six apertures. Between the lower pair is a facing head with two pointed ears and there are two smaller flanking narrower heads with pointed snouts on either side, at the edge of the mount. Between the central apertures is another facing head with pointed ears and two smaller heads placed at angles flank the upper pair of apertures. On either side of the mount, about half way up either edge, are downward-looking beasts' heads in profile with curling snouts and crests which create the knopped edges at the sides of the mount. At the apex of the mount is a rounded edge with a circular rivet hole, 4 mm in diameter, within it which would have been used for attachment to the stirrup strap. On the reverse of the lower edge is a prominent integral cast flange which projects at almost a 90 degree angle from the surface of the mount. Within this flange are two evenly spaced integral rivet holes which still have their iron rivets intact, that are 5 mm in diameter. There is some iron corrosion product around these rivets and above the rivets there is part of the copper alloy plate that would have held the strap in place from the other side. The mount secured the leather loop that went through the aperture at the top of the iron stirrup.

According to the classification recorded by David Williams in his Late Saxon Stirrup-Strap Mounts (1997), this is a more worn example but similar to a mount from Dorset illustrated on page 104, fig.64, no. 504, which is classified as Class B, Type 2, Group 3. See also CORN-953F68 for a similar example with more detailed decoration.

This type of stirrup-strap mount is Anglo-Scandinavian in style, but may have come from the Continent, and dates from the 11th century (David Williams pers comm).