Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Tuesday, 31 January 2023

Another significant Anglo Saxon find from Harpole


Last December I posted in An Anglo-Saxon necklace from Northamptonshire about an important necklace and other items from a seventh century Anglo Saxon female burial that has been excavated at Harpole in central Northamptonshire.

Now the BBC News website has reported on the continuing process of excavating from a block of earth a handsome silver cross with a garnet at its centre from the same grave. From what has been revealed already by X-rays and by the delicate cleaning process this is a very significant piece ofwork and, it would appear, of considerable beauty. One looks forward to seeing what is finally revealed.

More than that it is also a further indicator of the material culture of Mercia in the time of its conversion to Christianity and of the wider world to which the population belonged.

The piece about the careful revealing of this cross can be seen at Unique medieval cross reveals its garnet centre
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