Site 3 : 'Empingham 1' early Anglo-Saxon settlement and cemetery

This report draws information from an original draft text written by late director Malcolm Dean following his excavations of 1966 and 1967, and incorporates the later findings of the 1969, 1970, and 1971 excavations directed by M.S. Gorin. The site (code EMP/EPS 1966- 1971) lay on the south side of the River Gwash at SK 9447 0776 over an ironstone outcrop. In about 1960, a small-long brooch was found on land belonging to Mr Eric Palmer of Church Farm, Empingham who, in 1966, brought it to the attention of Miss Christine Mahany and, on advice from Mr Stanley West, the brooch was given a sixth century date. Subsequently Mr Malcolm Dean, who had excavated Anglo-Saxon cemeteries at Willoughby-on-the-Wolds and Newark, visited Mr Palmer and found that during the intervening period, more material had been recovered by excavation from the same area, including parts of a copper alloy-bound wooden bucket, fragments of a copper alloy bowl, and sherds of an Anglo-Saxon pottery vessel. A small trial excavation by Malcolm Dean followed in late 1966, and uncovered two pagan Anglo-Saxon inhumation burials with accompanying grave finds (Phase 3 Burials 1 and 2). The threat posed by further ploughing led the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works to fund a three week excavation over Easter 1967 and further work was carried out in subsequent years. A total area of approximately 800 sq. metres was exposed and evidence for prehistoric, Roman, and Anglo-Saxon activity was recovered. [Introduction]