The Hidden Valley
Following discoveries made by metal detectorists Craig Allison and Glyn Nicklen, the site of Sawcliffe was excavated between 1993 and 1998 by North Lincolnshire Museum staff and volunteers. Two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries were revealed.
Just over a quarter of a century later, the site report is due to be published for the first time. Interpretation and understanding of the site and its significance has grown in the years since Sawcliffe was excavated. The exhibition Hidden Valley, opening at the museum in November 2024, tells the fascinating story of Sawcliffe and the landscape in which it is set, the Hidden Valley of Winterton Vale.
In 1992 metal detectorists Craig Allison and Glyn Nicklen discovered fragments of Anglo-Saxon metalwork on the site of Sheffield’s Hill, Roxby-cum-Risby. The site was later renamed Sawcliffe. Craig and Glyn reported their finds to Kevin Leahy of North Lincolnshire Museum. The objects were interesting in that they suggested the presence of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery, but Kevin thought it likely that the cemetery had been destroyed by deep ploughing. Other sites in Lincolnshire have been lost to intensive agriculture, so this would not have been anything unusual. Kevin recorded the finds but assumed that he would hear no more of the site.
The following year Craig and Glyn called Kevin in great excitement. They had discovered two gold pendants at Sawcliffe. It was clearly a site of some importance, and it was in danger of being destroyed through a combination of ploughing, erosion and rabbit activity. Museum staff and volunteers had recently finished excavating an Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Cleatham, so they had the resources to excavate Sawcliffe.
The site consisted of two cemeteries. Sawcliffe I dated to the sixth century and Sawcliffe II to the seventh. There were clear differences between the two cemeteries, reflecting changes taking place throughout England during this period. For example, there were considerable changes in the types and quantity of grave goods and in the layout and orientation of the graves.
The highly acidic soil meant that preservation of the bones was generally poor, although some of the bodies survived in the form of pseudomorphs, or sand men. Interestingly, rapid corrosion of the iron artefacts led to organic materials such as textiles being preserved in the corrosion products. Because of this, many of the grave groups were lifted as earth blocks so they could be carefully excavated and conserved in laboratory conditions. As a consequence, none of the people working on site got to see what they had uncovered. The Hidden Valley exhibition will be the first time some of these objects have been on display.
