Relhan Collection : 72 Lid of (Anglo-Saxon) stone coffin from the site of the Castle, 1843

Relhan, Richard, 1782-1844

Relhan Collection

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>Edward Ventris (<b>115, 116, 266, 269</b>)</p><p>This Anglo-Saxon grave slab was excavated ‘6 feet deep, a few yards outside the ramparts’ in 1843, after demolition of the Gatehouse. Seven others, plus a decorated cross shaft and head and small stones marked with a cross had been found on the Castle site under the ramparts of the bailey on SE side of the Gatehouse, when the ramparts were levelled in 1810. These slabs and cross were drawn (by Thomas Kerrich) soon after they were found but were then used as paving slabs for the Spinning House in St Andrew’s Lane and reduced to a fragmentary state before they were moved to the new Cambridge Museum by Ventris, together with his new find. Manufacture of this class of grave slab and cross was based in Cambridge, and several examples are known in and around the town and in surrounding counties. Like all Cambridge examples it is carved from Barnack stone. It is not known whether such grave slabs marked the graves of wealthy townspeople or priests, nor to which churchyard they originally belonged, but all have been moved to some extent from their original sites. They are indicative of a late Anglo-Saxon minster in this area, which was taken over by Picot, Norman sheriff of Cambridge, to create the house of Canons Regular which was later moved to Barnwell (<b>14). </b></p><p>Fox 1922; Everson and Stocker forthcoming </p></p>