He was kind enough to send me some links to further information. The dig itself is the subject of an article in MAN, the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, for May 1931. Vulliamy was actually excavating a prehistoric hut circle, and found the sword, broken into two pieces, in the debris of a collapsed wall. It was pretty badly corroded, with only the tang that had fitted inside the lost hilt, but it was 34 inches long. There was also a bronze ring nearby which he supposed to be for the purpose of attaching the scabbard to a belt. Vulliamy also mentions the dig in his autobiography, Calico Pie.
A local newspaper article of the time mentioned that the sword had been given to the British Museum, and that sent me down a rabbit hole of research. A lot of the British Museum collection is listed online now, but there was no trace of the Vulliamy sword.
There was, however, another Saxon sword found in Wales. This one had been found or acquired at Builth Wells in 1969, from R Warren. It was made in the 9thC, and this one has the remains of a rather fine hilt:
This one is only 31cm long - or about 12 inches, but has hilt decoration in silver and niello, which is the black inlay on the silver, made of a mixture of sulphur, copper, silver and lead.
Still on the trail of the Vulliamy sword, I tried the catalogue of the National Museum of Wales. There was no sign of a Saxon sword, but they do have a good collection of Iron Age swords which were found around Llyn Cerrig Bach on Anglesey, when the runway of RAF Valley was being extended in 1942. These would have been deliberately thrown into the lake as offerings.
And then John Price came to the rescue again. He got in touch with the Senior Curator for Archaeology at the National Museum in Cardiff, Evan Chapman, who provided a link to the "Medieval Sword (probably Saxon)", which is in storage in the collection of the National Museum of Wales, along with the bronze ring.
3 comments:
Hi Lesley
Thanks for rounding up the information and giving this rare find some publicity.
It's also given Evan Chapman a long forgotten item to research.
Here's the link:
https://museum.wales/collections/online/?field0=string&value0=31.76/1&field1=string&value1=31.76
btw his name was Colwyn Vulliamy, not Conway :)
His book Calico Pie is as rare as Hen's teeth, you can read a copy by request only in Hereford library (when it was open).
ST MARY’S CHURCH, HAY-ON-WYE
Father Richard Williams is pleased to announce the resumption of Sunday services at St Mary’s Church, Hay-on-Wye, from Sunday 19th July 2020.
Obviously social distancing will be required and people will be asked to use the hand sanitiser attached to the door leading into the church.
There will be shortened service with communion in one kind and unfortunately no hymns. The service will be held at 11.00am.
It will be good to be able to welcome the congregation, friends and visitors, to the church once again.
The church is also open for private prayer between 10.00am and 12.00noon and 2.00pm and 4.00pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Thanks for the correction, John - I was mixing up my North Welsh seaside towns! Now fixed.
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