Halesworth’s stylish Anglo Saxons: discovery of an ornate strap end
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- READING TIME: 3 minutes
- AUTHORS: Caroline Adams (Community Engagement Officer)
Strap ends – a protective and decorative metal fitting attached to the raw end of a strap – along with hooked clasps and pins, are the most common type of metal dress accessory to survive from the Late Anglo-Saxon period (AD 850 – 1066).
Quite literally thousands are known, with some present in museum collections and growing numbers excavated across many archaeological sites.
The vast majority, however, are found by metal detectorists. The objects come in all shapes, sizes and forms and are mostly made of copper alloy.
During 2024, excavations at the market town of Halesworth, Suffolk, found extensive evidence of Middle to Late Anglo-Saxon activity. Remains of buildings, hearths and a small cemetery set within contemporary field systems revealed the activity happening at the site during this time, in what was likely a new suburb of the expanding town.
Traces of at least four buildings were discovered, three of which were posthole structures, associated with several hearths. Although these buildings’ functions were uncertain, the posthole examples could have been used as workshops, possibly for industrial or craft work. Seven late Middle Anglo-Saxon inhumation burials (where the body is buried) were uncovered, alongside more recent ditch systems and rubbish pits. A possible fifth building was made up of a mixture of beamslots (trenches within which timber foundations were set) and postholes. This may have been a chapel associated with the burials, though the evidence here is inconclusive.
The site produced some interesting metal artefacts, mostly located in and around one of the Late Anglo-Saxon posthole buildings. Some of these finds support the suggestion of industrial or craft activity, including large quantities of lead, fired clay, quern stones, a spindle whorl, furniture fittings, nails, knives and a heckle tooth. Heckles, made from numerous iron teeth set into a wooden handle, were used to prepare wool or flax fibres before spinning. The presence of lead working waste likely originates from a wealthy building in the town, possibly a church or manor house. The star find, however, was a copper alloy strap end, which would have been fixed to the ends of leather or textile straps to stop the ends from fraying.
Different art styles can be used to decorate these objects. The most common during the 9th century is the Trewhiddle style, which incorporates plant and animal designs set within panels. From the 9th century onwards, other artefacts show a Scandinavian influence, including the Borre style – stylised animal heads serve as decoration. From the 10th century, the Winchester style also appears on strap ends, using symmetrical plant designs resembling those seen in contemporary illuminated manuscripts.
Most of the decoration is cast onto the objects when they are made, with further surface treatments added after. Strap ends can be coated with a thin layer of gold (gilding), or have a black paste called ‘niello’ added. This paste can be used on silver strap ends (or those with silver wire) to create a striking contrast between the silver and black, making the design dramatically pop out.
The Halesworth strap end dates to the 9th century. At one end appears the form of a stylised animal head, with rounded ears and an elongated snout. Decoration sits in a rectangular panel, with ‘S’ shaped scrolls of silver wire placed into niello paste. On its forehead, there is a second, smaller panel of niello, which contains a single curl of silver wire. At the opposite end, the strap end is split to hold the leather or textile strap, with the two halves secured together by a pair of rivets.
The artefact’s decoration is a feature of a distinct group of strap-ends which seem to have been made locally in East Anglia. Similar examples are mostly found in Suffolk and Norfolk, though pieces from Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Essex are also known. One particularly well-travelled example was even discovered during the excavations at the Anglo-Saxon centre of Hamwic – now known as Southampton, Hampshire.
As large numbers of this type are clustered around Ipswich in Suffolk, these strap ends may have been made in a specialised workshop located there. It seems that the decoration on these objects may well reflect the local tastes for everyday dress accessories of that period.
