A Cemetery at Lackford, Suffolk: Report of the Excavation of a Cemetery of the Pagan Anglo-Saxon Period in 1947

The existence of this cemetery has been known for many years. Generations of warreners working on the Mill Heath, between Cavenham Mill and the Icknield Way crossing of the Lark at Lackford, have discovered numerous cinerary urns which found their way into various museums, notably the Ashmolean at Oxford and Moyses Hall at Bury St. Edmunds. The exact site, however, was not known till 1945, when the peninsula of breckland opposite Cavenham Mill was ploughed up for the first time in many years. The site had been ploughed before, probably during the Napoleonic wars, as could be clearly seen on air photographs. In 1945 Miss T. Home of Cavenham Hall, now Mrs J. Briscoe, observed that an urnfield was being ploughed away. Owing to petrol shortages and other difficulties, it was not possible to undertake serious investigation of the site for two years, by which time Mr Sam Marston of Icklingham Mill was also urging us to investigate the matter. Accordingly, as the site was threatened with deep ploughing, permission was obtained from Mr. Gough, the owner of the land, for investigations to be carried out. Through his kindness we have been enabled to excavate some five hundred cremations, which probably represent much less than half the total number of burials on the site.