Finglesham Anglo-Saxon cemetery

Finglesham Anglo-Saxon cemetery lies on a chalk knoll three kilometres south-east of Eastry in Kent. The site stands thirty metres above sea level and overlooks the North Stream valley to the north. A spring beneath the knoll once supplied fresh water to the local community. The cemetery was used between the sixth and eighth centuries, long after Roman rule ended in Britain. It formed part of the early Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Kent, which became a powerful political force in southern Britain. The Finglesham cemetery is unusual because it contains only inhumation burials, with no evidence of cremation. Many graves held grave goods such as weapons, jewellery and everyday objects. Archaeologists uncovered 216 graves during excavations led by Sonia Chadwick Hawkes between 1959 and 1967. Earlier digs in 1928–29 by William Stebbing and William Whiting had revealed 38 graves. The richest items date from the early and middle sixth century. Visitors today see a grassy knoll marked by faint ring ditches around some graves. The largest barrow, over Grave 204, would once have been a visible landmark. The cemetery’s triangular shape is still traceable, though part of the north-western edge was lost to quarrying. Below the site, the spring that once served the community still flows. The surrounding downland offers wide views across eastern Kent.