The story so far

Our story starts in a cold, muddy field in the winter of 2014.

Tom Lucking, a local metal detectorist and archaeology student, was detecting on farmland when he found a bronze bowl. Suspecting it may be part of a grave, he re-covered it. Weeks later, an archaeological investigation confirmed Tom's suspicions, revealing the grave of an Anglo-Saxon woman dating from about 650AD. She must have been of extremely high social status as she had been buried with elaborate, valuable jewellery.

Assemblage of jewellery found buried with the Winfarthing lady (courtesy of Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery)

This was all rather surprising.

There was no known Anglo-Saxon settlement in the area, so what was this burial doing here?

Further investigations by Time Team in 2022 revealed a wider Anglo-Saxon cemetery, and clues about earlier Roman use of the site.

Metal detecting on a spoil heap during the Time Team dig (Photo: Karen McKay)

The Winfarthing community was hugely excited by these revelations about our village. A small group formed to stay in touch with further research developments, organise events, and fundraise for future work to enhance our understanding and display of the finds. This group has now become the Winfarthing Anglo-Saxon Project, a registered charity.

So far we have hosted fundraising events, created a display of pop-up banners, hosted our first Heritage Open Day and two early music concerts, and begun planning for a funding bid.

Display of local metal detecting finds at our Heritage Open Day event in 2024

Kemp's Noyse, who performed a variety of early music from Anglo-Saxon onwards for us in summer 2025

Our plans for the immediate future are to run more events which bring the local community together, sometimes to find out more about this incredible local history and sometimes just to have fun and meet neighbours. Alongside this we will be applying for funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to run a project in 2026 - more details coming soon.

If you would like to join us on the journey please join our mailing list by contacting us on wasp650ad@gmail.com