Burial

Burial in Saxon times was very varied; perhaps because of the gradual change from paganism to Christianity.  

Early Saxon burials were pagan and usually involved grave goods.  Chieftains were occasionally buried in a pagan simple low barrow without an encircling ditch - more of a grave mound than a barrow.  Grave goods could sometimes be very ostentatious - as at Sutton Hoo.

Christian Saxons tended to bury their dead in east-west aligned graves; probably in a consecrated graveyard.  Grave goods are unknown in Christian burials.  Locally these graveyards are found in low lying ground along river valleys - as at Shepperton, although at Walton Bridge Green only cremation urns were found.^{7 p199}  No cemeteries closer than these have yet been discovered. 

By the time this part of inland Surrey was colonised, the age of invading warrior chiefs had probably passed and we were seeing simple farmers occupying the land.  They would have been poor, probably Christian and so having simple graves without grave goods.  In our acid soils bone quickly dissolves and it would be almost impossible to find these graves.  It is possible that in our area, the Godley Hundred, that burials took place at Chertsey minster.  Certainly, later we have surviving records of Chobhammers complaining about having to take their dead to Chertsey.  It is also possible that during Saxon times, burial at the minster was reserved for high status persons; peasants being buried in simple local field cemeteries or even around sacred historical sites such as our Bronze age barrows.^{3 p85}  Support for the possibility of all being buried at Chertsey minster comes from the bounds for the period which make no mention of any burial ground; not even near the many barrows which lie on the boundaries.  Archaeological excavations at Chertsey Abbey showed there to be a medieval cemetery lying in the minster grounds just to the south of the church.  However, nothing was found (or survived) that could be shown to be Saxon.²

Saxons tended to bury execution victims in ground that was probably not consecrated and referred to by them as the heathen burial ground.  These were usually close to a road on the borders of the Hundred.  Whether the idea was to bury criminals as far out on the borders as possible, or whether gallows and a burial ground were set up where a major highway entered the Hundred as a warning we don't know.  We would expect the Hundred court to be at Chertsey and so a good candidate for the location of an execution burial ground must be the old highway that ran past the abbey and crossed the Thames on its way up through Laleham to London.  Interestingly there is a candidate for just such a execution burial ground in this location just north of the abbey wall inside an earthwork called Whiting's Plot.^{2 p82}

Clothing

The robe or tunic, gathered at the waist, was the common garment for a man, together with hose and soft shoes. Women appear to have more commonly worn an extended robe or dress. Brooches were used for attaching clothing and the status of individuals has been reflected in the quality and richness of the brooches found with grave goods.

References:-

2    Archaeological Investigations on the Site of Chertsey Abbey.  Rob Poulton. Pub: Surrey Archaeological Society. 1988

7    The Archaeology of Surrey to 1541.  Ed J & D Bird.  Pub: Surrey Archaeological Society.