Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1883-12-22 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

SUPPOSED ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS. In the course of levelling the ground for the erection of a station at Whitchureb, Hants, in connection with the Didcot, Newbury, and Southampton Junction Railway, a group of burials considered to belong to the Anglo-Saxon period has been discovered. The spot is on the elevated summit of a chalky knoll, which rises above the river Test and the old London and Exeter turnpike road, within 50 yards of the parish churchyard, from which, however, it is separated by a highway. The bodies, 12 of which have been exhumed, had been placed at full length, upon the back, at an average depth of about 18in. below the surface of the ground, without any trace of coffins; nor was any implement, pottery, or ornament found to be directly associated with any of the burials. Judging from the remarkable similarity of skulls,in all their characteristic features, to those ,bund in an extensive .Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Knitbury on the river Kennet, and presented to the Oxford University Museum, it is thought that these graves may be assigned reasonably to the same period. It is remarkable that the teeth are wonderfully preserved, and although much worn there is scarcely one that exhibits any sign of decay. In a very few cases have any been lost before death, the full number being retained in the majority of the iaws, which are very much developed.  After a fire, which broke out in one of the upper floors of some premises in Jewin-street, London, had been subdued, one of the firemen, named Thatcher, was on the parapet of some adjoining premises engaged in lowering the hose when he lost his balance and fell into the street, a distance of about 60 feet. He was immediately conveyed to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, where he expired. A mural tablet has just been erected in the Free Christian Church, Shrewsbury, by the pastor and members of the congregation, upon which is the following inscription: "To the memory of Charles Robert Darwin, author of 'The Origin of Species.' Born in Shrewsbury, February 12th, 1809. In early fife a member of and a constant worshipper in tlus church. Died April 19th, 1882."  Several smacks arrived at Scarborough on Saturday, bringing news of the violence of the recent gale. All thci boats have lost their gear nets, broken their booms, &c. The Jackal was swept by a sea,and the skipper and a deck head were carried away and drowned. The Acacia also lost one of her crew, besides sustaining other damage; and another smack has passed Scarborough dismantled and towed by two vessels.  It is expected that the Prince of Wales will it Newcastle in May next, for the purpose of opening the grounds recently presented to the city by Sir William Armstrong and the new museum of the Natural History Society. The Tyne Commissioners have . asked the Prince to open upon the same occasion the Coble Dens Dock, now being constructed near North Shields.  As an instance of what may be accomplished in the way of electric lighting, it is stated that a eon at Mr. Storey, ironmonger, of Oundle, who is only 17 years of age, has lighted his father's premises with the electric light, having fitted all the apparatus himself, and made the engine which drives the dynamo.  William Broadhead, a gunmaker, was sentenced La a month's imprisonment at Birmingham on Saturday for murderously_ assaulting a constable on the previous night. The prisoner and his wife in the Course of a quarrel fell into a cellar. Two policemen went to their assistance, and the prisoner then tried to stab one of them with a knife, but the weapon was knocked out of his hand.. H. then tore down a lighted swing-lamp and struck another officer on the head with it rendering him insensible.