Fig. 78.—Oldbury Hill. ½
The central rib running down the blade is in many cases connected with some ornament below the stop-ridge. The ornament consists usually of raised ribs, either straight and converging, as on Fig. 78, or curved so as to form a semi-elliptical or shield-shaped loop, as on Fig. 79.
The original of Fig. 78 was found on Oldbury Hill, Much Marcle, Herefordshire, and is in my own collection. I have a smaller example of the same type (5⅜ inches) found at Hammerton, Huntingdonshire, as well as one from the Cambridge Fens (6 inches).
One (6¾ inches) found at Danesfield,[325] near Bangor, has been figured. I have seen one found near Chelmsford (6¾ inches) with much the same ornament. One (6¼ inches) in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries, found in Northamptonshire, has the middle rib large, and the converging ribs much slighter. There are some which have only a slight central ridge on the blade, and are ornamented with an indented chevron below the stop-ridge. I have one such from the Cambridge Fens, and I have seen one (6½ inches) which was found at Broomswell, near Woodbridge, Suffolk.
A palstave of this character 6 inches long, found near the Upper Woodhouse Farm, Knighton, Radnorshire, is engraved in the Archæologia Cambrensis.[326] The loop, owing to a defect in casting, is filled with metal. Six others (6 inches long), apparently of the same character, were found with some rough castings of flanged celts at Rhosnesney,[327] near Wrexham.
Two others (6 inches) were found with a chisel and a spear-head, like Fig. 407, at Broxton, Cheshire, and are in the collection of Sir P. de M. Grey Egerton, Bart.
The type is found upon the continent. One from Normandy[328] has been engraved by the Abbé Cochet. I have an example from the neighbourhood of Abbeville.
One from near Giessen, in the museum at Darmstadt, is figured by Lindenschmit.[329]
