Washingwells, cremation

During fencing on Washingwells Farm (nearer Marshall Lands than Washingwells) in 1951 a cremation was found in a Food Vessel Urn, standing upright in a cist. Only the upper part of the vessel has survived, its mouth sealed by a stone. The vessel, with a rim diameter of 300 mm, is made of coarse fabric, externally orange-brown with a black core and interior sooting. The vessel has a shoulder groove with applied stops, and is decorated with 5 lines of twisted cord on the internal bevel of the rim, and externally a herring-bone arrangement of short impressions of twisted cord on the rim and shoulder. The vessel was donated by Mr. L. Tate, the farmer of Washingwells, to the Hancock Museum from where it was later passed to the Sunderland Museum. The discovery was not recorded archaeologically and there is therefore no further information.