Digs suggest leafy Repton once saw Viking horrors

The importance of St Wystan’s to the Anglo-Saxons is shown by its crypt, a unique survival from the 8th Century. It is once thought to have held the tombs of Mercian kings but was likely ransacked, along with the neighbouring monastery, when the Vikings seized the town.

Its importance to the Vikings is shown by two graves found by the Biddles just outside the eastern end of the church, next to the crypt.

Dr Brownlee said: “One was an older man, the other younger. Both died violently, with the older suffering injuries to his head and leg. From the angle of the cut to his femur, it is likely this blow severed his genitals as well.

“He was buried with a sword, a Thor’s hammer pendant and a boar’s tusk, which as it sat between his legs, may have been a posthumous replacement for his genitalia. The grave goods and the position of the burial indicate these were high status individuals.

“Both graves were covered with stones, some of which belonged to a smashed Saxon cross, which may itself have been a statement of conquest.”