File:Early-Medieval , Great square-headed brooch (FindID 864702).jpg

Only a small portion of the head and foot plate remain to the upper and lower aspects of an arched bow.

The remaining portion of the headplate is flat and sub-rectangular. It is decorated on the front surface with a raised rounded knop to the centre of the upper edge. Beneath this is a concentric rectangular border consisting of two raised ridges increasing in size on three sides above the arched bow. Within the resulting rectangular cell, three parallel ring and dot designs are present which retain gilding within the recessed areas. The edges of the surviving headplate fragment have been lost to old breaks. The remains of a double lug hinge mechanism to the reverse bearing iron corrosion product which suggests that some element of the pin mechanism was constructed of iron

The bow projects centrally from the lower edge of the headplate and is arched in profile. It has a central raised flat-topped longitudinal ridge of a type commonly found on Group XXII brooches. Recessed rectangular panels flank the ridge. A knop is present at the apex of the bow. This is heavily corroded though, when seen from the reverse, a separate rivet can be seen suggesting a separate disc, again common on Group XXII brooches may originally have been present though has since been lost to worn breaks.

From the lower edge of the bow the integral footplate extends. The majority of the footplate has been lost to old breaks though it will have been sub-triangular in shape. Style I decoration adorns the upper surface of the footplate in the form of a ring and dot feature below the bow, beneath which is a raised rounded knop similar to that on the headplate. This is flanked by semi-circular ribbed ridges. The decoration is incomplete. The remains of a catchplate is present to the reverse of the footplate next to which is an adhered short strip of iron, possibly all that remains of the pin.

The size, condition and elaborate nature suggests this brooch may have been part of a burial.

The metal has a light powdery green patina and is worn. The brooch is 59.3mm long, 25.4mm wide, 7.4mm thick and weighs 24.6g.

A similar example of a Hines Group XXII is from Sewerby grave 19 (Hines 1997, pl. 82b). Group XXII is northerly in distribution, particularly around the Humberside region and were generally thought by Hines to be among the latest great square-headed brooches dating to Hines's Phase 3 (c. AD 530 - c. AD 570).