Castle Garth, Anglo-Saxon bead

During the 1929 excavations of the North of England Excavation Committee half of an Anglo-Saxon bead, 14 mm in diameter, was found "in a shaft near the top of the Dog Leap Stairs". For many years this was the only pre-Norman Conquest object found in Newcastle. The bead is of reddish brown glass, somewhat weathered, inset with marbled yellow spirals and translucent natural glass "eyes".