Shropshire

It appears that up to the end of the twelfth century, the site of the present churchyard of Ludlow, the most elevated part of the hill, was occupied by a very large tumulus, or barrow. In the year 1199, the townsmen found it necessary to enlarge their church, which seems to have been of small dimensions, and for this purpose they were obliged to clear away the mound. In doing this, they discoveredi n the interior of the mound three sepulchral deposits, which were probably included in square chests, as at Bartlow, and the narrator perhaps exaggerates a little in calling them 'mausolea of stone'. But the clergy of Ludlow, in the twelfth century, were by no means profound antiquaries; they determined in their own minds that the bones they had found were the relics of three Irish saints, the father, mother and uncle of the famous St. Brandan, and they buried them devoutly in their church, with the confidence that their holiness would be soon evinced in numerous miracles. It was to this tumulus alone that the name Leode-hlaew belonged.

The account of this event was preserved in the monastery of Cleobury Motimer, in what Leland calls a 'schedula,' and was copied for that antiquary by a monk of the house. It is printed in Leland's Collectanea viii, p407...