 The documentary evidence is rather richer than the physical remains . Part of the reason for both these facts is the taste among the late Anglo @-@ Saxon elite for embroidering using lavish amounts of precious metal thread , especially gold , which both gave items a magnificence and expense worth recording , and meant that they were well worth burning to recover the bullion . Three old vestments , almost certainly Anglo @-@ Saxon , recycled in this way at Canterbury Cathedral in the 1370s , produced over £ 250 of gold – a huge amount . Richly embroidered hangings were used in both churches and the houses of the rich , but vestments were the most richly embellished of all , of a " particularly English " richness . Most of these were sent back to Normandy or burnt for their metal after the Norman conquest . An image of part of a huge gold acanthus flower on the back of a gold @-@ bordered chasuble , almost certainly depicting a specific real vestment , can be seen in the Benedictional of St. Æthelwold ( <unk> . <unk> ) . 
