The bracelet is made of a ribbon-like strip of bronze with a hook and eye fastening, of which the hook end (partly broken off) was formed like a serpent's head with a dot and ring for the eye, and lightly incised lines on the neck indicating scales. Bracelets fastened by hook and eye were a common type in Roman Britain, and the serpent motif a very popular ancient one, with many examples from Roman Britain, some quite spectacular.

The bracelet was lost or discarded when the stone foundations of the late Roman villa at Barton Court Farm were robbed out. Although this may have happened in post-Roman times, it seems likely either that the bracelet was a late Roman one, or else was the sub-Roman production of a still Romanised maker, in view of the wealth of Roman examples of this type.