Saville was born in Lewisham, and studied Ancient History and Archaeology at the University of Birmingham, graduating in 1968.
This began a long connection with the Cotswolds, an area he fell in love with, and where he undertook many excavations.
[6] One of two long barrows in a field, Hazleton North was excavated between 1979 and 1982 as a response to plough damage being suffered by the site.
[2][7] This was a prescient attitude, as in 2021, six years after Saville's death, archaeologists from the universities of Newcastle, Central Lancashire, Exeter and York, and geneticists from the universities of Harvard, Vienna and the Basque country published the results of the examination of the bones and teeth of 35 people buried in Hazleton North.
The research team discovered that 27 were biological relatives from five continuous generations of a single extended family.