Latest news with #HerefordshireHoard
BBC News
30-04-2025
- BBC News
Strange But True Crime: The buried Herefordshire Hoard surrounded by treachery and greed
This is a story of treachery, secrecy and greed which led to two friends ending up in jail and a mystery about buried me take you back to April 2022 - a treasure-trove of gold and silver is laid out on a small table in a back office in London. For centuries the coins and jewellery lay undisturbed, buried in the Herefordshire countryside by a Viking warrior in the Ninth Century.I have spent years following its journey from a hole in the ground to the fringes of the criminal underworld. This story is laid out in full on the Strange But True Crime podcast on BBC me explain though what it is like to come face-to-face with precious, history-altering artefacts, wanted by criminals and historians alike. In that small office in London, I was about to wear actual treasure - gold jewellery, made for a king, queen or noble. Most of the people who have put the ring on their finger or the bracelet around their wrists have been dead for more than 1,000 Herefordshire Hoard, as it has become known, is magnificent and it has been valued at more than £ the treasure is a huge gold ring, a gold bracelet with a dragon's head clasp, a pendant made of crystal rock, a silver ingot and hundreds of silver coins. The people who discovered it could have become very wealthy indeed but, instead, they are in only 31 of an estimated 300 coins of the discovery have been the big question is, where is the rest of the hoard? The gold and silver was hidden under the earth for about 11 centuries when Welsh metal detectorists George Powell and Layton Davies discovered it in a field near Leominster in June 2015. The hoard is believed to have been taken from the Anglo-Saxons by Vikings and buried for safekeeping at about 878 AD. Legally, Powell and Davies, from Pontypridd, should have declared it. If they had done so, they could have become very wealthy men. Instead, they kept it, sold it to dealers and ended up in prison.I have been a reporter for 25 years but this is one of the most intriguing stories I have ever covered. Over the years, I had to keep quiet as the police investigation carried on.I received anonymous tip-offs and one of the criminals even sent me text messages from prison. Three years after the trial, in April 2022, I was behind the scenes at the British Museum where the hoard was taken to be studied and valued. The jewellery is beautiful but it is the coins that have changed what we know about the history of of them is double-headed, showing two rulers of England in the Ninth Century. Alfred the Great, who ruled Wessex, is on one side and Ceolwulf II, of Mercia, is on the other. Alfred the Great is famous, we know a lot about him, but Ceolwulf II is a mystery, he appears to disappear without a trace at about AD879. Historians believe that he was written out of history by Alfred's followers. Thanks to the double-headed coin, we now know that Ceolwulf was as important as Alfred, that they ruled side by side for many years. The jewellery was carefully wrapped in tissue paper but stored in a plastic cake box. Despite the rather mundane container, I found myself holding my breath as it was uncovered. It has definitely got the wow factor. It looks like the buried treasure in children's stories, shiny gold and gems. As I slipped the ring on my finger, I was amazed at how heavy and big it was. This is a ring designed to be worn over the glove of a king or a nobleman, held out for people to bow before. I was wearing a blue nitrile glove, like you see in hospitals, but it still felt amazing. What the experts still don't know is who it belonged to - and who stole it and buried it in the ground all those years what about the rest of the coins? Police believe they are in the hands of organised crime gangs around the world so the hunt for the missing treasure continues. Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
08-03-2025
- BBC News
Hereford: Feel the weight of history with Viking hoard replicas
The public can find out how a Viking hoard feels when replicas of the treasure, discovered in Herefordshire, are made available for close-up actual hoard, found 10 years ago, is on display at a museum in Hereford, although only part of it may be viewed as some items are is because the men who made the find sold items to dealers instead of reporting their discovery. The Museum Resource and Learning Centre said the replicas - which may be inspected on Saturday - felt and weighed exactly the same as the objects in the glass cases. Herefordshire Hoard consists of artefacts including a gold arm bangle with an animal head clasp, a crystal pendant encased in gold, a gold octagonal ring, and a silver ingot, along with 29 silver Herefordshire Museum Service said it was "one of the most significant Viking treasures ever discovered in Western Britain".The county's head of museums Damian Etheraads said being able to touch items would hopefully give visitors a better appreciation of that which was buried in the ninth century."What you don't get when you see them in the cases is a sense of the weight of these things," he explained. Four people involved in the concealment of the hoard were jailed in 2019, and the hunt for the missing items museum estimates they may have included up to 300 coins, with a value of anywhere between £3m and £ at the weekend will learn about the hoard's discovery and the police investigation into its hands-on sessions, which have to be pre-booked, last for 90 Etheraads said more monthly events to show off the hoard were planned, including an "ask the expert" session next month. Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
09-02-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
New festival will celebrate Herefordshire's history
A new 10-day festival will embrace Herefordshire's rich history this summer, organisers have said. The Herefordshire Histories Festival in May will explore castles, the English Civil War, the Herefordshire Hoard and more recently, Hereford's win against Newcastle United in the FA Cup in 1972. Herefordshire councillor David Hitchiner, who is one of the organisers, said local people would be organising events "throughout the whole county"."Hopefully you can do two or three events on the same day and stop off maybe in a local hostelry to enjoy some of the local food and drink," he said. Mr Hitchiner is one of four directors running Community Interest Company (CIC) Herefordshire Histories, which asked to hear from people who wanted to get involved. "We've got some World War Two vehicles with an exhibition down on Rotherwas," he told BBC Radio Hereford and Worcester."We've got churches which are being opened specially, we've got an Iron Age hill fort in Eaton Bishop, we've got some walks and talks."The festival, which runs from 10-18 May, has financial backing from the Friends of Herefordshire Museums and Art, and Hereford Family History CIC said it aimed to celebrate the county's "extraordinary history" and recognised the area had "many historic sites and stories which are not celebrated enough".The group hopes the history festival will become an annual event. Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
