Saffron Walden Museum’s £60,000 treasure appeal gains support

The urgent appeal to raise £60,000 to enable Saffron Walden Musuem Society to keep five archaeological treasures discovered in the area has already received more than £2,500 of the Society’s £7,500 local funding target.

The thousands of pounds, which have come from generous local donors and organisations, have been donated after the Society launched a public appeal two months ago to keep the items close to where they were buried.

The finds, made by metal detector enthusiasts, were declared treasure after their discovery since 2011.

Saffron Walden Museum’s £60,000 treasure appeal gains support

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It’s off to FLO I go

Yes, it was FLO night at the Redditch Historical Detection Society so off I went to get back the items I handed in to Angie Bolton at the beginning of July and to hand over those found since then. She handed back two curtain rings and the knob off the top of the tobacco jar and accepted almost everything I took with me, to whit: 4 musket balls (actually pistol shot), the piece of pottery (probably Cistercian ware), the spectacle buckle and one of the doodahs which I will get back in early December. She also took a Roman grot which is not mine but which was found by one of my farmers when he was a child. As he cannot remember exactly where he found it it will not be recorded, but the FLO will try to identify it for him.

There were some bloody gorgeous finds being shown around and handed in including 5 gold staters, 3 of them found by one chap and the other 2 by another, all found on a dig near Droitwich.

I also consulted Angie about a possible market or fair site which appears to be currently unknown and which I may have identified from old maps. However the land is arable and has now been replanted so won’t be detectable until August or September 2014.