The list of hoards in Britain comprises significant archaeological hoards of coins, jewellery, precious and scrap metal objects and other valuable items discovered in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales). It includes both hoards that were buried with the intention of retrieval at a later date (personal hoards, founder's hoards, merchant's hoards, and hoards of loot), and also hoards of votive offerings which were not intended to be recovered at a later date, but excludes grave goods and single items found in isolation. The list is subdivided into sections according to archaeological and historical periods.
Hoards dating to the Neolithic period, approximately 4000 to 2000 BC, comprise stone weapons and tools such as axeheads and arrowheads. Such hoards are very rare, and only a few are known from Britain.
Hoard | Image | Date | Place of discovery | Year of discovery | Current Location | Contents |
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Ayton East Field Hoard | 30th to 25th century BC | East Ayton North Yorkshire 54°15′18″N 0°28′26″W / 54.255°N 0.474°W / 54.255; -0.474 (Ayton East Field Hoard) |
1848 | British Museum, London | 3flint axes 1 flint adze 5 arrowheads 1 polished flint knife 2 flint flakes 1 antler macehead 2 boar-tusk blades[1] | |
York Hoard | 30th century BC | York North Yorkshire 53°57′29″N 1°04′48″W / 53.958°N 1.080°W / 53.958; -1.080 (York Hoard) |
1868 | Yorkshire Museum | ~70 flint tools and weapons[2] |
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A large number of hoards associated with the British Bronze Age, approximately 2700 BC to 8th century BC, have been found in Great Britain. Most of these hoards comprise bronze tools and weapons such as axeheads, chisels, spearheads and knives, and in many cases may be founder's hoards buried with the intention of recovery at a later date for use in casting new bronze items. A smaller number of hoards include gold torcs and other items of jewellery. As coinage was not in use during the Bronze Age in Great Britain, there are no hoards of coins from this period.
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A large number of hoards associated with the British Iron Age, approximately 8th century BC to the 1st century AD, have been found in Britain. Most of the hoards comprise silver or gold Celtic coins known as staters, usually numbered in the tens or hundreds of coins, although the Hallaton Treasure contained over 5,000 silver and gold coins. In addition to hoards of coins, a number of hoards of gold torcs and other items of jewellery have been found, including the Snettisham Hoard, the Ipswich Hoard and the Stirling Hoard.
In September 2020, 1,300 Celtic gold coins were discovered at a location in eastern England, dated back between 40 and 50 A.D.[3]
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Hoards associated with the period of Romano-British culture when part of Great Britain was under the control of the Roman Empire, from AD 43 until about 410, as well as the subsequent Sub-Roman period up to the establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms are the most numerous type of hoard found in Great Britain, and Roman coin hoards are particularly well represented, with over 1,200 known examples. In addition to hoards composed largely or entirely of coins, a smaller number of hoards, such as the Mildenhall Treasure and the Hoxne Hoard, include items of silver or gold tableware such as dishes, bowls, jugs and spoons, or items of silver or gold jewellery.
Bamburgh Hoard
Brantham
Canterbury
Crondall Hoard
Harkirke Hoard
Hexham Hoard
Ipswich
Lenborough Hoard
Pentney Treasure
St Leonard's Place Hoard
Staffordshire Hoard
Trewhiddle Hoard
West Yorkshire Hoard
Hoards associated with the Anglo-Saxon culture, from the 6th century to 1066, are relatively uncommon. Those that have been found include both hoards of coins and hoards of jewellery and metalwork such as sword hilts and crosses. The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest Anglo-Saxon hoard to have been found, comprising over 1,500 items of gold and silver. More Anglo-Saxon artefacts have been found in the context of grave burials than hoards in England. These include major finds from Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, Taplow in Buckinghamshire, Prittlewell, Mucking and Broomfield in Essex, and Crundale and Sarre in Kent.
Gaulcross Hoard
Norrie's Law Hoard
St Ninian's Isle Treasure
Hoards associated with Pictish culture, dating from the end of Roman occupation in the 5th century until about the 10th century, have been found in eastern and northern Scotland. These hoards often contain silver brooches and other items of jewellery.
Hoard | Image | Date | Place of discovery | Year of discovery | Current Location | Contents |
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Aberdeenshire hoard | 4th to 6th century | Undisclosed location Aberdeenshire |
2014 | 100 pieces of hacksilver, comprising late Roman coins and pieces of Roman and Pictish silver vessels, bracelets and brooches.[21] | ||
Broch of Burgar Hoard | late 8th century | Broch of Burgar, near Evie Orkney 59°07′52″N 3°08′02″W / 59.131°N 3.134°W / 59.131; -3.134 (Broch of Burgar Hoard) |
1840 | unknown | 8 silver vessels several silver combs 5 or 6 silver hair pins 2 or 3 silver brooches several fragments of silver chains a large number of amber beads[22] | |
Gaulcross Hoard | 6th or early 7th century | Gaulcross, near Fordyce Aberdeenshire 57°39′47″N 2°46′44″W / 57.663°N 2.779°W / 57.663; -2.779 (Gaulcross Hoard) |
late 1830s | Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh | Several silver hand pins (only one extant) 1 silver bracelet 1 silver chain several silver brooches (all lost)[23] | |
Norrie's Law hoard | ![]() |
late 7th century | Norrie's Law, Largo Fife 56°15′18″N 2°57′11″W / 56.255°N 2.953°W / 56.255; -2.953 (Norrie's Law Hoard) |
1819 | Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh | Nearly 12.5 kg of silver objects, of which all but 750 g were melted down. The 170 surviving objects[24] include: 2 penannular brooches 2 oval plaques 3 or 4 hand-pins 2 spiral finger-rings 1 small vessel lid fragment of a 4th-century Roman spoon knife-handle mounts fragments of arm-bands various rod and chain fragments[25] |
St Ninian's Isle Treasure | ![]() |
late 8th or early 9th century | St Ninian's Isle Shetland 59°58′16″N 1°20′31″W / 59.971°N 1.342°W / 59.971; -1.342 (St Ninian's Isle Treasure) |
1958 | Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh | 8 silver bowls 12 silver penannular brooches 2 silver chapes (part of scabbard that protects the point) 1 silver communion spoon 1 silver knife 1 silver pommel 3 silver cones[26] |
Hoards associated with the Viking culture in Great Britain, dating from the 9th to 11th centuries, are mostly found in northern England and Orkney, and frequently comprise a mixture of silver coins, silver jewellery and hacksilver that has been taken in loot, some coins originating from as far away as the Middle East.
Hoard | Image | Date | Place of discovery | Year of discovery | Current Location | Contents |
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Ainsbrook Hoard[note 2] | late 10th century | Thirsk North Yorkshire 54°13′59″N 1°20′35″W / 54.233°N 1.343°W / 54.233; -1.343 (Ainsbrook Hoard) |
2003 | British Museum, London | ~130 objects of gold, silver (including 10 Anglo-Saxon coins), copper alloy, lead, iron, and stone[27][28] | |
Ashdon Hoard | Late 9th century | Ashdon | 1984 | Fitzwilliam Museum | 71 silver pennies of Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Scandinavian and Carolingian origins[29] | |
Bedale Hoard | ![]() |
early 10th century | Bedale North Yorkshire 54°17′N 1°35′W / 54.29°N 1.59°W / 54.29; -1.59 (Bedale Hoard) |
2012 | Yorkshire Museum, York | 1 iron sword pommel with gold foil plaques, 4 gold hoops a sword hilt, 6 small gold rivets, 4 silver collars and neck-rings, 1 silver arm-ring, 1 fragment of a silver Permian ring, 1 silver penannular brooch, and 29 silver ingots.[30] |
Bossall-Flaxton Hoard | early 10th century | between Bossall and Flaxton North Yorkshire 54°03′00″N 0°56′42″W / 54.050°N 0.945°W / 54.050; -0.945 (Bossall-Flaxton Hoard) |
1807 | Coins, bullion, arm-ring in a leaden box[31] | ||
Bryn Maelgwyn Hoard | early 11th century | near Deganwy Castle, Llandudno Conwy 53°18′18″N 3°48′54″W / 53.305°N 3.815°W / 53.305; -3.815 (Bryn Maelgwyn Hoard) |
1979 | National Museum Cardiff | 204 silver pennies of Cnut the Great[32] | |
Cuerdale Hoard | ![]() |
early 10th century | Cuerdale, near Preston Lancashire 53°45′18″N 2°38′24″W / 53.755°N 2.640°W / 53.755; -2.640 (Cuerdale Hoard) |
1840 | British Museum, London, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford | 8,600 items including silver coins and bullion[33] |
Eye Hoard | late 9th century | Eye Herefordshire 52°16′14″N 2°44′27″W / 52.2705°N 2.7408°W / 52.2705; -2.7408 (Eye Hoard) |
2015 | Dispersed[note 3] | About 300 Anglo-Saxon silver and gold coins, some issued by Ceolwulf II of Mercia and some issued by Alfred of Wessex, together with one or more silver ingots, and some items of jewellery, including a late 6th-century crystal pendant, a gold arm-band and a gold finger ring[34][35] | |
Furness Hoard | 10th century | Furness Cumbria 54°12′N 3°09′W / 54.20°N 3.15°W / 54.20; -3.15 (Furness Hoard) |
2011 | Dock Museum, Barrow-in-Furness | 92 silver coins, including two Arabic dirhams, several silver ingots, and one silver bracelet.[36] | |
Galloway Hoard | early 10th century | Kirkcudbrightshire | 2014 | Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh | over 100 gold and silver items, including armbands, a Christian cross, brooches, ingots and an exceptionally large Carolingian pot[37][38] | |
Goldsborough Hoard | early 10th century | Goldsborough North Yorkshire 54°00′00″N 1°24′54″W / 54.000°N 1.415°W / 54.000; -1.415 (Goldsborough Hoard) |
1859 | British Museum, London | Fragments of Viking brooches and arm-rings, together with thirty-nine coins[39] | |
Huxley Hoard | late 9th to 10th century | Huxley, Cheshire Cheshire 53°08′49″N 2°43′59″W / 53.147°N 2.733°W / 53.147; -2.733 (Huxley Hoard) |
2004 | World Museum, Liverpool | 22 silver pieces (including 20 flattened bracelets)[40] | |
Leominster hoard | late 9th to 10th century | Eye, nearLeominster Herefordshire |
2015 | Over 300 coins, silver ingot, gold jewellery. The hoard was initially split and sold. Only 31 coins remain.[41] | ||
Penrith Hoard | ![]() |
early 10th century | Newbiggin Moor, near Penrith Cumbria 54°39′00″N 2°34′41″W / 54.650°N 2.578°W / 54.650; -2.578 (Penrith Hoard) |
1785–1989 | British Museum, London | A number of silver penannular brooches[42] |
Silverdale Hoard | ![]() |
early 10th century | Silverdale Lancashire 54°10′N 2°50′W / 54.17°N 2.83°W / 54.17; -2.83 (Silverdale Hoard) |
2011 | Museum of Lancashire, Preston, Lancaster City Museum | 201 silver objects inside a box made from a sheet of lead; comprising 27 coins (Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Viking, Frankish and Islamic), 10 arm rings, 2 finger rings, 14 ingots, 6 brooch fragments, 1 wire braid, and 141 pieces of hacksilver.[43] |
Skaill Hoard | mid 10th century | Bay of Skaill Orkney 59°03′00″N 3°20′13″W / 59.050°N 3.337°W / 59.050; -3.337 (Skaill Hoard) |
1858 | National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh | Over 100 items, including bracelets, brooches, hacksilver, and ingots[44] | |
Storr Rock Hoard | 10th century | Isle of Skye | 1891 | National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh | A collection of silver coins dating from the 10th century[45] | |
Talnotrie Hoard | ![]() |
late 9th century | near Talntrie | 1912 | National Museums Scotland | Jewellery, metal-working material and coins |
Vale of York Hoard (Harrogate Hoard) |
![]() |
early 10th century | near Harrogate North Yorkshire 53°59′N 1°32′W / 53.99°N 1.54°W / 53.99; -1.54 (Vale of York Hoard) |
2007 | British Museum, London Yorkshire Museum, York |
More than 617 silver coins, and 65 other items, including silver and gold armrings, neckrings and brooch fragments, as well as hacksilver, all placed inside a 9th-century gilt-silver vessel[46] |
Warton Hoard | early 10th century | Warton, near Carnforth Lancashire 54°08′49″N 2°45′58″W / 54.147°N 2.766°W / 54.147; -2.766 (Warton Hoard) |
1997 | Lancaster City Museum, Lancaster | 3 silver dirhems of the Samanid dynasty 6 pieces of cut silver weighing 116.49 g (4.109 oz)[47] | |
Watlington Hoard | late 9th century | Watlington Oxfordshire 51°38′42″N 1°00′00″W / 51.645°N 1.000°W / 51.645; -1.000 (Watlington Hoard) |
2015 | Ashmolean Museum, Oxford | About 210 silver coins from the reigns of Alfred the Great of Wessex and Ceolwulf II of Mercia, together with 15 silver ingots, 6 silver arm rings, 2 neck ring fragments, and one small piece of hack gold[48] |
Hoards dating to the later medieval period, from 1066 to about 1500, mostly comprise silver pennies, in some cases amounting to many thousands of coins, although the Fishpool Hoard contains over a thousand gold coins.
Most hoards from the post-medieval period, later than 1500, date to the period of the English Civil War (1642–1651), from which time over 200 hoards are known.[77]
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Gold hoards
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