Leekfrith Torcs go on permanent display at museum.
Pieces of ancient jewellery discovered in a North Staffordshire field by two metal detector enthusiasts have gone on permanent display at Stoke-on-Trent's Potteries Museum and Art Gallery following a successful £325,000 fund-raising campaign to buy them.
Pals, Mark Hambleton and Joe Kania hit the headlines in December 2016 when they returned to a field near the Staffordshire Moorlands village of Rudyard some 20 years after failing to detect anything there and discovered the artefacts which are thought to be among the earliest examples of Iron Age gold ever found in Britain. The jewellery was declared treasure at an inquest in 2017, prompting the launch of a fundraising campaign by Stoke-on-Trent City Council in partnership with the museum's Friends group to buy the objects for the Potteries Museum and pay for expert restoration work.
More than 21,000 people viewed the Leekfrith Iron Age Torcs when they went on temporary display at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in February 2017 with members of the public donating thousands of pounds to the fundraising campaign. A grant of £80,000 from The Art Fund gave efforts a boost then, as the deadline to raise the funds to buy the precious ancient jewellery approached, a grant of up to £165,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund ensured that not only could the torcs be purchased but also ongoing research could be carried out.
Link to article in The Sentinel newspaper 28/05/18.
https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/ancient-treasure-bought-325k-finds-1609312
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Posted by BrownEdger
28th May 2018ce
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