The list of hoards in Great 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.
Neolithic hoards
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 Ayton East Field Hoard North Yorkshire 1848 British Museum, London 3 flint axes1 flint adze5 arrowheads1 polished flint knife2 flint flakes1 antler macehead2 boar-tusk blades York Hoard North Yorkshire 1868 Yorkshire Museum ~70 flint tools and weapons
Bronze Age hoards
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.
Iron Age hoards
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.
Romano-British hoards
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.
Anglo-Saxon hoards
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.
Hoard Image Date Place of discovery Year of discovery Current location Contents Appledore Hoard Kent 1997 British Museum, London 490 pennies (1997)12 silver pennies of Edward the Confessor (1998) Bamburgh Hoard Northumberland 1999 and 2004 Museum of Antiquities, Newcastle upon Tyne 384 base metal stycasCopper alloy fragmentsBronze folding balance Beeston Tor Hoard Staffordshire 1926 British Museum, London 49 pennies, two silver brooches, three finger rings and assorted fragments Bolton Percy hoard9th centuryBolton Percy, North Yorkshire1846, 1967Yorkshire Museumc.4000 Northumbrian pennies in a ceramic vessel and box Brantham Hoard Suffolk 2003 Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge 90 silver pennies Bucklesham Hoard Suffolk 2017 The hoard fetched £90,000 at auction A hoard of 99 silver pennies, dated back to the reign of Aethelred II (978–1016), was discovered under the remains of a Saxon church demolished shortly after the Norman conquest of England in the 11th century. Canterbury-St Martin's hoard Kent 1840s World Museum, Liverpool 8 items, including 3 gold coins, and two pieces of jewellery Crondall Hoard Hampshire 1828 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 100 small gold coins and 2 cloisonné pins Harkirke (or Harkirk) Hoard Merseyside 1611 unknown ~300 Viking and Kufic coins Hexham Hoard 1832 The hoard was uncovered by the sexton and a grave-digger. Approximately 8000 Northumbrian pennies in a bronze bucket. Ipswich Hoard (1863) Suffolk 1863 150 coins (75 now known) West Norfolk Hoard West Norfolk 1991 131 coins and four pieces of gold. Ten coins were found by a serving police officer who tried to sell them and was jailed for 16 months. Kirkoswald Hoard Kirkoswald, Cumbria 1808 542 Northumbrian stycas and one silver trefoil ornament Lenborough Hoard Buckinghamshire 2014 5,251½ coins in a lead bucket, including coins of Ethelred the Unready and Canute Pentney Hoard Norfolk 1978 British Museum, London 6 silver disc brooches St Leonard's Place Hoard York 1842 Yorkshire Museum c.10,000 Northumbrian stycas Staffordshire Hoard Staffordshire 2009 Birmingham Museum & Art GalleryPotteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent More than 1,500 items (about 5 kg (11 lb) of gold and 1.3 kg (2.9 lb) of silver), mostly sword fittings and decorative parts of weaponry, but also two gold crosses and an inscribed gold strip Trewhiddle Hoard Cornwall 1774 British Museum, London 114 Anglo-Saxon coins, and various items of silverware, including a scourge, a chalice and a Celtic penannular brooch West Yorkshire Hoard West Yorkshire 2008–2009 Leeds City Museum 5 items of 7th to 11th century gold jewellery (a cabochon ring, a filigree ring, a niello finger ring, a filigree and granular ring, and a piece of a cloisonné bracelet), an ingot of gold, and a lead spindle whorl.
Pictish hoards
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 Aberdeenshire hoard Aberdeenshire 2014 100 pieces of hacksilver, comprising late Roman coins and pieces of Roman and Pictish silver vessels, bracelets and brooches. Broch of Burgar Hoard Orkney 1840 unknown 8 silver vesselsseveral silver combs5 or 6 silver hair pins2 or 3 silver broochesseveral fragments of silver chainsa large number of amber beads Gaulcross Hoard Aberdeenshire Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh Several silver hand pins (only one extant)1 silver bracelet1 silver chainseveral silver brooches (all lost) Norrie's Law hoard Fife 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 include:2 penannular brooches2 oval plaques3 or 4 hand-pins2 spiral finger-rings1 small vessel lidfragment of a 4th-century Roman spoonknife-handle mountsfragments of arm-bandsvarious rod and chain fragments St Ninian's Isle Treasure Shetland 1958 Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh 8 silver bowls12 silver penannular brooches2 silver chapes (part of scabbard that protects the point)1 silver communion spoon1 silver knife1 silver pommel3 silver cones
Viking hoards
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 Ainsbrook Hoard North Yorkshire 2003 British Museum, London ~130 objects of gold, silver (including 10 Anglo-Saxon coins), copper alloy, lead, iron, and stoneAshdon HoardLate 9th centuryAshdon1984Fitzwilliam Museum71 silver pennies of Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Scandinavian and Carolingian origins Bedale Hoard North Yorkshire 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. Bossall-Flaxton hoard North Yorkshire 1807 British Museum, Yorkshire Museum, private collections. Coins, bullion, arm-ring in a leaden box Bryn Maelgwyn Hoard Conwy 1979 National Museum Cardiff 204 silver pennies of Cnut the Great Cuerdale Hoard Lancashire 1840 British Museum, London, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 8,600 items including silver coins and bullion Eye Hoard Herefordshire 2015 Dispersed 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 Furness Hoard Cumbria 2011 Dock Museum, Barrow-in-Furness 92 silver coins, including two Arabic dirhams, several silver ingots, and one silver bracelet. Galloway Hoard 2014 Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh over 100 gold and silver items, including armbands, a Christian cross, brooches, ingots and an exceptionally large Carolingian pot Goldsborough Hoard North Yorkshire 1859 British Museum, London Fragments of Viking brooches and arm-rings, together with thirty-nine coins Huxley Hoard Cheshire 2004 World Museum, Liverpool 22 silver pieces (including 20 flattened bracelets) Herefordshire hoard Herefordshire 2015 Over 300 coins, silver ingot, gold jewellery. The hoard was initially split and sold. Only 31 coins remain. Penrith Hoard Cumbria 1785–1989 British Museum, London A number of silver penannular brooches Silverdale Hoard Lancashire 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. Skaill Hoard Orkney 1858 National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh Over 100 items, including bracelets, brooches, hacksilver, and ingotsStorr Rock Hoard10th centuryIsle of Skye1891National Museum of Scotland, EdinburghA collection of silver coins dating from the 10th century Talnotrie Hoard 1912 National Museums Scotland Jewellery, metal-working material and coins Vale of York Hoard(Harrogate Hoard) North Yorkshire 2007 British Museum, LondonYorkshire 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 Warton Hoard Lancashire 1997 Lancaster City Museum, Lancaster 3 silver dirhems of the Samanid dynasty6 pieces of cut silver weighing Watlington Hoard Oxfordshire 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
Later Medieval hoards