The money is almost there to save the Leeds or West Riding hoard. Now we are fund-raising for the Iron Age York torcs

Not everyone believes that the streets of northern England are paved with gold, although I do. But can there be any dispute about our beautiful countryside, after the third discovery of an ancient hoard of precious metal within weeks?

Hot on the heels of the West Yorkshire, or Leeds, Hoard whose secure future at Leeds City Museum seems almost certain following a £171,310 appeal – see previous Northerner episodes here and then here - we now have a drive to raise £60,000 to keep two Iron Age torcs, or bracelets, in the Yorkshire Museum at York.

Like the Leeds jewellery, they were found by metal detectorists who promptly declared them to the authorities thus triggering Treasure Trove rules. These see the British Museum take temporary custody while a price is worked out for the local authority to raise before any find is offered for open sale. The money is divided between the finder and the landowner and the system seems to meeting its aim of offering a fair deal all round and preventing people keeping mum about discoveries.

Here they are close-up. Photograph: Kippa Matthews

The torcs' finders were Andrew Green and Shaun Scott, on separate occasions, but within metres of one another in the bed of a stream at Towton near Tadcaster. Towton is a very famous name in English history as the scene of the bloodiest conflict ever to take place in this country, during the Wars of the Roses. I think about it every time I drive past on the A64 (England's oldest dual carriageway) to York.

Golden jewellery from the Iron Age is rarely found in the UK, whose inhabitants at the time – the millennium before Christ – did not have the means to afford much bling. In terms of surviving relics, most of have been found in Norfolk, the home of the relatively wealthy Iceni tribe whose presumed Royal treasure was unearthed at Snettisham. Newark in Nottinghamshire was the previous furthest north officially, although in my part of Leeds we do not buy that. There is a lot of written material about a golden torc found on Rawdon Billing (our local Matterhorn) in 1780 which was allegedly used by a local weaver to repair a broken section of his loom.

Rev. Dr. T.D. Whitaker's 'Leodis in Elmete' of 1816, for example, writes:

On the lofty ridge of Billing, which yet retains its British name, was found about the year 1780 a valuable relic of British Antiquity; this was a torque of pure and flexible gold, perfectly plain and consisting of two rods not quite cylindrical but growing thinner towards the extremities and twisted together. Its intrinsic value was £18.0.0 sterling. It was claimed by the Lord of the Manor.

Alas, it has not survived – although if any Northerner reader knows of its whereabouts, we will give you an amnesty and maybe Treasure Trove arrangements.

Meanwhile archaeologists in York are speculating that their torcs, which follow the same pattern of two pieces twisted together, suggest either trade between the Iceni and the Brigantes – Iron Age Yorkshire people – or its reverse: war and spoil. Whichever, Natalie McCaul, assistant curator of archaeology at the Yorkshire Museum, says:

These are stunning finds and have made archaeologists and historians think again about what life was like in Yorkshire 2,000 ago. It shows that there was serious wealth here before the Romans, something which until now we could only speculate about. We hope we can now raise the money needed to make sure they stay in Yorkshire for people to enjoy.



The torcs are on temporary display at the museum until January 31 next year. To help reach the £60,000 you can go and see them and donate there or click here on how to give by post or online.

Next up, yet another northern hoard - details on the Northerner at 1pm. That's now posted, here.