Metal man detects ‘treasure’ in a field

AMETAL detectorist has found buried ‘treasure’ in a farmer’s field.

Paul Gardner’s find of a Medieval ring in a field near Marple is now set to join the collection at The British Museum in London – and net Paul a tidy little windfall of around £1,000.

And, in a rare move, it has officially been classed as ‘treasure’ by a coroner.

Metal detecting has been a hobby of Paul’s for three years.

He’s found Bronze Age arrowheads, coins spanning 12 different monarchs and even a small cannonball, but he said that the ring was his first real ‘treasure’ find.

It’s a gold finger ring and could date as far back as the year 1200 AD, the coroner was told.

Found by Paul on a farm in June, it’s thought to have been owned and worn by a senior figure in the clergy, most likely a bishop.

It weighs 3.1 grammes but, sadly, is missing its gemstone.

Paul, 53, said only three items found in Greater Manchester have been formerly declared as ‘treasure’ over the last 17 years.

Paul reported the ring to one of the officers based at the Museum of Liverpool.

They, in turn, contacted Stockport Coroners’ Court and the formal ruling was delivered at a hearing on Thursday.

Paul, from Chadderton, Oldham, said: “It was just three inches down under the soil,” he said.

“I knew it was a brilliant find. “I was literally shaking.” At the hearing, senior police coroner’s officer Rita Wilkinson said the ring ‘was, and is, clearly an exciting find.’

The ring was described as an ‘incomplete, decorative gemstone, gold finger ring’ said to date back to between AD 1200 and AD 1400.

●●Metal detectorist Paul Gardner and (inset) the ring he found in a field