The Church’s treasure hunt is part of our rich history

Who owns what in Britain? This might seem like a straightforward question to answer: check the Land Registry, perhaps. But what about all the treasures, valuable or otherwise, that lie beneath the surface?

Yesterday it emerged that the Church and other ancient landholders are registering their rights to minerals under a million acres of England to which they no longer necessarily own the freehold, in an extraordinary demonstration of the intricacies of the laws still governing “who owns what” below ground. These intricacies may seem illogical, but they tell their own story of our nation just as much as the artefacts that archaeologists like me pull from the earth.

The principle goes back nearly 1,000 years, when William I deemed all land to be the property of the monarch. For generations, the king was able to rescind gifts of land whenever he wished, and Magna Carta in 1215 was the resentful barons’ attempt to restrict these rights.

Gradually much of the Crown land was sold or given away as the monarch attempted to raise money or curry favour, with the remainder now deemed Crown Estate. However, all natural deposits of gold, silver, gas, coal and oil still belong to the Crown regardless of who has the freehold. The Conqueror would have approved. But what of the other things the soil throws up? Who has access to them?

Sites of national importance cannot be disturbed without permission from the Secretary of State, under Ancient Monument laws going back to 1882. This rightly treats the remains of the past as a common good, and has led to more than 70,000 investigations over the last quarter century that have transformed our understanding of how our country has developed over thousands of years.

But we have also profited from its unusual tolerance of that geekiest of pursuits: metal detecting. In many countries metal detecting for archaeological finds is illegal, but while the situation in England is not perfect, it has ensured that more than a million objects have been recorded and unique finds saved for the nation.

Most objects found on private land belong to the landowner, unless the person who lost the item can prove ownership. This also applies to goods washed up on beaches after shipwrecks, under English laws going back to the 14th century.

And if you’re lucky enough to make a very special find, the alluringly named 1997 Treasure Act requires a range of found objects, including all gold or silver items more than 300 years old, to be reported to the coroner. If a museum wishes to acquire an item the landowner cannot keep it, but does have the right to be paid its agreed value.

Proceeds are often shared between metal detectorists and landowners, although such agreements can break down, as happened with the £3.3 million “Staffordshire Hoard” of Anglo-saxon gold acquired for the nation by Birmingham and Stoke-ontrent City Councils.

The point, though, is that it was discovered, and acquired, the fruit of deep-rooted laws which, in typically British fashion, have sought to balance the rights of individuals, institutions and the “common good” – and which have thus become part of our rich heritage.