Bell found on farm may be worth £1,500

AMYSTERIOUS bell found on a Gloucestershire farm and displayed on a grandmother’s dresser could be 1,500 years old and worth a small fortune.

Ever since the ancient bell was dug up on a farm nearly a century ago it has been used as an ornament “on gran’s dresser”.

When the present owner’s family unearthed it in the 1920s their ancestors believed it to be a cow bell.

But it dates back hundreds of years to the fifth or sixth century AD, after the Romans had left Britain and the Saxons were invading.

Now the family heirloom could be worth thousands, but is yet to find a buyer.

It went up at auction last week, and while it failed to meet a reserve price, it is still expected to sell for thousands. It had an estimate of between £2,000 and £3,000.

The bell was found on farmland between Broadway and Stratford-upon-avon.

The precise location is being kept secret to deter looters from ravaging the land.

The bell’s owner, from Stratford on Avon, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “My father, who was born in 1904, dug up the bell in the early 1920s while working on his parents’ farm, which is in north Gloucestershire and not far from Stratford.

“Apparently, he was not too far from the old farmhouse, digging a hole to find drain pipes, when he found it. He gave it to his mother who washed all the mud off and said, ‘Oh, it’s a bell.’

“She displayed it on the dresser as an ornament and my grandparents did wonder if it was a cow bell.”

A Scottish Scottish antiquarian expert who studied a photo of the bell in 1924, dismissed that theory.

“My parents inherited it and, from when I was a small child, I always remember it being on the dresser. Every now and then my mother would give it a polish with some Brasso,” the current owner added.

“Recently, I took it along to a free valuation event run by Hansons at Alveston, Stratford, and discovered it could be quite valuable.”

James Brenchley, head of ancient art, antiquities and classical coins at Hansons, said: “It’s thought the bell was in a large building, possibly a monastery of the time.

“It’s wonderfully detailed work for the period.”