Monday, October 28, 2019

The Pentney Hoard is an Anglo-Saxon jewellery hoard, discovered by a gravedigger in a Pentney, Norfolk churchyard in 1978. The treasure consists of six silver openwork disc brooches, five made entirely of silver and one composed of silver and copper alloy. The brooches are decorated in the 9th century Trewhiddle style.

The five largest items of the hoard, based on a comparison of similarly styled brooches, were judged to have been made between 800—840 AD. The smallest brooch, also based on style, was believed to be from the late eighth century. It has been proposed by scholars that the hoard could have been buried in the middle of the 9th century, during the Viking raids on East Anglia.

In 1978, William King, a sexton for the church of St. Mary Magdalene in PentneyNorfolk was digging a grave and noticed a circular piece of metal embedded in the soil. In removing the metal, he uncovered five additional metal discs. King gave the artefacts to the church rector who saved them in the parish chest. Three years later, the new church rector, John Wilson, found the discs and gave them to the Norwich Castle museum. The British Museum was asked to evaluate the brooches. It was determined that the hoard items were Anglo-Saxon silver disc brooches.


  1. What beautiful craftsmanship.

  2. My first question is: when were jewelry saws invented? Man, those holes had to have been drilled and then a saw used to enlarge them.


  3. I'm just impressed at the honesty of the gravedigger.