The Ackworth Hoard

This case has a small broken pot out of which spill gold and silver coins. A few of the coins are displayed separately, as is a small gold ring. Inside the ring is the inscription ‘When this you see remember me’. 

This is the Ackworth Hoard, found in a garden in Ackworth in 2011.

The dark brown glazed broken pot is about 15cm high and was almost certainly made at Wrenthorpe. It is a type often called Cistercian ware and dates from the 15^th-17^th centuries AD. 

Buried in it were 591 coins, 52 gold and 539 silver, and the gold ring. The earliest coin in the hoard is a gold half sovereign of Edward VI dated to 1547AD, while the latest are half crowns of Charles I dated to 1545/6AD. The hoard was probably buried in late 1645 or early 1646.

The gold ring found in the hoard on top of some of the coins

The smallest denomination coin is a sixpence, even though there were smaller coins in circulation at the time. When people chose to hoard coins and store them in this way for safe keeping, they were storing their most expensive and valuable coins and items. During the coin minting process many valuable coins were ‘clipped’, with small shavings cut off because of the value of the gold or silver itself. This meant there was ‘good’ and ‘bad’ money in circulation, and for hoards people tried to collect as much ‘good’ money as possible.

The face value of all the coins is £85 12s. This was a lot of money in the 1640s! An infantry soldier in the Civil Wars might earn 8 to 10 pence a day, so the hoard was over 5 years' pay for a common soldier.

The great majority of the coins are English, but some are Scottish or Irish. There are even some ducatons from the Spanish Netherlands. These ducatons give a hint as to who might have buried the hoard. King Charles II's wife, Queen Henrietta Maria, was on the Continent in the early years of the English Civil Wars and is known to have sent ducatons to the Royalist commander in Yorkshire. When she returned to England she came to Yorkshire bringing more ducatons with her. She then stayed at Pontefract Castle on her way to join the King in Oxford. 

It seems likely therefore that the Ackworth Hoard was buried by a Royalist supporter, possibly when Parliamentary troops were billeted in Ackworth during the siege of Pontefract Castle in 1646.

Click here to try a digital jigsaw of one of the coins

Go back to the Main Gallery

Next Object: Bulletproof Vest