Museums hope to strike gold with hoard
The country's leading museum wants to buy the hoard of gold found in a piano at a Shropshire school.
The British Museum and a museum in Essex have both said they want to acquire the six kilos of gold sovereigns which were discovered by a piano tuning technician who had been called in by staff at Bishop's Castle Community College to overhaul a recently donated piano.
The gold, which was declared treasure at an inquest held in Shrewsbury this week, was found wedged beneath the keyboard and could be worth more than £350,000.
Ian Richardson, treasure registrar at The British Museum said: "The piano hoard might be the largest hoard of its type found to date. It's no surprise that a lot of people are excited and intrigued by the discovery. We grow up with stories of hidden treasures and lucky people that find them, and it can be appealing to imagine ourselves in their places. The piano hoard story has the added excitement that it is relatively recent – this is not a long buried assemblage of war booty or grave goods, but a large sum of money hidden in plain sight less than 100 years ago."
The hoard is made up of more than 900 gold sovereigns and half sovereigns which were minted between 1847 and 1915. They were carefully packaged and hidden in a Broadwood & Sons piano and were found in November 2016 by tuner Martin Backhouse.
Worth more than the average house price in 1926 - the date experts believe the packages were hidden, the gold has been described by Peter Reavill, finds liaison officer for Shropshire as: "One of the best items of treasure I have worked on".
Part of the packaging was a Shredded Wheat advertisement dated to 1926. "It is this sort of detail that enriches the story we have told and suggests that the hoard has been packaged and hidden in several places over time," added Peter.
The piano was made in the early 1900s and bought by Beavan & Mothersole of Saffron Waldon, Essex in 1906. It was then kept at a property in the town until 1983 when it was bought by Meg and Graham Hemmings in a house clearance sale. The piano was tuned from time to time but the couple and their four children had no idea what lay under the keys.
Meg and Graham later moved to Bishop's Castle, bringing the piano and its hidden hoard to Shropshire. They donated the piano to the school last summer.
Meg said: "In 2005 the piano moved in to storage prior to our purchasing a house in Bishop's Castle where we lived until we decided to downsize in 2016. We gladly donated and delivered the piano to the local community college prior to our recent move in the knowledge that they would put it to good use."
Leah Mellors, collections officer for Saffron Walden Museum said: "We are excited at the prospect of brining some of these coins home to Saffron Walden, safeguarding them for the future and sharing this intriguing story with our local community and wider museum audience."
