Some of the items which make up The Staffordshire Hoard. Pic: Portable Antiquities Scheme
Some of the items which make up The Staffordshire Hoard. Pic: Portable Antiquities Scheme

The Staffordshire Hoard should go on display in Lichfield or Hammerwich according to the area’s MP.

Michael Fabricant believes that while there is nowhere in the area suitable to take in the UK’s largest discovery of Anglo-Saxon gold artefacts, he does feel that residents should be given the opportunity to view them in the locality.

The Lichfield MP added that although they would not be a long-term solution, St Mary’s Heritage Centre or Lichfield Cathedral could provide a short-term solution.

He added:

“I resist talk of putting the collection on show in Shugborough simply because the County owns that site. I also hope that some – if not all – of these relics of Saxon life in Mercia will find a permanent home in Lichfield District.

“Meanwhile, I say to Gordon Brown following his selling off cheap our national gold reserves when he was Chancellor, that I hope he notes that Hammerwich has done its best to restore them!”

Founder of Lichfield Live and editor of the site.

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Tony
14 years ago

I couldn’t agree more with Mr Fabricant.Birmingham has done just the same as it did with St Chads relics when it stole them.

BrownhillsBob
14 years ago

I love this – the site is only just in Staffordshire, and is actually on Warren House (where the Warreners Arms got its name from) but by virtue of being a smidgen into Staffs, Lichfield get all the glory…

Pray tell, Mr. Fabricant, where exactly is secure enough to display such relics in Lichfield, let alone Hammerwich?

Bob

Classcrisis
14 years ago

The only owners in this are the finder and the landowner. Mt Fabricant can call for whatever he wants. Someone has to stump up the cash to buy these, all the treasure declaration has done is given the crown – in practice museums – first refusal on purchase for market value.

We will be watching the valuation process with interest, past cases indicate that the museum types will attempt to stitch the finder/landowner right up.

Who knows, perhaps they will donate it.

The Forrener
14 years ago

Since the discoverer is a member of Bloxwich Research & Metal Detecting Society, clearly the Hoard should come to Bloxwich…

…I am sure we could squeeze it in when the Bloxwich Library & Studio Theatre has finished its refurbishment :O)

On another matter, isn’t it about time Walsall moved back into Staffordshire? You know it makes sense…

Mark
14 years ago

The hoard was found near Lichfield, which was the ecclesiastical capital of the Mercian kings, and where the Lichfield Angel and St Chad’s Gospels have survived from Anglo-Saxon times. It should go on display in Lichfield, in a purpose-built display gallery near the cathedral, and given the staggering importance of the finds, the Heritage Lottery Fund should fund that gallery and provide it with the wherewithal to appoint the specialist staff to care for it. If we can afford the Olympics, we can afford this too. (And unlike Michael Fabricant, I’m not from Lichfield, and have no particular axe to grind – it just seems self-evidently the right place).