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

Lichfield’s MP is calling on local residents to donate to the campaign to keep the Staffordshire Hoard in the region.

Britain’s leading art charity, The Art Fund, has launched a public campaign to raise the £3.3million needed to save the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon treasure ever found on UK soil. The treasure is made up of more than 1,500 items of gold, silver and precious stones that are believed to date back to the 7th Century.

The charity has until April 17 to raise the money or the collection could be sold on the open market. If the hoard is saved, it will go on display at museums in the West Midlands, and could be loaned elsewhere so that visitors from all over the UK can view the finds.

Mr Fabricant said:

“I understand that some of this huge hoard will be put on display in Lichfield as well as in Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent.  It would have been fantastic to have had the whole hoard kept in Lichfield or Hammerwich, but with the cost of the Hoard being well over £3 million, and the cost of converting premises even more, sadly that makes it a non-starter.”

People can show their support by donating to the campaign in one of the following ways:

  • through the official campaign website at www.artfund.org/hoard.
  • by telephone on 0844 415 4004.
  • by cheque to The Art Fund, Freepost LON 17186, PO BOX 2003, Kirkcaldy, KY2 6BR.

Founder of Lichfield Live and editor of the site.