Yorkshire Museum hopes to keep precious Viking hoard

The Yorkshire Museum is hoping to raise funds to keep the Bedale hoard, a collection of Viking era precious metal and jewellery, in England.

The hoard, which includes a gold sword pommel, a neck ring, gold rivets, half a silver brooch and 29 silver ingots is believed to date back to the 10th century, but between now and March, the Yorkshire Museum, where the treasures have gone on display, needs to raise £51,636 to keep it.

Natalie McCaul, the museum's curator of archeology, says: ‘There are two factors that make it especially interesting to us.

‘The first is that a number of the silver neck rings and the collar are unique – we have not seen any other examples in the Viking world that exactly match these finds. The second is they were discovered in a part of Yorkshire where very little is known about the Viking period.

‘This discovery proves that there was wealth here. It was buried for safekeeping but for some reason never returned to. We hope if we can buy the hoard we will be able to conduct research to help us get a better understanding of the people who lived in Yorkshire at that time.’

The hoard is on public display until the appeal concludes at the end of March.

For more about the appeal or to donate, click here.