Chelmsford has a number of claims to fame: its Roman predecessor Caesaromagus was the only town in Britain to bear the emperor’s name; Chelmsford was England’s acting capital for six days in 1381, when Richard II moved his court there during the Peasants’ Revolt; and it is described as the ‘Birthplace of Radio’ thanks to Marconi opening the world’s first wireless factory there in 1898. Now two recent archaeological discoveries are adding to a growing understanding that this area could have been culturally and politically significant during the Iron Age, too.
Although a small hillfort (a rare example of this monument-type in Essex’s mostly flat landscape) has been identified just south of the city at Danbury Camp, and works on the Little Waltham Bypass about 6.5km (4 miles) north of Chelmsford revealed a moderate-sized roundhouse settlement in the 1970s (see CA 36), the local archaeological record for this period has traditionally been relatively quiet. You could have been forgiven for thinking that this area was a bit of a backwater during later prehistory – but, as Timeless Treasures: Unlocking the Great Baddow Coin Hoard, an absorbing new exhibition at the Museum of Chelmsford, attests (see ‘Further information’ below), that view is now being dramatically revised.
Our story begins six years ago, with the discovery of the Great Baddow Hoard on the outskirts of Chelmsford, near the village that gives the find its name. Thought to be the largest hoard of Iron Age gold coins known in Britain, it was found with the remains of a copper-alloy vessel and tiny fragments of red glass inlay hinting at an ornate container. Bearing stylised images of a running horse and an abstract wreath, all but three of its 935 coins are Whaddon Chase-type staters, a distinctive form produced between 60 and 20 BC, which is named after another hoard that was found in Buckinghamshire in 1849. Unfortunately, the contents of this latter collection were divided and dispersed soon after its discovery, meaning that we do not know its exact size, though estimates range from 400 to 2,000 coins, and it has been suggested that the 73 staters known as the Little Horwood Hoard (listed as BUC-5D0980 on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database), which were found on the same site in 2006, may represent further elements that were missed in the 19th century.
A chicken coup