Ninth-century coin hoard found in Worcestershire

This article is from Current Archaeology issue 436

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Members of Go Detecting (Midlands) Ltd, carrying out a routine metal detecting survey in the parish of Bickmarsh in Worcestershire, have helped to uncover a coin hoard dating to the 9th century. Coins from this period are rare in Worcestershire and, prior to this discovery, fewer than 100 early medieval examples had been recorded in the whole county.

The Bickmarsh hoard was first discovered in the summer of 2022, when the Go Detecting team found 25 coins within a 30m² (320ft²) square area. As the field had not previously been known to contain any archaeological remains, a more detailed investigation followed, carried out by Worcestershire Archaeology (part of Worcestershire County Council) in partnership with the Portable Antiquities Scheme and Historic England. 

This work identified two additional concentrations of coins, bringing the total to 63, as well as 35 small fragments of lead sheeting. Similar coin hoards, such as the 11th-century caches found at Sizewell C in Suffolk (see CA 420) and Lenborough in Buckinghamshire (CA 300) have been found wrapped in lead, and it could be that these pieces are also remnants of the coins’ container. As the coins and lead fragments had been dispersed around the same area through medieval and modern ploughing, though, it is impossible to determine this for certain. 

As for the hoard’s contents, they include one gold solidus of Louis the Pious (above), ruler of Francia in AD 813-840, as well as two Frankish deniers, while the remainder are Anglo-Saxon silver pennies, most of which were issued in the name of the Mercian king Burgred (r. AD 852-874), whose kingdom included the area that is now Worcestershire. There are a few stylistic differences seen within the pennies, which indicate that they come from different points of Burgred’s reign; the presence of these later issues, together with some coins from the early reign of Alfred the Great (r. AD 871-899), suggests that the hoard was possibly buried between AD 871 and AD 874. 

The Frankish coins, meanwhile, raise questions about whether the Bickmarsh hoard could have been associated with Viking activity. Gold items appearing alongside silver coins are known from the Watlington and Herefordshire hoards (CA 361), which have both been linked to the Vikings, and a mixed gold-and-silver economy has also been identified at Viking  Great Army camps like Torksey in Lincolnshire (CA 281 and CA 385) and Aldwark in North Yorkshire (CA 426). The 9th century was a transitional period during which Viking incursions challenged the established order of the early English kingdoms. Early medieval sources do not record Viking Great Army attacks in Worcestershire itself, but its forces are known to have pushed deep into Mercian territory, forcing Burgred into exile in 874. It is possible that the hoard’s burial was to do with smaller warbands or raiding parties that are not mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, or that local struggles were at play, resulting from wider economic decline and the threat of war from the north and east.

Text: Kathryn Krakowka / IMAGE: Worcestershire Archaeology