Long ago, before the farmer and I married in 1993,his father turned up a stone age axe head when ploughing up a field which had been grass. He just happened to see it because the stone was green and unlike any stone around here. York Museum identified it and said the stone axe head came from the Langdale Pikes in the Lake District - the other side of the country. We marvelled at how far a man would travel in those days.
And we talked about what history is probably buried under our feet. And then the Middleham Jewel was found - a gold pendant probably from around the 15th century. Middleham is the next village from where I live - two miles away at the most. And we marvel to think that Middleham (Middleham Castle was the childhood home of Richard III) must have held such treasure all those years ago (and is now just a village with a lot of racing stables, a lot of race horses being trained and a ruined castle).
Now near Sheriff Hutton Castle - forty miles away -and also a home of Richard III- another treasure has been uncovered by metal detector. It is a tiny bible 1.5cm long, weighing 5g and made of 24ct gold and beautifully engraved. Experts think it possible that both the jewel and the bible were gifts to the same person, maybe one of Richard's relatives who was about to give birth because one of the engravings is of Margaret of Antioch a patron saint of childbirth.
That such fascinating treasures should lie beneath our feet and that such riches should have been so near and where most of the population around them would have been so poor and relying on farming for survival - it makes one wonder what else there is lying there waiting to be found, Did the owner of such treasures consider them to be treasure, did she lose them, did she search in vain for them, did she mourn their loss, did she live or die in childbirth (plenty died in those far off days). The find raises so many questions and we shall never know the answers.
When the Middleham jewel was sold in 1992 it went for £2.5million. How much will the little book go for when it is sold? And how people in Richard's time would marvel at those sums of money.
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