Staffordshire Hoard must stay in our county

The historical interest is extraordinary and could throw some light on the Anglo Saxon ‘Dark Ages’…

But the Staffordshire Hoard, which the County’s Head of Media was determined to make stick as the name, is much more than historically important. This incredible archaeological find could bring hundreds of millions of pounds to the Staffordshire economy if we get it right.

When we first heard of the Hoard at County Cabinet recently and listened to the account of when our senior archaeologist was called to deal with the find it was on the strict understanding it would not go outside the building. Around 1500 pieces of the finest gold, silver and precious stone mounted treasure ever discovered and all found in a field near Burntwood. A find that rivals, and probably surpasses, the famous Sutton Hoo collection.

Unfortunately the news has started somewhat of a stampede as to who can get their hands on the Staffordshire Hoard with Birmingham City Council going out of their way to see the collection displayed permanently in their City centre and Stoke believing they should be the custodians.

Then, of course, there’s the British Museum and bearing in mind that most things of any significance seem to default back to the South and our London capital… who knows? All I know is that it is absolutely right that we, as the County Council, are utterly determined to keep our county’s heritage in Staffordshire. To me Birmingham’s usual ‘Regional’ argument just doesn’t wash.

So, at the moment, plans are afoot at the County to find a suitable secure home within Staffordshire’s borders while at the same time developing plans to turn what would be the very significant financial investment needed to keep the find here into the enormous potential of a new and timely mini economy for our county for many years to come.

Currently the whole collection is ready to go (temporarily hopefully) to London where a special committee of experts will value, catalogue and collate bids of interest ready for a decision to be made on the Staffordshire Hoard’s future permanent home, probably in six to twelve months time, when the restoration work is complete. 

The more public support for it staying here the more the chance it will rather than ending up in Birmingham or London.

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