PREVIEW: COINS & HISTORICAL MEDALS 4 & 5 APRIL

Parts of Hazelbury Manor, near Box in Wiltshire, date back to around 1500, with the building as a whole completed during the following century before being considerably enlarged in the early 20th century.

It proved an attractive prospect to Steve Simmons, an employee at the manor who gained permission to detect the land by its current owners.

His searches paid off after two months when he uncovered 14 gold coins over two days, the hoard tightly clustered at a range of depths between six and 12 inches as a single deposit. Remnants of the leather purse or pouch in which the coins were contained confirmed this.

The hoard was Mr Simmons’ first numismatic find of any kind.

It consists of gold coins dating to the reigns of James I (1603-25) and Charles I (1625-49) when the manor was in the possession of the Speke family.

The deposition of the Hazelbury Manor hoard has been dated to c.1643, and this agrees with the freshness of its two most recent additions and the lack of any coins carrying mint marks from after this period.

While hoards from the Civil War period have been discovered in significant numbers, it is most unusual to find an assemblage consisting entirely of gold coins as here.

Further clues come from the exact find spot, at a crossroads along the ancient Wyres Lane (running from Hazelbury Manor to Box Mill), precisely eight feet away from two perpendicular sections of medieval wall.

“This placement of the hoard appears deliberate and was presumably intended as an aid to its recovery, while the distance between the find-spot and the Manor argues against it being an occupant of the house that deposited the coins,” said Noonans’ coins specialist Bradley Hopper.

“We have then an unusual hoard deposited in the grounds of Hazelbury Manor by a presumably transient figure who intended to recover it but was unable to do so.”

It is possible that the hoard is linked to activity in the area in July 1643, when Lord Hopton led a Royalist army north toward Bath, securing first the bridge at Bradford-on-Avon, passing Claverton, progressing to Batheaston and finally facing Parliamentary forces at Lansdowne Hill on the 5th.

Hopton lost the battle and was prevented from taking Bath, with his cavalry routed and scattered. The following day his army retreated to Devizes.

Individual coins in the hoard have been estimated at between £600 and £3,000 for the auction. Highlights include a Charles I Tower mint Double Crown of 1625 and another of 1639-40, each estimated at £2,400-3,000.

A second coinage Unite of 1605-6 is the stand-out lot among the James I coins. It has an estimate of £2,000-2,600.