• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
search menu
close
  • About us
    • Suffolk Museums Partnership
    • The Association for Suffolk Museums
      • Suffolk Museums Leaflet
  • Museums
  • What’s On
  • Projects
    • Special Delivery
    • Kickstart
    • Transforming People to Transform Museums
    • Making Waves Together
    • Suffolk Steps
    • The Last Woodwose
    • The Grit
    • Creative Heritage in Mind
    • Holiday Activity and Food Programme
    • Summer in Suffolk Museums
  • Get involved
  • News
  • Contact us
  • Object of the Year 2022
  • search

The Association for Suffolk Museums HomepageThe Association for Suffolk Museums

independent charity for museums in Suffolk.

Preserving and promoting Suffolk's Heritage
  • About us
    • Suffolk Museums Partnership
    • The Association for Suffolk Museums
      • Suffolk Museums Leaflet
  • Museums
  • What’s On
  • Projects
    • Special Delivery
    • Kickstart
    • Transforming People to Transform Museums
    • Making Waves Together
    • Suffolk Steps
    • The Last Woodwose
    • The Grit
    • Creative Heritage in Mind
    • Holiday Activity and Food Programme
    • Summer in Suffolk Museums
  • Get involved
  • News
  • Contact us
  • Object of the Year 2022
  • search
Home » News » Grant will help Iron Age hoard stay intact, and local

Grant will help Iron Age hoard stay intact, and local

Posted on 2nd February 2023

Stunning iconography on one of the Blythburgh coins already on display at Halesworth & District Museum

A local hoard of Iron Age gold coins can now become a complete collection at Halesworth & District Museum thanks to support from the Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund. A £5,000 grant will support the purchase of 22 coins, which will take pride of place alongside 19 already purchased. All were found near Blythburgh, a village about 5 miles from Halesworth, and were probably buried around 25AD.

The Museum applied for the grant in early January, and received the offer of support a few days later. The volunteers are now busy raising further funds to meet the purchase price of £10,000. It is a condition of the grant that at least £500 of the cost is met by the Museum’s own funds or private donations.

Curator Brian Howard explains why having the full collection on display in the Museum is important for local history, and for the people of Halesworth:

‘These coins feature beautiful, mysterious images of animals, faces and seemingly abstract patterns. No one understands their significance. If they are housed in one location, historians will be able to study the collection as a whole, and perhaps shed light on why these detailed images were so important to our Iron Age predecessors. This opportunity would have been lost had the Blythburgh hoard been split up across regional, national and even private collections.’

`In addition, our Museum is already recognised for its work with young people in the area, and we hope to use the coins to help raise awareness of Iron Age history among local schoolchildren as well as the wider population.’

The good news comes at a time when Halesworth & District Museum is already expanding both its footprint and its displays. In 2022, the Museum acquired further rooms at Halesworth Station, to provide an additional display room, a volunteers’ area and a study room. The display and volunteers’ areas are designed flexibly, allowing the creation of a larger space for talks, readings and even small-scale drama presentations. New display cases are due in March, and Museum volunteers are already hard at work developing the first exhibits to occupy the extra space.

Find out more on the Halesworth & District Museum website.

Footer

STAY IN TOUCH

Contact: Jayne Austin,
Museum Development Manager
T: 01473 265008
E: museums@suffolk.gov.uk

AfSM MEMBERS

Add your event

FOLLOW US

Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Facebook

The Association for Suffolk Museums is an independent charity (No.293950) and membership body.

Supported by Suffolk County Council, the membership of the Association for Suffolk Museums and SHARE Museums East.

Copyright © 2023 Association for Suffolk Museums · All rights reserved · Privacy Policy · Created by Opens link in new tab Purple Hippo