Run for the Shropshire hills! Amateur metal detectorists are ‘dusting off’ their equipment and heading to the countryside after largest-ever golden nugget worth £30,000 is discovered

Locals in Shropshire joked they were ‘dusting off’ their prospecting pans after a metal detectorist found England’s largest-ever nugget of the gold worth £30,000 in only the latest of a series of exciting discoveries in the county. 

Richard Brock, 67, discovered the record-breaking, 64.8g nugget while on an organised expedition on farmland in the Shropshire hills, prompting a wave of excitement dubbed the ‘Shropshire Gold Rush’. 

Among those getting into the spirit of things was Netherton Foundry, a traditional cast iron cookware company based in the county, which joked they were ‘dusting off our prospecting pans and heading to the hills’. 

Meanwhile, a local writing on a Facebook community page for the town of Much Wenlock grumbled: ‘If you think there’s too much traffic now’. 

Mr Brock  latest in a string of treasure seekers to have great luck in the area, with several other major finds reported in recent years. 

 Shropshire is home to a large amount of rock which originally came from Wales – a country known to be rich in gold.

Examples of most rock types can be found within the Shropshire countryside, making it a great destination for treasure seekers. 

Last year three finds made by detectorists in a Shropshire field were declared treasure at an inquest in Shirehall, Shrewsbury. 

The precious finds included a 7th century gold penannular ring, an incomplete Roman gold amulet case, and a gold sword ring, Shropshire Council reported. 

The gold penannular ring was described as ‘the latest incredible find of Bronze Age gold from north Shropshire’. The treasures were unearthed at sites near Condover and Prees.

Curator for Shropshire Council’s museums service, Emma-Kate Lanyon, said: ‘Over the past 20 years a number of important finds of prehistoric goldwork have be made in north Shropshire. 

‘This ring is another clue, showing us that the people living in the area 3,000 years ago were part of a rich and sophisticated community.

‘Finds like this are so important for building a better picture of this time. Shropshire was going through a period of really seismic change. It sat on the border between the British-controlled Welsh kingdoms and the Saxon kingdom of Mercia.

‘The kingdoms of Britain were often in conflict. This created a society where maintaining the support of a warrior elite was crucial, as was building the right alliances. Deals were often done by exchanging lavish gifts. Sword hilt rings may have been gifted and displayed as a mark of such an oath.’

In 2018, a Bronze Age gold bulla was found in Shropshire and declared treasure in January the following year. 

The gold was recovered from an undisclosed findspot in Shropshire in May 2018 by a metal detector. 

The finder of the bulla described it as ‘the very best find of their detecting career – it’s simply mind-blowing.’ 

Peter Reavill, Finds Liaison Officer for Shropshire, said: ‘The design is such that the play of light over the surface is what you see most, changing with angle and light moving and shimmering, dancing and ever different. This would have been enhanced in the period where it would have been stunning when viewed by firelight or in bright sunlight.’

The British Museum this year considered Norfolk as the treasure capital for detectorists, the BBC reported. 

Metal detectorists reported 95 finds in the county in 2022, compared with 81 in Kent and 83 in Hampshire. 

The most recent gold discovery in Shropshire was the UK’s record-breaking nugget found by Mr Brock. 

The father travelled three-and-a-half hours from his home in Somerset to join an organised expedition on farmland in the Shropshire Hills.

On arrival he found he had difficulty with his detecting kit and had to resort to using a dodgy old machine which was not even working properly.

But moments later Mr Brock, who has been metal detecting for 35 years, discovered the biggest find of his life – after unearthing a 64.8g golden nugget.

Named ‘Hiro’s Nugget’, the metal lump is now set to fetch at least £30,000 at auction as it’s believed to be the biggest find of its kind on English soil.

The father-of-four said: ‘I have been detecting since 1989 and decided to join the trip as a similar previous one to Australia was cancelled during the pandemic.

‘So I drove three-and-a-half hours to Shropshire and I actually arrived about an hour late, thinking I’d missed the action.

‘Everyone there had all this up-to-date kit and I bowled up with three old machines, and one of them packed in there and then.

‘At first I just found a few rusty old tent pegs with this back-up detector which had a fading screen display.

‘But after only 20 minutes of scanning the ground I found this nugget buried about five of six inches down in the ground.

‘I was a perhaps bit too honest and started showing people, and then all of a sudden I had swarms of other detectorists scanning the same area.

‘The machine I was using was pretty much kaput – it was only half working. It just goes to show that it doesn’t really matter what equipment you use.

‘If you are walking over the find and are alert enough to what might be lurking underneath the soil, that makes all the difference.

‘I couldn’t believe it – I turned up late, was only there a matter of minutes and this treasure hunting expedition was supposed to last all day.

‘I couldn’t look for anything else as I had the land owner, the organiser of the dig and every other detectorist around me trying to get a look at this nugget.’