Museum hits target to buy Iron Age hoard

A museum has successfully raised the £10,500 needed to buy an Iron Age hoard found in a field.

Friends of the Oxfordshire Museum wanted to buy the hoard including a 2,000-year-old brooch from a horse harness used to pull a chariot, a dress broach, a coin and an enamelled handle from a shallow bowl.

It was found by a metal detectorist in a sealed pottery urn in Rotherfield Peppard near Henley-on-Thames in August 2020 and later excavated by archaeologists.

Declared treasure, the county council's museum service had the first chance to buy the items and started fundrasing in July. With half the money still needed on Friday and a 6 October deadline a further appeal prompted a surge in donations.

The charity had until midday on 6 October before the hoard was able to go up for public sale.

The museum wants to keep the items, thought to have been buried in AD 50-150, shortly after the Roman invasion, for public display and avoid it going to a private collection.

The Friends of the Oxfordshire Museum, a registered charity that supports the Oxfordshire Museum said: "Thank you so much for your donations. We are touched, overwhelmed and inspired by all your support."

So far, 228 people have donated to the crowdfunder and others through donation boxes at the Oxfordshire Museum Resource Centre.

The charity said donors who gave more than £20 would be invited to a special viewing of the hoard.

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