6 April 2011Last updated at 15:45

In pictures: Staffordshire Hoard conservation work

When the Staffordshire Hoard was discovered in 2009 it certainly captured people's imagination. Now conservation work on the Anglo-Saxon treasure at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is being revealed to the public.

The museum is putting on monthly 'behind the scenes' tours for small groups of people who will have the chance to talk to the conservation experts about their work on the hoard. The first tour on Wednesday, 6 April was sold out, as is the second date in May.

The gold and silver artefacts were discovered by a metal detector enthusiast in a farmer's field in Staffordshire and date back to the 7th Century.

The conservation is painstaking work as the experts carefully remove some of the soil. They photograph and document their work as they go along.

If they are working on gold, a soft metal, they will use tools made out of pared down cocktail sticks or even thorns instead of metal.

The conservation experts study the items under a microscope as they clean them ready for display.

On average it takes two days to get a piece of the treasure ready for display. You can just see in the bottom left corner where work has started on this piece.

Among the artefacts discovered were sword pommels, helmet fragments and jewelled crosses.

Hoard conservation project manager Deborah Cane explained that the amount of public interest in the treasure and its conservation had led to them setting up the tours.

Visitors can book places on the tours, which cater for 10 people at a time and are scheduled for the first Wednesday of each month. The second tour scheduled for May is fully booked.

Some of the artefacts are on display at the museum. Over the summer a number of items will be going on a regional tour to be displayed at Lichfield, Stafford and Tamworth.

England

In pictures: Staffordshire Hoard conservation work

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