Find Spot record 2373/1 - Congleton coin hoard 1

<1> National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, 1992, Coin Hoards from Priesty Fields, Congleton: Survey and Documentary Research (Client Report). SCH4160.

One of four separate hoards of 16th and 17th century silver coins found in close association by metal detectorists in April and May 1992. The four caches of coins, each contained in a pottery vessel, had been deposited in a steep, 10-metre high, natural bank alongside the Howty Brook on the outskirts of Congleton. There appears to be a close relationship between the four hoards in terms of the similar date of coinage, the close location of deposition (hoards 3 and 4 were almost touching), and the similarities of the pottery vessels in which they were buried (two lidded jars and two earthenware bottles). These similarities indicate a link between the hoards and possibly that that one individual or family was responsible for their deposition. In the early 1670s the field was owned by John Walker, a prominent and wealthy Congleton business man, three-times mayor and a Royalist, who died in 1675. The initials of 'J:CW' appear on the vessel of hoard 2, they may represent the name of John Walker and his wife.

Hoard 1 comprised 1144 coins which range in date from 1554 to 1646-9 and consisted of 6 shillings of Philip & Mary; 629 sixpences and 216 shillings of Elizabeth I; 71 sixpences, 81 shillings and 1 half-crown of James I; 1 sixpence, 119 shillings and 20 half-crowns of Charles I. As coins from the latest period 1643-6 are present in small numbers, four only from the period 1645-6, and a single specimen from 1646-9, it is possible that the hoard closed in or soon after 1646, but it could be that the hoard was deposited sometime after this date. The absence of coins of the Commonwealth does not necessarily provide a terminus post quem for the hoard as a Royalist may have deliberately refused to make use of these coins and, on accession of Charles II, Commonealth coins were rapidly demonetised. The vessel containing the coins was a black-glazed lidded jar of later 17th/early 18th century date.

<2> Chester Archaeology, 1992, Four Coin Hoards from Congleton: Report on the Pottery (Report). SCH8027.

<3> Cheshire County Council, 1992, Congleton Coin Hoards: Catalogue (Report). SCH8026.