This is the story of the hoarde of coins that were found in the River Dove in 1831

Coin head Coin tail

Edward llThomas, Earl of Lancaster sided with the Scots against his cousin King Edward ll in the early 1300s. 

King Edward decided to attack Tutbury Castle to teach him a lesson and mounted an army from London. 

Thomas heard about this and returned to Tutbury with his own army of 30,000 men.

Thomas fortified Burton Bridge, the only crossing over the Trent for miles, and held the bridge against the King’s advance party. 

 

Map

The King received advice that there was a little known ford at Walton so crossed the river there (leaving a decoy force at the bridge) and attacked Thomas from the direction of Branston.

Thomas was thrashed at the Battle of Burton Bridge on 10 March 1322 and retreated to Tutbury Castle, leaving Burton in flames. 

Thomas was expecting reinforcements from his Scots allies but they didn’t turn up so he was forced to escape over the Dove.


There are two stories of how the coins were lost:
  1. Thomas’s treasurer lost the treasure chest whilst crossing the flooded Dove.
  2. Looters of the castle found 3 barrels containing £1500 and hid them in the bank of the river.  This would have been worth £60,000 in 1950 and £¼ million today!

The coins lay there for 500 years, the barrels breaking up until 1831 when workmen removing gravel from the river bed just below the bridge, found a few silver coins.  Five feet down 5,000 coins were found by two men in one day.  

The final count is estimated at over 100,000 and include gold and silver coins of Henry lll, Edward l, Edward lll, Scottish coins of Alexander lll and Robert Bruce, plus Kings of Bohemia and Poland.

The Crown asked for them back!!!