A metal detectorist has discovered a tiny gold Bible which is believed to have belonged to medieval royalty and is worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Buffy Bailey, an NHS nurse from Lancaster, was exploring farmland near Sheriff Hutton Castle in North Yorkshire with husband Ian when her detector picked up a strong signal close to a footpath.
The 48-year-old dug five inches down expecting to discover little more than a sheep’s ear tag or an old can pull ring, but instead, she found a solid gold Bible which has left scholars stunned.
The small object, that’s only 1.5cm long, weighs around 5g and is either 22-carat or 24-carat gold, dates back to the 15th century and is believed to have belonged to a relative of King Richard III.
Experts have equated and connected it to the Middleham Jewel, a gold pendant that was discovered by a metal detectorist 40 miles away near Middleham Castle, the childhood home of Richard III. It was sold in 1992 for £2.5 million.
Experts believe that both items may have been engraved by the same blacksmith and gifted to the same owner, a female relative of the King who was about to give birth.
Much like the Middleham Jewel, it has engravings of medieval patron saints of childbirth, including St Margaret of Antioch.
The gold book is understood to have been discovered near Sheriff Hutton Castle, another property that belonged to Richard III who frequently stayed there.
Buffy Bailey said that she and her husband go all around the country metal detecting, and they decided to visit York because they knew it had a lot of history.
She said that when they arrived at the farm, the landowner asked if they wanted to go out straight away and they said that they did, and she said that metal detecting isn’t a particularly sociable hobby and people frequently try to begin a conversation by inquiring if they’ve found anything good.
She said that she just wanted to concentrate on detecting, so she turned her back to the footpath so walkers wouldn’t talk to her and just as she did she got a signal in that exact spot, and that she dug down five inches and it was just there, and that she didn’t believe it was anything special, and that she just thought it would be an old sheep’s ear tag or a pull ring.
The gold Bible is beautiful, and it was a pretty lucky discovery, and let’s hope that it’s kept locally or in the United Kingdom, although it was a bit of a stretch to call it a golden Bible. It’s a Christian amulet with the images of saints and it made the percentage of deaths in childbirth in the 15 century startlingly real, and it should make us appreciate the modern health service we have now.
It wasn’t much fun being a woman in those days, or a man for that matter, whether you were a serf or an aristocrat, all they had were a few herbs and magic, and we should be grateful because life itself is so extremely vulnerable and fragile.
The discovery is a fabulous piece of artwork, so small, yet the engravings are considerably detailed, and it was a wonderful find, but I’m shocked that after all this time it was only found 5 inches down from the surface.
We have so much history in this country and it’s a shame that our young don’t want to discover it and that the woke are so ashamed of it, and it wouldn’t surprise me if most Britons today didn’t even know what a Bible was.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 