More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
A metal detectorist discovered a 400-year-old silver hawking ring which could be worth more than £18,000 while hunting for lost treasure in Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey.
Incredibly, experts from the British Museum have now been able to trace its original owner, an inquest heard.
The vervel - as it is known - was discovered by Philip Bowes during an organised detector club search of land belonging to Mr and Mrs Siller on September 22, 2019.
Coroner Katrina Hepburn declared the item treasure at Sessions House, Maidstone, which means its true owner or heirs cannot be traced and so it can be kept by the finder.
The ring was used to attach the jesses trailing from the legs of hunting hawks to a leash which, when held in the hand, allowed the bird a short flight. It could also be used to tether the bird to its perch.
Hawking was a popular pastime for the aristocracy during the medieval period but this ring dates from the Stuart era.
It belonged to Philip Herbert (1584 -1650), well known for his love of hawking, and a friend of King James 1 of England.
In 1605 the King made him the first Earl of Montgomery.
He was the Lord Lieutenant of Kent in 1624, although his country seat was Wilton House near Salisbury in Wiltshire.
The land where the ring was found was once the parkland of Shurland House, a former 16th century grade ll-listed Tudor manor house.
The ring is inscribed with the words E of Montgomery (Earl of Montgomery) and is decorated with an heraldic shield bearing the emblem of the Montgomery coat of arms - a wyvern (a type of dragon) below a crown clutching in its jaws a left hand. It is believed the ring was of Welsh design.
Herbert was made the Baron Herbert of Shurland in 1605 and continued to pick up titles and estates throughout his career. In 1630, after the death of his brother, he inherited the title of Fourth Earl of Pembroke.
Because the hereditary title held greater precedence, he was afterwards known as Pembroke, not Montgomery, which allowed the ring to be dated to some time between 1605 and 1630.
Two other vervels, also with the Montgomery crest, have previously been discovered in Hertfordshire.
The rings served the dual purse of helping to identify escaped hawks if they failed to return.
It is understood the National Museum of Wales is interested in obtaining the vervel, which measures 9.35mm long, 8.84mm wide and 8.49mm high. It weighs just over a gram.
Shurland Hall still exists today off Eastchurch High Street but the building is only the renovated gatehouse of Shurland House which had been a much larger property in Herbert's time.
A similar vervel sold at auction in December 2020 for £18,500.
The Sheppey discovery came just after detectorists had set up camp on the Island. Medway History Finders staged the three-day rally to search 500 acres of farmland in August 2019.
Spokesman Andrew Hunter said at the time: "We are very excited. This land, which stretches to Eastchurch church, has never been searched before as far as we know.
"We are expecting to uncover artefacts from the Viking, Roman and Anglo-Saxon eras."
The 26g gold ring, believed to have been lost by a bishop in the reign of Henry Vlll or earlier, was found by Ashley Solly during a pre-rally sweep of the area and was handed over to the British Museum.
More than 400 detectorists paid to attend the rally. The hobby has been boosted following the hit BBC TV comedy series Detectorists starring Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones. Mackenzie was born in Maidstone in 1971 and brought up in the village of Sutton-at-Hone near Dartford.
For more quirky and unusual stories, click here
