A MUSEUM wants to display the Silverdale Hoard as part of its centenary next year and return the Hoard back to its place of excavation. 

Lancaster City Museums are the current owners of the Hoard and want to secure the funding to put the treasure on display at the Maritime Museum. 

The Silverdale Hoard was found more than ten years ago back in 2011. The treasure contained over 200 silver items, including ten complete arm rings, two finger rings, 14 silver ingots and 27 Anglo-Saxon, Viking and Arabic coins. 

Lancaster City Museums are working with local partners to try and secure funding to stage an exhibition, events and activities based around not only the Silverdale Viking Age hoard but hoards from Warton, Halton Moor, Cuerdale and Furness. 

Part of these plans would be to put the Hoard on display at the library in Silverdale. This builds upon a project that was already in place in 2020 due to the pandemic. 

However Lancaster City Museums want to know what people would most like to see and experience, so an online survey will be put out with different plans and ideas for how best to display the Hoard. 

In 2011, a metal detectorist from Carnforth called Darren Webster found a Viking hoard while 'killing an hour to two' in Silverdale. 

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It was declared treasure by Lancashire deputy coroner Simon Jones. It was then bought by Lancaster City Museum, and Darren agreed to split the money 50-50 with the owner of the land where the treasure was found.

The collection of coins, ingots and jewellery included a coin bearing the inscription AIRDECONUT in reference to the Scandinavian name Harthacnut, who was not known at the time of the discovery. 

In a previous article, University of Cambridge historian Dr Fiona Edmonds spoke about Furness's links with the Viking world. 

She said: "There is no doubt that the Vikings left an enduring legacy in the North as a whole and Furness in particular."

Dr Edmonds said that the new discoveries were increasing our knowledge of Britain from the late 700s to the mid-13th century-when there was little surviving written evidence.