The Ackworth Hoard

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The Ackworth Hoard – The Civil War Treasure Buried Beneath a Yorkshire Garden

In 2011, a remarkable discovery was made in a back garden in Ackworth, West Yorkshire.

Buried inside a ceramic pot were 539 silver coins, 52 gold coins and a gold ring. The collection had lain beneath the ground for more than 350 years and became known as the Ackworth Hoard.

The coins point to the treasure being buried in late 1645 or early 1646, right in the middle of the English Civil Wars and at a time when events around Ackworth and nearby Pontefract were becoming increasingly dangerous.

Someone had hidden a small fortune.

They never came back for it.

What Was Found?

The Ackworth Hoard contained 591 coins: 539 silver and 52 gold.

Alongside them was a gold ring inscribed:

“When this you see, remember me.”

The coins were contained in a locally made ceramic pot and included money from several different mints, including Royalist mints at York and Oxford.

There were also 12 silver ducatons from the Spanish Netherlands, adding another intriguing connection to the Royalist cause.

Together, the finds give us a remarkably clear picture of when the treasure was hidden.

What they don't tell us is who owned it.

Ackworth and the Civil War

To understand why somebody might bury this much money in Ackworth, we need to look just a few miles down the road.

Pontefract Castle was one of the most important Royalist strongholds in Yorkshire during the English Civil Wars.

It was besieged several times.

On Christmas Day 1645, Parliamentary forces began another siege of the castle, and troops involved in the campaign were billeted in Ackworth.

The timing is remarkably close to the estimated date when the hoard was buried.

For a wealthy Royalist supporter living in or around Ackworth, hiding valuables suddenly makes perfect sense.

Who Buried the Ackworth Hoard?

Nobody knows, but there are clues.

Many of the coins came from Royalist mints, while the silver ducatons provide another possible link to the king's supporters.

Charles I's wife, Queen Henrietta Maria, travelled to the Netherlands to raise money and obtain supplies for the Royalist cause. Foreign currency consequently found its way into Royalist finances in England.

There was also an important Royalist living in Ackworth itself.

Thomas Bradley was rector of Ackworth and had previously served as a personal chaplain to Charles I. During the war he joined the Royalist garrison at Pontefract Castle as a chaplain.

That doesn't make Bradley the owner of the hoard, but it shows how closely Ackworth was connected to the Royalist cause.

The owner may have been someone associated with Bradley, another wealthy Royalist supporter, or somebody whose name has simply disappeared from history.

A Small Fortune Beneath the Ground

The face value of the coins was £85 and 12 shillings.

That might not sound extraordinary today, but in the 1640s it represented considerable wealth.

An ordinary Civil War foot soldier might earn only eight to ten pence a day. The money hidden in Ackworth amounted to more than five years of a soldier's pay.

Whoever owned it had a very good reason for wanting to keep it safe.

Burying money during periods of war and unrest wasn't unusual. Without modern banks or secure storage, putting valuables underground could be one of the safest options available.

The intention, of course, was to return when the danger had passed.

Something prevented the owner of the Ackworth Hoard from doing that.

What Happened to the Owner?

This is the part of the story we may never solve.

The owner could have fled as Parliamentary forces moved into the area.

They might have been killed during the conflict.

But war wasn't the only danger facing people in Ackworth.

Plague hit the village badly. In 1645, 153 people in Ackworth died from the disease.

The timing raises an obvious possibility: the person who buried the treasure may simply not have survived long enough to retrieve it.

Whatever happened, knowledge of the hiding place disappeared with them.

The pot remained underground until its accidental discovery more than three centuries later.

The Gold Ring

The ring makes the Ackworth Hoard particularly intriguing.

Coins tell us about wealth, trade, politics and the period in which they were made. A ring feels much more personal.

Its inscription — “When this you see, remember me” — leaves us with another unanswered question.

Who was supposed to remember whom?

We don't know whether the ring belonged to the person who buried the hoard, whether it had been given to them by somebody else, or whether it formed part of their accumulated wealth.

But it brings us closer to the unknown person at the centre of the story.

See the Ackworth Hoard

Part of the Ackworth Hoard is held by Pontefract Museum, only a few miles from where it was discovered.

It's particularly interesting when combined with a visit to Pontefract Castle.

The castle explains why armies were moving through this part of Yorkshire, while the Ackworth Hoard shows what those events could mean for an individual trying to protect their possessions.

Two local places, connected by the same turbulent period of Yorkshire history.

Explore Ackworth

Ackworth is also a good base for exploring this part of West Yorkshire on foot.

We've walked several routes from and around the village, including the Ackworth Loop, Ackworth & Hessle Loop and Ackworth & Hundhill Loop.

You'll find more routes we've walked ourselves on our West Yorkshire Walks page, or use the map on Yorkshire Walks to explore further across the county.