Electrician finds gold Viking sword in fields near quiet English village

An electrician in Northamptonshire has unearthed a viking sword in the fields around his quiet village.

Andy Green, 56, made an extraordinary discovery in fields near Brigstock, Northamptonshire, in 2019.

He found a gold and silver sword pommel from the Viking era.

Remarkably, Mr Green had only begun metal detecting six weeks prior to unearthing the treasure.

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"I started to see the gold through the earth and that's when my hands started shaking," Mr Green recalled.

Fellow detectorists quickly realised something exceptional had occurred when they spotted him "sitting on the floor and giggling; I completely lost the plot."

The narrowboat dweller, who lives on the Grand Union Canal, initially mistook the emerging lobes for a bullet casing before the unmistakable glint of gold revealed the truth.

The pommel was reported to Northamptonshire's finds liaison officer Eleanore Cox, who called it "absolutely stunning".

"People have been detecting for many years and not found anything this magnificent – it's a once-in-a-lifetime find," she said.

Ms Cox consulted a Viking sword specialist from Glasgow, who examined the artefact in person.

The expert traced its origins to Gotland in Sweden, suggesting it was either crafted there or produced in England by a Gotland metalworker.

"Every last bit is decorated: it either belonged to someone with a great deal of money or it was presented to them by someone very high up," Ms Cox explained.

The pommel has been dated to AD900-1120, a period when Scandinavian settlers colonised the Danelaw region, which included Corby.

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Following the coroner's inquest that declared the pommel treasure, an intriguing development emerged.

Another expert contacted Ms Cox to reveal that his son had discovered a gold loop near Brigstock in 2018, a year before Mr Green's find.

The loop, fashioned from three strands of beaded wire twisted together, had already been logged on the Portable Antiquities database and disclaimed after no museum sought to acquire it.

A Viking sword specialist examined both pieces and concluded the loop was likely a fitting from lower down the same weapon's hilt.

"Do you think the two are connected?" the expert had asked Ms Cox, prompting the investigation.

Green remains an enthusiastic metal detectorist, drawn to the hobby by his passion for walking and history.

He expressed his pleasure that a Northamptonshire museum hopes to acquire the treasure.

"My thought from day one of detecting was when you find something, it's not a question of ownership, it's that you're going to save it from the plough and become the tiniest little moment in its timeline," he said.

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