A RARE thousand-year-old treasure has been found in Hampshire.

A nummular brooch, a central coin motif often surrounded by rings of circular pellets, was found in Nether Wallop by Stuart Gawler in April last year containing a penny featuring Edward the Confessor.

The penny, which dates to around 1052, was found to contain an inscription which proved the coin was minted in Winchester by monier Wyn Stan.

Katie Hinds, finds liaison officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme, said: “Finds like this are known to occur but they do not come up very often. We maybe see one or two a year.”

Mr Gawler, of Pound Road in Over Wallop, said he found the brooch in a pasture field. “It was only about an inch underground believe it or not. The area’s prolific for Anglo-Saxon finds. I’ve been doing it for 25 years and I’ll never find another one in my life time.”

The brooch was just one of four artefacts which were declared treasures at an inquest last Wednesday (January 29).

A bronze-age piece, suspected to be a necklace, bracelet or armlet, was discovered at Snakemoor Farm in Durley last June.

The item, originating from approximately 1300 BC, is thought to have been made during the Taunton phase and was deliberately broken during the burial ritual of its owner.

The other pieces included an intricately decorated thimble, made some time during the 16th to the 17th century, and fragments of a Roman silver finger ring.