The Bramham Moor hoard from Withy and Ryall
Some time before 1756 a small hoard of 12 silver pennies were discovered on Bramham Moor (West Yorkshire/North Yorkshire border) that was either deliberately deposited or accidentally lost around 1168-70 AD. They were coins of King Stephen’s successor, Henry II, who arranged for the murder of another Saint, the Archbishop of Canterbury, St Thomas a Beckett, in 1170.
The circumstances of the find are unknown. The coins, however, were engraved (albeit poorly) and published on Plate III of Withy and Ryall, “Twelve Plates of English Silver Coins from the Norman Conquest to Henry VIII inclusive”, 1756.
In 1818 the journal Archaeologia was able to report that it was the largest hoard of Henry II coins known until the huge find of 5,700 at Tealby in Lincolnshire in 1807.
The entry in Archaeologia, 1818
