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Melsonby Hoard exhibition opens at Yorkshire Museum
The largest Iron Age hoard of metalwork ever found in the UK is going on display at the Yorkshire Museum. Chariots, Treasure and Power: Secrets of the Melsonby Hoard will feature of selection of objects amounting to around 20% of the 800+ objects in the Melsonby Hoard, including weapons, cauldrons, chariot and horse fittings. The star of the show will be “The Block,” an extraordinary mass of 88 artifacts fused together by corrosion materials more than three feet wide and weighing 150kg (331lb) that is being preserved as it is.
The first objects were discovered by a metal detectorist in field near Melsonby in December 2021. Archaeologists from the University of Durham followed up with an excavation of the find site and uncovered two distinct deposits: one massive group of Iron Age metalwork, and nearby a second smaller one of the same materials that had been deliberately destroyed, wrapped in cloth and placed in a separate ditch 2.000 years ago. Both were closely packed with objects fused together. The second had formed a concreted mass and had to be removed in a single block for excavation in the conservation laboratory at Durham University.
Between the on-site excavation and the micro-excavation in the laboratory, archaeologists spend months recovering individual items and cleaning the fused mass that would become known as The Block. They found the remains of dozens of wheeled vehicles, from iron tires to horse harnesses to bridle bits, two large drinking vessels decorated with fish motifs, coral studs and masks of human faces. More than 800 individual objects, in the final tally.
When the excavation was complete, the hoard was assessed by a committee of the British Museum which determined its market value was £254,000 ($328,000). Last year, the York Museums Trust launched a fundraising campaign to secure the hoard for the Yorkshire Museum near where it was found. More than 1,000 people contributed to the crowdfunding initiative raising £54,000. The National Heritage Memorial Fund contributed £192,096 and other institutions pitched up to reach the final goal.
In September 2025, the hoard was moved from Durham University to the Yorkshire Museum. It was a major challenge, requiring specialist movers and customized vehicles and crates to keep the delicate artifacts safe in transportation. The museum created a custom storage facility to house the hoard safely with climate-controlled extra dry air to prevent further corrosion.
Fourteen months after the fundraiser was launched, the Yorkshire Museum’s landmark exhibition of the Melsonby Hoard has opened to visitors.
The size and value of the collection suggests an “amount of wealth” which could only have belonged to a “someone very important”, [Emily North, curator of archaeology at the Yorkshire Museum,] told journalists at a briefing ahead of the public opening.
Items include a mirror and blue glass beads, commonly associated with female power in the Iron Age.
“What we could be looking at are the belongings of a queen.”
The exhibition demonstrates the “incredibly rich” culture of the Brigante tribe which ruled the region. The Brigantes were a Celtic people who attempted to stave off the approaching Roman army at Stanwick St John, near Melsonby.
The exhibition also features a wine-mixing bowl, typically found 2,000 years ago in the Mediterranean, likely to have been brought back to Britain.
“It gives us a hint of how interconnected Iron Age people in North Yorkshire were,” North said.
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