Renovating a kitchen can be expensive but a couple from Dorset have found it to be a lucrative exercise after they discovered more than 1,000 17th-century coins hidden under the floor.
Betty and Robert Fooks were removing the kitchen’s concrete floor to create more ceiling height at their farmhouse in Dorset when Robert, an agricultural engineer, discovered a smashed glazed pottery bowl full of 400-year-old coins.
The couple reported it to the local finds liaison officer and it was sent to the British Museum for cleaning and identification. The coins, known as the Poorton hoard, are coming up for sale at Duke’s auctioneers in Dorchester, Dorset, and are expected to fetch about £35,000.
Betty Fooks, an NHS health visitor, said: “It is a 400-year-old house so there was lots of work to do. We were taking all the floors and ceilings out and took it back to its stone walls. We decided to lower the ground floor to give us more ceiling height.
“One evening, I was with the children and my husband was digging with a pick axe when he called to say they’ve found something. He put all the coins in a bucket. If we hadn’t lowered the floor, they would still be hidden there. I presume the person intended to retrieve them but never got the chance.”
This hoard, discovered in October 2019, contains James I and Charles I gold coins, silver half crowns, shillings and sixpences; Elizabeth I and Philip and Mary silver shillings and sixpences.
Julian Smith, specialist at Duke’s auctioneers, said: “The cottage is situated in a small hamlet in west Dorset, and is a 17th century long-house. The property was purchased by the current owners in 2019 and they started an extensive renovation project.
“The modern concrete floor was removed and the floor dug down by nearly 2ft to provide greater height to the downstairs of the property. In some areas there were old flagstones under the concrete but the area the coins were found was bare earth.
“The coins have been with the British Museum for identification and cleaning, and they feel the coins were deposited on one occasion.”
The sale takes place on 23 April.
