My friend Eric Lawes, and the tale of his search for a lost hammer, captured the national headlines for a time when he discovered treasure in East Anglia in 1992.
Eric’s quiet life on the Suffolk-Norfolk border took on another dimension when his metal detector revealed what became known as the Hoxne hoard. He had actually been helping to look for an old lump hammer that had been dropped in a field near the village of Hoxne (pronounced Hoxon), where he had lived for much of his early life. But he found much more than he had bargained for. A wise and persistent metal-detectorist, Eric, who has died aged 92, knew exactly how to deal with his amazing trove, which was recovered intact and is now available for all to see in the British Museum.
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