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Posted on 05/13/2026 9:48:56 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Robert Fooks swung a pickaxe into his kitchen floor to steal a few more inches of ceiling height. Instead, he cracked open a glazed pottery bowl that had been sitting in the earth beneath his 400-year-old Dorset cottage since the English Civil War. Inside sat roughly 1,000 gold and silver coins, untouched since someone buried them in the mid-1640s.
The story surfaced after the coins sold at auction in 2024. The hoard lay hidden beneath the kitchen floor at South Poorton Farm until Robert and Betty Fooks decided to lower the ground level during a renovation...
The couple bought the property in 2019 and launched a full-scale renovation. Stripping the kitchen back to its stone walls, they dug down nearly two feet. Under a layer of old flagstones and bare earth, Robert's pickaxe hit the bowl...
The Poorton Coin Hoard includes gold and silver currency from the reigns of five monarchs, stretching from Edward VI through Charles I. The coins range from worn sixpences to a gold unite valued at 20 shillings. Gold coins bear the faces of James I and Charles I. Silver half crowns, shillings, and sixpences carry the marks of Elizabeth I and Philip and Mary...
Julian Smith, a specialist at Duke's Auctioneers, described the dig site. "The modern concrete floor was removed and the floor dug down by nearly 2ft to provide greater height to the downstairs of the property," he said. "In some areas there were old flagstones under the concrete but the area the coins were found was bare earth."
(Excerpt) Read more at dailygalaxy.com ...
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ยฉ A Couple's Kitchen Floor Was Hiding A 17th Century Treasure.Image credit: Shutterstock
Thanks for the link!
And we know this, why?
Because they couldn’t keep their mouths shut.
Lovely UK. Did they get to keep anything?
Treasure Act 1996:
The Act allows for criminal prosecution for:
failing to report treasure
hiding treasure
selling or disposing of treasure without reporting
delaying notification
Penalties can include:
fines
confiscation of the object
potential imprisonment
Does that include family heirlooms that have been in the family for centuries? :)
Yes, not reporting it has great penalties. However, when they do report it the government determines if the treasure has historical importance or not. If it does, the museum is required to pay the finder what the treasure is valued at. If it doesn’t have historical importance, the finder gets it back and do what he wants.
It actually is a law that promotes treasure hunting.
And the coins went to auction legally, why? Because they aren’t sociopaths.
I can’t help it if I have a very Americanized sense of property rights.
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh! SHUT-UP! Sheesh!
I’ve got another article on deck about some medieval English coins that wound up carried off to another country as booty, and then buried there, haven’t read that far. Later today.
When you stay at a bed & breakfast in England, bring a pickaxe.
Yes, since they own the property and found the treasure, they are the lawful owners of what they found. I don’t think it is subject to any sort of tax.
Stupid is as stupid does.
Iโm still waiting for the Laginas to bring up treasure from underneath Oak Island. Another season gone by and no treasure. I canโt imagine how many millions theyโve poured into that island looking for it. Itโs disappointing that they havenโt found it yet, but itโs still a fascinating journey for them to uncover what actually happened there. I canโt wait for next season (which theyโre probably filming right now).
“...at South Poorton Farm until Robert and Betty Fooks”
Sounds like a Monty Python sketch.
Now they can get great big dish of beef chow mein!
/obscure cultural reference
Ah-Hoo!
LOL
They’re getting their beef chow mein at Ho Li Fook.
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