Archaeologist links River Wear hoard to Michael Ramsey at Church Of England
Gary Bankhead has linked a cache of christian artifacts from the River Wear to Michael Ramsey, the former Church of England Archbishop of Canterbury. The Durham University archaeologist said the hoard was found in distinct clusters beneath Prebends Bridge, not spread across the riverbed.
Bankhead said the find was "exceptionally unusual" because it came from a river and included a bronze crucifix, a silver trowel, a christening spoon, a silver key, a 19th-century Russian icon depicting Jesus on the cross, and a silver medal from 1964 showing Christ with open arms.
Prebends Bridge Find
The River Wear cache also contained gold, silver and bronze medals commemorating the Second Vatican Council, a gold Greek Orthodox cross pendant, and a medal marking the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Bankhead said, "What made it so striking was the way the objects had been deposited."
He said, "They weren’t scattered randomly across the riverbed." He added that it looked "as though someone had stood above the bridge and deliberately dropped them into the water."
Michael Ramsey In Durham
Ramsey served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1961 to 1974 and later retired to Durham. Bankhead said the Ramsey hoard "immediately stood apart," linking it to a former head of the Church of England and separating it from the other artifacts he has recovered from the river.
Bankhead said he has spent "many years" diving the River Wear and has recovered over 14,500 artifacts in total. He uncovered the hoard nearly two decades ago and recently detailed the findings in his book, Pilgrim Souvenirs, Devotional and other Objects of Faith: Late-medieval to modern period small finds from the River Wear, Durham.
The find now sits in two places at once: in the river’s record of more than 14,500 objects, and in the history of a Church of England leader whose devotional items appear to have been dropped from Prebends Bridge. For readers tracking the hoard, the key point is that the objects were not a random scatter but a deliberate deposit tied to Ramsey’s life in Durham.
