Publisher's Synopsis
In 2004 an important new Viking silver hoard was discovered near Huxley, Cheshire. The hoard, which consists of 21 silver arm-rings and an ingot, was declared Treasure in 2005, and was acquired jointly by National Museums Liverpool, the Grosvenor Museum Chester and Cheshire Museums Service, with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. In this book, leading specialists in Viking-age studies have contributed a series of papers on the hoard and its context which were first delivered at a conference held in Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool in November 2008. They set out the latest research into Scandinavian settlement and activity in the North West and Wales, including the archaeological evidence and the contribution of place-names, historical research and stone sculpture to our understanding of the period. There is the definitive account of the objects themselves, their likely origin and date of manufacture - in late 9th- or early 10th-century Ireland - and the intriguing question of why the hoard was buried in England and by whom. Finally, the Huxley find is considered alongside other Viking silver hoards in Britain and Ireland.
