The Havering Hoard exhibition continues at the Museum of London Docklands until August 22nd 2021. In this on-line talk the curator of the exhibition, Kate Sumnall, will share the remarkable discovery of the Havering Hoard. This is the largest Bronze Age hoard found in London and offers a new insight into the people living and working alongside the Thames. Delving into the museum’s core collections and displaying 13 fantastic artefacts from the Layton Collection, the exhibition places the Havering Hoard with
Thomas Layton collected books, coins, and archaeological items (usually described as ‘antiquities’) for 70 years. In that time he had accumulated what has been described as “probably the largest collection of London antiquities ever amassed by a single individual”.
The vast majority of items are believed to have been bought at auctions. Some came to him from his men working on the river. His businesses provided opportunities for finds from dredging, building of bridges and embankments along the banks of the Thames, for which Layton paid good money. Even by the standards of the day Layton kept poor records of where items were found. Despite this, the collection is considered highly important particularly to archaeologists and pre-historians.