Tuesday 28 April 2020

Daily Photo No. 20: Going for Gold




Sometimes photo opportunities just present themselves, and this one was pure serendipity. The Staffordshire Hoard was a huge collection of jewellery and decorative detailing stripped off weapons and other designer Anglo-Saxon goods, mashed together and then stashed in a hole in south Staffordshire. My friend's dad was in the same club as the finders, and had apparently identified the field as a likely candidate in the past, but never got round to exploring it.

The Hoard occasioned a lot of local pride, provided a lot of publicity and opportunities for history education - West Mercia's political importance and Anglo-Saxon history became the source of a lot of contemporary political discourse (especially depressingly during the Brexit debate), but also reminded the people of what's a very poor, post-industrial area that they mattered. This shot kind of summed up the contradictions and tensions of Stoke-on-Trent - enriched by coal, steel but also the highly-skilled labour of the Potteries, then abandoned as global capitalism moved on.

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