The Chew Valley Hoard
In January 2019, seven people were metal detecting in a Somerset field when they made one of the most extraordinary discoveries in British history, just beneath the surface: The Chew Valley Hoard, 2,584 silver coins, buried for nearly a thousand years and the most valuable hoard of treasure ever discovered on British Soil. Nobody knows who put them there. Nobody knows why they never came back.
In 2024 the Hoard was acquired for Somerset by South West Heritage Trust – an independent charity committed to protecting and celebrating Somerset and Devon’s rich heritage. Valley Arts then joined forces with South West Heritage Trust in Autumn 2025 to deliver a year-long, jam-packed community engagement programme to celebrate the remarkable histories and mysteries of the Chew Valley Hoard and its journey to its new home at The Museum of Somerset in Taunton.
Every Coin Tells a Story
The resulting Every Coin Tells a Story Programme invited people of all ages and from every corner of the Valley to participate in Hoard themed creative and heritage activities, enabling locals to learn about, interpret and respond creatively to this significant community heritage. Over the course of the year, Valley Arts collaborated with over 43 artist/facilitators while the programme delivered over 111 sessions of activity reaching 1240 participants and utilised more than 30 unique spaces across the Valley.
A definite highlight was South West Heritage Trust displaying some of the real Chew Valley Hoard Coins in the South West for the very first time as part of the Every Coin Tells a Story open day in Chew Magna. Over 400 visitors came along to see the coins and enjoyed a mixture of workshops, talks, live performances and yummy cake. Meanwhile, our Youth Theatre wrote and performed two new Hoard themed plays while our Youth Engagement Coordinator Laura Davies collaborated with Chew Magna artist Guiliana Terran and delivered theatre and crafting sessions to all 350+ key stage one school children in the Valley – workshops were supported by 1,000 educational Hoard activity packs, distributed through schools and extending our reach to key stage 2 and beyond.
Project reach was intentionally broad. As well as working with our young people, we collaborated with The Chew Chat, a group of senior residents who meet twice a week in Chew Magna, to deliver the Chew Chat Takeover – a fun micro project offering a mix of talks and workshops that culminated in a special hoard themed edition of Chew Chat’s monthly zine The Chew Chat Times, you can take a look at the Valley Arts edition here.
Finders Keepers
And the fun didn’t stop there. Valley Arts worked with five local community writers supported by local theatre maker Kesty Morrison to develop a brand new playtext inspired by the Chew Valley Hoard.
The resulting play Finders Keepers became Valley Arts 3rd large-scale community production and the second to be staged at the beautiful Yeo Valley Organic Gardens. It was our biggest production to-date with an intergenerational cast of 40 rehearsing with support from professional directors, designers and composers over three months to bring the new script to life.
