England’s Largest Ever Gold Nugget Found by Detectorist

A metal detectorist in Shropshire, UK, who was an hour late for the dig and had a faulty metal detector, has unearthed England’s largest ever gold nugget, worth £30,000 ($38,000).

Richard Brock, 67, joined an organized outing on farmland in the Shropshire Hills last summer, arriving late after a three-and-a-half-hour drive from his home in Somerset. He also reportedly had an issue with his metal detector and so had to use an older machine that was not working to its fullest function.

Richard Brock, a veteran metal detectorist has found England's largest gold nugget in Shropshire despite arriving late with faulty equipment. Weighing 64.8g, the nugget, named Hiro's Nugget, is expected to fetch over £30,000 at auction.

📷 Mullock Jones pic.twitter.com/NgSnR9t4le

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“I actually arrived about an hour late, thinking I’d missed the action,” Brock, who has been metal-detecting for thirty-five years, told The Guardian. “Everyone there had [an] up-to-date kit and I bowled up with three old machines, and one of them packed in there…At first I just found a few rusty old tent pegs with this back-up detector, which had a fading screen display.”

Only twenty minutes later, Brock found an enormous 64.8 gram golden nugget buried at around 13 to 15 centimeters (5-6 inches) underground. The metal, which has been given the name Hiro’s Nugget, is now expected to go for at least £30,000 at auction and is thought to be the biggest gold find of its kind in England.

“The machine I was using was pretty much kaput—it was only half working,” Brock told The Guardian. “It just goes to show that it doesn’t really matter what equipment you use. If you are walking over the find and are alert enough to what might be lurking underneath the soil, that makes all the difference.”

Initially, Brock’s faulty detector only flagged a few rusty old tent pegs, but then the discovery was made. “I couldn’t believe it,” he told the BBC. “I was there only a matter of minutes and this treasure hunting expedition was supposed to last all day.”

The lucky finder was hastily surrounded by his fellow detectorists who started to scan the same patch of ground, hoping to repeat Brock’s success.

Talk about striking gold! Metal detectorist unearths the largest gold nugget EVER found in England – and it's set to fetch at least £30,000 at auction@DanielRegha @DailyMailUK @BBCScienceNews pic.twitter.com/5Ma2j0sKfu

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Buried gold nuggets have been discovered in England, Scotland, and Wales

Hiro’s Nugget was discovered on a site near the village of Much Wenlock. The site is believed to have been an old railway track, containing stone likely brought from Wales, an area known to be rich in gold.

Brock told The Guardian that research suggested the only bigger gold pieces found in the UK have been in Wales and Scotland. A nugget weighing 97.12 grams was unearthed in Anglesey/Ynys Mon, Wales, while the Reunion Nugget, at 121.3 grams, was found in Scotland in 2019.

Before this latest gold find, the previous record was held by a rock, weighing 54 grams, discovered in England. “We’re pretty confident it is the biggest found on English soil,” Brock, a retired cameraman, told The Guardian. “I’m going to split whatever it sells for with the land owner.”

The gold nugget will be sold by auctioneers Mullock Jones in a timed auction that runs until April 1st. The expected estimated price is £30,000 (approximately $38,000).