Medieval ring discovered by local metal detectorists donated to SGS

Spalding Gentlemen’s Society – Britain’s oldest provincial learned society and the UK’s second-oldest surviving museum – has acquired a remarkable new addition for its collections: a medieval ring discovered in a field in Gosberton.

Back in July 2025, Dave and Dawn Stoneman were metal detecting with the group Digging History UK when they received a signal on their detector. After removing a few light spadefuls of soil, a large, solid clump emerged, the ring hidden inside. The couple were elated, having only just started metal detecting around a year before their once-in-a-lifetime find.

The treasure was identified as a silver gilt 15th-century rectangular bi-panelled bezel type ring. The bezel is adorned with a foliate motif composed of leaf-shaped elements in a repeating design. This type of ring is related to contemporary iconographic rings but lacks the religious imagery, instead displaying simple geometric and floral decoration.

The ring has now been provided to Spalding Gentlemen’s Society to add to its unique and nationally-significant collections. The team plans to display it in the Society’s museum on Broad Street, which reopens in spring 2027. The museum is currently closed for building works, with exhibitions held at Ayscoughfee Hall Museum throughout the year.

“We’ve been delighted to acquire this incredible artefact,” explains Eleanor Chadd, Collections & Facilities Officer at Spalding Gentlemen’s Society. “It’s a really interesting piece that was discovered in a local Lincolnshire field.”

Eleanor adds, “In the collections, we already have another 15th-century gold iconographic ring that was found by the donor while digging in her garden in Pennygate, Spalding, some 50 years before it was donated to the Society in 2014. We plan to put them on display together for the public to see.”