FOR years Tyndall Jones has wandered the fields of Sussex with his metal detector hoping to unearth a find of historical importance.

Beep has followed beep but he has never unearthed anything of much worth.

That was until one summer's day when his machine's soft beep beep beep led to something extraordinary.

A few inches below the soil was a 7th-century Anglo Saxon ornament considered of “national importance”.

So much so it has been snapped up by the British Museum.

The 66-year-old from Littlehampton had little inkling the small hanging bowl mount - considered the finest surviving of its kind - was of any significance.

He said: “I had this signal and so dug the hole and found this disc about the size of a half crown with something like a little handle on the edge. I had never seen one like it before.”

Intrigued Mr Jones took it to Littlehampton Museum and he showed it to Stephanie Smith, from the British Museum.

He said: “She took it out and she started going pink. I thought, what have I found? At first I thought it might have been the top of a Georgian coffee pot.”

The Argus: Tyndall Jones with his metal detector Picture: Terry ApplinTyndall Jones with his metal detector.  Picture: Terry Applin

The intricate ornament, known as an escutcheon, features a small animal-like head on top. The main disc is elaborately decorated with swirl motifs with red enamel in between and millefiori glass circles.

They were used in the home and sometimes also in burials for people of high social status.

Mr Jones has decided to keep the location of the farmland where he found the item secret, for fear it may become overrun with treasure hunters.

He said it also adds to evidence that the so-called Dark Ages were not as uncivilised as their name suggests.

He said: “Things like this help to show that the Anglo-Saxons were not all invading barbarians.

“They were highly skilled. I still don’t know how they managed to make it. It is an amazing item that a modern jeweller would have a hard time making."

It is now part of the British Museum’s Celts exhibition, due to run until June next year.

It will then come back to Littlehampton Museum, after both Mr Jones and the landowner donated the priceless piece.

Mr Jones said: “Whenever I find something that is really special I always like to see it go into a museum.

“It has to be shared, because it is our heritage.”