Groat Expectations

The Foreshore of the Humber at Hessle was where I found a silver groat from the reign of Edward III 1327-1377. The wide strip at low tide had offered up many interesting things over the years including a very useful tool for lifting up drain covers and the cap badge from a railwaymans hat. On a day to day observational basis the foreshore changed dramatically. After a high tide or stormy season the rocky and pebbled base had a thick deposited mass of mucky and smelly mud making foraging, dog walking and manoevring a double tandem buggy quite an assault course. In calmer weather the same surface was clear, bright chalk and with only small areas of trapped clay giving an impression from the shore path of an icy landscape interspersed with deep water. Standing at the edge of the river at low tide and looking back to the bank emphasised the strength and power of the river course with the difference in levels being more than 20 feet. I have read that the Humber in fact is responsible for draining one fifth of the country including the arterial rivers of the Trent, Ouse and Derwent with, in addition, numerous smaller tributaries (I must check the accuracy of this terminology with the gent at Starbucks), man made land drains and a few and now redundant canals. Prior to the creation of a deep navigation channel up the river to the Port of Goole it was possible to walk across the mile wide river at very low tide and my wife's grandmother did this in her lifetime with no drysuit, safety boat and no more specialist equipment than perhaps a ham sandwich.  In Roman Times the river was a crossing point from the Ermine Street up to the major regional centre of York either on foot or, for the wealthy or important, by ferryboat. My groat find was on a still day following a dry spell and the coin was just sat on a patch of mud as though it had fallen out of a noblemans pocket or lost in a toss of chance over a matter of life or death which, frankly, were the two main career options of the 14th Century, if you ignore plague victim. (I can't remember if I took the precaution of washing the coin when I got it home but germs find little incubation potential on silver-don't they?) The hammered impressions on the head and tail  were clearly visible with a head and shoulders figure holding a rod and sceptre and on the reverse a motif with wording. The edges of the coin were worn and smooth but to be expected after well over 600 years of immersion and with only the latter 40 years exposed to acid rain influences. I was thrilled and excited by the remarkable discovery. Best artefact yet from the river although the drain lifting rod is in almost everyday use for work and if I had to choose between the two I am embarrassed to say that the tool would win. I bored my family with subsequent research facts on the monarch during a dramatic period of history and upheaval for the country. They sincerely hoped that I did not find anything actually interesting, larger or older than 14th century loose change. The coin has for many years been wrapped in tissue in an old ring box and has been moved around various locations in the house from desk drawers to under-sink key tin. It comes out for 'show and tell' if we have visitors who politley squint at the markings and decline to handle after my description of a potentially plaque blistered traveller alighting at Hessle before carrying on his journey, getting mugged or just dropping dead from disease and fatigue. The coin now sits in the same wrappings in the house safe. I have not listed it on my assets yet but when the price on E-Bay exceeds £20 sterling I will be sure to take additional steps to safeguard my children's inheritance.