The Hackensall Hoard

by D. C. A. Shotter

The coin-find, known as the Hackensall Hoard, was made on 3 September 1926, at a spot close to the north-west corner of Hackensall Hall Farm (NGR SD 34784776): the coins were discovered during digging operations in a sandpit, and appeared to have been deposited in a leather bag, which was concealed in a hole beneath a flat stone. Various accounts have been given of the circumstances of the find and of the hoard's contents which I attempted to bring together in a recent paper (Lancs. Arch. Journ. 1 (1978), 47-52).
Analysis of all available information suggests that there may originally have been 400-500 coins. of which 339 have now been located and identified. The coins are mostly debased radiates of mid- third-century date, and are distributed amongst the following emperors:

The hoard is thus of a chronological type commonly found in Britain, and two parallels exist in this part of north-west England-the hoards from Worden and Agden. The period of deposit (c. A.D. 275) was one of great uncertainty: although good documentary sources are lacking, it is known to have been a period of economic upheaval (with a "confetti-money" degree of inflation and of great political uncertainty, in which Britain had joined other western provinces in a breakaway movement known as the Imperium Galliarum (Independent Empire of the Gauls). Of the emperors represented in the Hackensall coins, Postumus, Marius, Victorinus and the Tetrici were all rebel rulers. Thus there is no lack of reasons for the deposit of the coins; indeed it may reflect the attempts to re-introduce an element of coinage stability after the defeat of the rebels in 273.

The condition of the coins is mostly quite good; although debased, they do not rank as "barbarous copies; few of them would appear to have seen a long life in circulation.

The find-spot itself has no distinguishing features in the modern landscape, though it must raise the possibility of an inhabited site close by and serve to keep alive the long   -standing mystery of the possible existence of a major Roman site at the mouth of the Wyre. Indeed, it may be that Hackensall Hall had a Roman-period predecessor. It is logical that the owner will have buried his coins reason- ably close to where he lived, in a spot that he could easily recognise but which would not excite the attention of the casual observer.
After the discovery many of the coins found their way into private possession, although consider- able portions were donated to local museums and other bodies-The British Museum, The Harris Museum, Lancaster Museum, Liverpool City Museum, Revoe Museum(Blackpool), the museum at St. Michael's-on-Wyre and The Royal Museum at Salford. These museums or their successors mostly still have their portions, though that from St. Michael's-on-Wyre is now at the Grundy House Art Museum at Blackpool.

In recent weeks, my attention has been drawn to an apparently very similar discovery of coins on Preesall Hill in 1934. Although information attaching to this find has the appearance of independence, the possibility remains that the "Preesall" coins in fact constitute another part of the Hackensall hoard.

Many people have helped in tracing coins from Hackensall: particularly I should like to thank Mrs. Julia Beeden, Mr. Ben Edwards and Mr. Hugh Sherdley. I should, however, be very grateful to receive any further information, particularly if anyone can throw more light on the possibility of a Preesall hoard. Two such hoards in a relatively small area would have important implications for the discussion of settlement patterns in this part of Lancashire during the Roman period.