'Dad had a gun under his pillow' to protect largest UK medieval coin hoard

'Dad had a gun under his pillow': The story of how the largest collection of medieval coins was found6 hours agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleGreig WatsonEast MidlandsBritish MuseumThe Fishpool Hoard is still the largest collection of medieval gold coins ever found in the UKIt was the stuff of movie fantasy - a digger gouging earth on a building site suddenly revealing a cascade of gold.The Fishpool Hoard was discovered in what is now Ravenshead, Nottinghamshire, 60 years ago by workers on a new housing estate.Consisting of more than 1,200 coins and nine pieces of jewellery, it proved to be the largest collection of medieval gold coins ever found in the UK.Ahead of a plaque being installed near the site, the BBC revisits a story which also involved light-fingered locals, allegations of corrupt police and a mystery man moving through the world of London coin dealers.Local boy David Welham saw the coins being unearthed and returned to the scene for a TV programmeIt had been a routine day doing ground work for a cul-de-sac in a quiet part of central Nottinghamshire in March 1966, with builders and machine operators looking forward to going home.A five-year-old boy David Welham - who lived nearby and enjoyed watching the machines - was preparing to say goodbye for the day.But with a final heave of the digger bucket, a shower of gold was released from the soil.Instead of a foundation trench, the machine had opened up not only a scramble for stolen treasure, but a legal minefield and forgotten moment of desperate rebellion from England's history.The discovery was made by workmen building houses, which would become Cambourne Gardens - pictured on FridayPete Hawkins, aged 17 at the time, was working nearby with the son of foreman Jim Flint.Hawkins said: "Someone came running down and said to him 'come on, we've found something, you've got to help us out!'"I stayed working and soon packed up my tools and went to go home but t...