City Saxon centre plan; GOLD: Brum bids to become study centre.

Byline: Neil Elkes

BIRMINGHAM Museum and Art Gallery will become the worldwide centre for Anglo-Saxon archaeology and study if the bid to bring the Staffordshire Hoard to the city is successful.

Found in a field near Burntwood, the gold hoard which dates back to 700AD is the greatest Anglo-Saxon discovery ever and is being valued by the British Museum before it is sold.

The Birmingham Museum has joined forces with the Potteries Museum in Stokeon-Trent in a campaign to buy the 1,600-item Hoard and ensure it stays on public display in the Midlands.

Keep the gold in Brum!

Now Birmingham curators and council culture chiefs are drawing up plans for the exhibition of the Hoard, if their bid is successful. They have decided that Birmingham should host a major exhibition dedicated to the Anglo-Saxon world, covering lifestyle, politics, warfare and technology.

The Potteries Museum, which would co-own the Hoard, would concentrate on the Anglo-Saxon Midlands and the Mercian kingdom, focusing on local links with historic sites at Tamworth and Lichfield.

Birmingham City Council culture chief Coun Martin Mullaney admitted that while much attention had been focused on acquiring the Hoard, thought needed to be given to how it would be exhibited.

He said: "It is right that BMAG should take a Europewide look at the Anglo-Saxon people while Stoke will focus on Mercia.

"We will loan collections of Anglo-Saxon artefacts from all over Europe and even parts of the famous Sutton Hoo find from Suffolk.

There is a lot in collections all over the world which is not even on display which we could show."

He said curators would need to build replicas of items, such as a sword and helmet which were found in pieces, to show visitors how they would have looked.

With over 1,600 items, parts of the collection could be loaned to other museums to keep interest high.

CAPTION(S):

Artefacts from the hoard.