Discovering what lies beneath 

A TREASURE hunt is underway by pupils in West Sussex after a retired headmaster dug up and restored an old project to "bring history to life."

Chris Hall has relaunched the West Sussex Schools Metal Detecting Project, which saw children discovering treasures like a silver-gilt Tudor posy ring, Elizabethan coins and a Roman sestertius (a type of silver coin), featured on the BBC in the 1990s.

Mr Hall, whose best find was a gold coin from around the time of Christ's birth, approached his old school, Birchwood Grove in Burgess Hill, along with Newick House School, to suggest that his hobby could be i

nformally incorporated into the history teaching curriculum.

He said: "It's quite difficult nowadays, but we can make it work. It just brings history to life and makes it more interesting."

He has secured 10 metal detectors on long-term loan from the company C.Scope, which the schools will use on a rotating basis.

Mr Hall is hoping the children will use the detectors on school fields, and also in their gardens at home, to enable them to do some "historical detective work".

Previously children have found lost jewellery and old coins, together with interesting historical pieces.

The project will allow Mr Hall to give informative talks on his hobby, and provide an identification service for the children when they find potential pieces of treasure. The project is now underway at Birchwood Grove and Newick House, and Mr Hall is hoping to expand it to other schools in the area.