Spicezee Bureau
London: In a shocking exposure, the riverbed beneath the Durham Cathedral has revealed a treasure trove of gold and silver given as gifts to the late former Archbishop of Canterbury – late Michael Ramsey.
According to the Guardian, the secret is revealed after thirty years as the riverbed below Durham Cathedral has come out with hoards of gold and silver such as medals, crucifixes and goblets.
It is believed that a total of thirty two objects were bestowed as gifts to the late Michael Ramsey who also served as the bishop of Durham for four years in the 1950s. The treasure has been recovered by two amateur divers, brothers Trevor and Gary Bankhead.
Their finds include invaluable gold and silver medals which commemorated the second Vatican council while Ramsey was the archbishop of Canterbury from 1961 to 1974.
It is believed that the Bankhead brothers, who made some 200 dives over the period of two years under licence from the cathedral.
The first discovery was made in April 2007. Gary, the watch manager on Green Watch at Durham fire brigade said that it was his wife who suggested he should dive in the river.
Finally, he got brother Trevor along and on their very first dive they found an elaborate silver trowel whose inscription said it was presented to the archbishop by the Bengal Coal Company.
In their further dives, the brothers found a silver medal celebrating the Queen's coronation in 1952.
Incidentally, the cathedral authorities are bewildered by the treasure. One theory at the cathedral says that it was a burglary at Ramsey’s retirement home during 1974. However, many believe that Ramsey was an odd man who dropped the priceless treasure into the river himself.
According to Ramsay’s friend Stock : "When he and Joan were packing up that house, both quite elderly and not very well, he would have wondered what on earth to do with the rest of the stuff: he didn't want it, they had no children, he couldn't sell it, he wouldn't have wanted to cause further embarrassment by giving it away."
"He used to go for a walk by the river every day, whatever the weather. I think it's entirely plausible to imagine him making up a little packet, and quietly dropping it into the water. He would have thought that would be the end of it, nobody would ever see them again."
According to Gary Bankhead, the archbishop himself put the treasure in the river as “They weren't just chucked by a burglar – they had clearly gone into the water at different times and in different places."
With the price and legal ownership of the values still unresolved, the cathedral is planning to unveil a stained-glass window celebrating Ramsey in the next year and will be collecting material for an exhibition on the same.
First Published: Friday, October 23, 2009, 13:52