The largest gold nugget ever found in England was dug up by a veteran metal detectorist – who showed up an hour late with faulty equipment.

Richard Brock, 67, drove three-and-a-half hours from Somerset to Shropshire for a group dig in a farmland on the Hills.

When he arrived, he found that his metal-detecting kit was not working and had to break out an older, faulty machine.

Twenty minutes into the dig, however, Brock quite literally struck gold when he dug up a huge 64.8g nugget buried about six inches underground.

Dubbed Hiro’s Nugget, the metal is believed to be the biggest find of its kind on English soil, and is expected to fetch at least £30,000 at a timed auction, which runs until 1 April.

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Brock, who has been metal-detecting for 35 years, said he thought he had “missed the action”.

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“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I turned up late, was only there a matter of minutes, and this treasure-hunting expedition was supposed to last all day.”

The detectorist made the rare find near the village of Much Wenlock, which is believed to have been an old track with railway lines that could have contained stone from Wales – an area known to be rich in gold.

“It just goes to show that it doesn’t really matter what equipment you use,” Brock added.

“If you are walking over the find and are alert enough to what might be lurking underneath the soil, that makes all the difference.”

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According to the detectorist, the previous biggest find in England weighed in at 54g. But he added that research suggested bigger gold nuggets have been in Wales and Scotland.

A nugget weighing 97.12g was found in Ynys Mon, Wales, in 2016. The Reunion Nugget, at 121.3g, was then found in Scotland in 2019.

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