A TREASURE hunter has told how he unearthed a nationally important Bronze Age hoard after getting lost on a metal detecting rally in Dorset.

John Belgrove, 60, had become separated from the main group of detectorists and was heading to high ground to look for them when he made the 'find of a lifetime'.

His device activated as he walked along and when he dug down he uncovered a complete rapier sword dating back to 1,400BC.

The 2ft long copper bronze relic had been deliberately broken into three pieces and placed in the ground alongside the ashes of a wealthy landowner.

The hilt or handle had unusually been cast in bronze and was shaped to mimic a wooden handle. It had similarities with solid-cast hilts of Nordic swords from Scandinavia even though it was another 2,100 years before the Vikings came to Britain.

Only two similar rapier swords have been found in Britain before and they were incomplete.

As well as the rare rapier, a palstave axe head and a decorative arm bangle was also given as an offering in the ceremonial burial.

The hoard was of such national importance that the British Museum wanted it.

In the end the Dorset Museum raised £17,000 to buy it with the proceeds being shared between John and the landowner.

The hoard was found in the village of Stalbridge, near Blandford, in 2020.

John, a retired pensions consultant from Purley, Surrey, paid £20 to go on the rally on private farmland.

He said: "There was a group of between 40 to 50 detectorists there and they had searched the land before but they were excited because some new land had been opened up for the rally.

"I tagged along and didn't know anyone there. Somehow I got left behind and lost and so I walked to high ground in a field and that is when I got a strong signal for this find of a lifetime.

"It was clear there was metal there but I thought it would just be an old can or something.

"I dug about eight inches down and found an odd-shaped object that was caked in clay.

"I didn't know what it was at the time but it turned out to be a solid hilt of a sword, an exceptional item."

He then found the two broken sections of the blade along with the axe head and the bangle.

John said: "I knew when I saw the axe head that it was a Bronze Age hoard. They are quite common.

"My head was in a spin.

"This was a single deposit made by or for a high status individual at the time.

"The blade of the sword was still sharp, the view of the British Museum is that it was deliberately broken and deposited in the ground as part of a ritual burial and offering."