THE BOWLEAZE JEWEL

In March 1990, following a low tide at Bowleaze Cove near Weymouth, Club member Bernard Yarosz found the  Bowleaze jewel.  This jewel has to rate as the most singularly rare and important find made by any member of the Stour Valley Search & Recovery Club.  The Bowleaze Jewel is believed to be an Aestel (pointer) and would have had a wooden or ivory extension rod attached to the socket.

The jewel was examined by experts at the Department of Medieval and Later Antiquities at the British Museum who related it to two other Anglo-Saxon Jewels exhibited at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.  The other two jewels are the Alfred Jewel and the Minster Lovell Jewel.  

The Jewel now resides in the British Museum where it is on view to the public.

The Jewel returned to Dorset briefly when an exhibition of metal detecting finds was held at the County Records Office in Dorchester.