'Largest gold nugget' fails to sell at auction

The nugget weighs 64.8g (2oz), which is thought to be the largest ever found in England

A gold nugget that is thought to be the largest found in England has failed to sell at auction.

The 64.8g lump had a guide price of up to £40,000 placed on it, but bids reached just £12,000 before the online auction closed on Monday.

Unearthed in May 2023 near Much Wenlock, Shropshire, the nugget was found by Richard Brock from Somerset.

Auctioneer Ben Jones, of Mullock Jones, said negotiations would now start with prospective buyers in an attempt to increase the price.

"I'm sure we'll have an influx of people coming in, which is usually the case post-auction anyway," Mr Jones told BBC Radio Shropshire.

"You always take a gamble with these things, and sometimes you just have to see how they ride and play it out, really."

Even the bid price was significantly in excess of the current market value of gold.

That stood at about £57.80/g on Tuesday, which would only value the nugget at about £3,800.

The online auction for the nugget ran until Monday night

Mr Brock made his discovery on farmland, during an organised dig for which he had turned up an hour late, using a machine that was "pretty much kaput".

He said he had only recently learned that it could be the biggest found in England, which was "quite incredible really", and he planned to split the proceeds with the landowner.

The previous largest English nugget was 54g, but one found in Scotland in 2017 weighed more than 85g.

An old track or road and a railway line are thought to have run through the farmland where the nugget was discovered, and the site contained stone understood to have originally come from Wales, said the auctioneers.

'Last-minute scurrying'

On the day of the organised dig in May 2023, other people had up-to-date kit, said Mr Brock, while he "bowled up with three old machines", one of which immediately stopped working.

Mr Jones said his hopes of a sale had been raised by last-minute bids: "There was a sort of scurry at the end.

"[In the] last couple of minutes there were a few bids being placed, and you sit there thinking, 'This could go a bit more'.

"We'll have a chat to the bidders and speak to the vendor, and see if there's something we can do."