Staffordshire Hoard to get permanent display in Birmingham

The new gallery is expected to open in September 2014

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery has been awarded more than £700,000 to help create a permanent gallery for the Staffordshire Hoard.

Objects from the hoard have been seen by nearly 600,000 people since going on display in March 2010.

The money from the Heritage Lottery Fund will go towards displaying about 300 of the 3,500 items found in the field in south Staffordshire.

The new gallery is expected to open in September 2014.

'Our Tutankhamen'

The display will also explain the history behind the items and how the Anglo-Saxon jewellery makers would have made the items.

Simon Cane, the director of the Birmingham Museums Trust, said the Staffordshire Hoard was "our Tutankhamen" and said it deserved the "very best" display.

The hoard is owned by Birmingham City Council and Stoke-on-Trent City Council, following a fundraising campaign to keep it in the West Midlands.

Other items are currently on display at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, in Stoke-on-Trent, Lichfield Cathedral and Tamworth Castle.