Three gold artworks found in Scunthorpe treasure hunt

The Tudor fisherwoman was the third piece of gold to be found in north Lincolnshire

Three of five gold artworks hidden in Lincolnshire as part of a treasure hunt have been found - the first by chance.

The small objects were hidden by artist Luke Jerram for his installation Treasure City, with clues hidden in paintings at the 20-21 Arts Centre.

The first one, a replica Viking brooch, was found in a wall in Kingsway Gardens, Scunthorpe, by Rachel Welch.

Ms Welch, of Grimsby, said she looked around town on the off-chance she could find one without cracking the codes.

The object was found hours after the treasure hunt began on Saturday.

'Place to listen'

She said: "We had a look at them, but we didn't really spend much time with them because we are no good at codes.

This canvas showed gold arrows which spelled out a clue in semaphore

"We thought we'd go out and have a look round and see if we are able to find one and we did."

Bristol-based artist Mr Jerram said a Scoutmaster had cracked the code in the corresponding painting moments before, and arrived at the park to see it had already been claimed.

This particular artwork used semaphore to spell out the clue "in the gardens seven metres from the flag is the Kingsway xx(rest)."

The gold was hidden in a dry stone wall near a flag, given to the gardens as an environmental award.

Each of the objects is worth more than £1,000 and Ms Welch said she was going to sell it to pay for a holiday.

The tokens are based on artefacts from North Lincolnshire Museum which were 3D printed and made into wax replicas before being cast in gold

The second object, a small 18 carat gold lamb, was found in a bandstand in Brigg on Sunday night by a teacher from Beverley. She solved one of the painting's codes to lead her to a place which was "an octagonal place to listen".

Mr Jerram said the woman searched Scunthorpe for somewhere that fit that description and settled on the bandstand but when she got to the one in Scunthorpe there was nothing there.

It was that night that she realised there was one in nearby Brigg and went down there with her husband at midnight to claim the gold.

The third piece, a model of a Tudor fisherwoman, was found on Monday but the exact details of where are not yet known.