Lincolnshire: lron Age bull rider bought for £7,800 at auction

Paul Campbell had decided to call it a day when he found the piece, thought to be from the time of an ancient tribe called the Corieltauvi

A 2,000-year-old bull rider figure found in a field in Lincolnshire has fetched £7,800 at auction.

Paul Campbell found the Iron Age figure while metal detecting in a field in Barnetby le Wold in 2016.

Adam Staples, from Essex Coin Auctions, said the find was bought on Wednesday by an institute which wished to remain anonymous.

He said the item had gone to a "good home which planned to put the figure on public display in the future".

The figure found in a field about to be ploughed up was bought for £7,800 by an institute which planned to put it on public display

Mr Campbell said he had been walking back across the field to fetch his bicycle and head home when his detector gave a positive signal and he uncovered the tiny figure.

He said he had been lucky to make the find as the field was being turned into grassland for sheep to graze a few days later.

Paul Campbell said he was pleased to have saved the Barnetby Bull Rider from being destroyed when the field was ploughed

The piece was handed over to the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme, and experts declared it to be of regional importance.

Auctioneer Mr Staples said the bull rider, which is thought to be the only recorded example of its kind, would have been fixed to the top of a bowl that may have been filled with blood during ritual sacrifices. He said the piece probably dated from the early 1st century AD.

Paul Campbell's find depicts a topless woman grasping a bull by the horn as she rides with her arm raised in the air

Mr Campbell, who has been detecting metal since he was nine years old, said he was "not money orientated".

"It's more important that I've saved it from the plough," he said.

"I'm elated with the result and ecstatic and the prospect of the unique figure going on display sometime in the future."