IT HAD lain undiscovered for around 3,000 years.

But now a ring dating back to the Bronze Age has been uncovered by a Winchester metal detector enthusiast, an inquest heard.

Alan Cracknell was on the verge of giving up his search for the day when he came across the rare find.

In his 30 years doing the weekend hobby, Mr Cracknell had found items like buttons and buckles from the Georgian period to the medieval period, but nothing like this.

Mr Cracknell, 74, of Brassey Road, Fulflood, said: “You may find that ring one minute and then a Coke can the next.

“It was almost as if it was wanting me to find it.”

The gold-plated ring, thought to have been used as decorative jewellery or as currency, was found on farmland in Headbourne Worthy back in 2010, but has now been ruled treasure by a Winchester coroner.

When the retired artist first came across the object hidden in the earth, after it showed up on the detector, he thought it was a bottle top.

“I might never have found it because you don't go in the same area or fields twice,” said Mr Cracknell.

“There it was shining as good as it was thousands of years ago, just incredible.

“I put it in the palm of my hand and realised how old it was and what it was.

“I was very shaken and very excited.

“You are the first person to handle that for perhaps 3,000 years - that really gives you quite a buzz.”

Mr Cracknell has been searching the Winchester area since he moved there in 2000 and said the fields around Winchester were originally routes used by pilgrims travelling in and out of the city making them rich in many time periods.

Rob Webley, finds liaison officer, who works for the British Museum, but is based at Winchester, said the penannular ring, which is deliberately incomplete, dates between 1300 and 800 BC and that to find evidence of Bronze Age activity was “extremely rare”.

He said although it is rare to find gold items at all, it is even rarer to find them from that period.

He thought it would be worth several hundred pounds and that it seemed likely the Winchester Museum would buy it.

It is now for the landowner, who wishes to remain anonymous, to decide what to do with it.

Mr Cracknell added that he was pleased to save an artefact for the area that might otherwise have been destroyed by farm machinery.