Staff of Life

Graham and Meg Hemmings had an old piano in their house for 33 years before they very generously donated it to a Bishop’s Castle Community College in Shropshire in central England. Last year the school sent the instrument to piano technician Martin Backhouse so it could be cleaned, repaired and tuned. That’s when they came to light: eight hand-stitched cloth pouches containing 913 gold sovereigns and half-sovereigns from the 1800’s and early 1900’s. Typically when treasure is discovered, the proceeds are split between property owner and finder; in this case, the school and the tuner. There was an exhaustive search for the original owner of the piano, but none was ever found. My guess is the musical Silas Marner passed away long ago without telling his heirs what he’d hidden under the keys. By now, even his heirs have probably gone to their final reward.