The Times - UK (2020-07-27)

the times | Monday July 27 2020 2GM 21

News

ANDREW MATTHEWS/PA

Volunteer finds a Roman

relic among park litter

A volunteer clearing litter in a park with
his girlfriend received an unexpected
2,000-year-old reward.
Chris Lyon, 27, found a Roman coin
from about AD241 last week while
cleaning at Carr Mill Dam in St Helens,
Merseyside, with Chelsea Marsden, 22.
He put the coin in his pocket earlier
this month thinking it was a euro. His
suspicions were raised when he cleaned
it at home. History enthusiasts on Face-
book told Mr Lyon that the face on the
silver coin was of Gordian III, the
Roman emperor from AD238 to 244.
“I couldn’t believe what was in front
of me,” Mr Lyon said yesterday. “What
breaks my mind is that the coin
has been sat there for thou-
sands of years and it has
just been missed. It
looked like a big 5p and it
wasn’t even buried. It
was just half in the
ground.
“If I had known what it
was, I’d have spent more
time having a look around.”

The face of the coin, below, portrays the

side profile of Gordian III, the youngest

emperor, crowned at the age of 13.

On the reverse is Apollo, the god of

music, with a branch in his right hand

while resting his left elbow on a lyre.

The silver coin could fetch about £45

at auction but Mr Lyon has no plans to

cash in on his find.

He intends to keep it as a souvenir or

donate it to the Sankey Canal Restora-

tion Society in Merseyside in recogni-

tion of their efforts in taking care of the

beauty spot.

“There’s a lot of fly-tipping around

Carr Mill Dam,” Mr Lyon said. “My

partner and I have been trying to

help clear it recently.

“I only spotted it because

Chelsea found a 50p in the

same area a few weeks ago

and we’ve been trying to

one up each other ever

since. We’re going to go

back to the dam soon to see

if there’s anything else lying

around there.”

e coin

u-

s

e

nd.”

partner

help

“

Ch

sa

a

o

si

ba

iif th

aroun

Goldsmith facing

police questions

after deer escape

that he had rounded up all the deer, and

sent a photograph of “the last six”

which he said had just been collected.

Mr Goldsmith told The Sunday Times:

“It’s a storm in a teacup. I had the wrong

fencing, I accept that. I also inconven-

ienced one or two of my neighbours but

I’ve gone to the moon and back apolo-

gising.” He denied a more serious alle-

gation being investigated by police that

he had released boar, which have been

seen in large numbers near his estate.

He said he had never kept them but

that he had been feeding them for

observation purposes. That could have

put his Tamworth pigs at risk of infec-

tion. He is an enthusiast of rewilding

and neighbours say that they have seen

beavers in the area. Police are said to be

looking into where they came from.

Avon and Somerset police said that

they were investigating “reports of

potential offences under the Wildlife

and Countryside Act and the Deer Act”

concerning deer and wild boar.

The Times has been told that Mr

Goldsmith faces investigation by trad-

ing standards officers, who are respon-

sible for stopping the spread of diseases

and ensuring animal welfare on farms.

Mr Goldsmith was appointed a non-

executive director of Defra, an unpaid

position, in March 2018. He is an inves-

tor in and advocate for green energy.

A year ago his brother Zac was made

a junior environment

minister and after los-

ing his seat at the

election he was ap-

pointed to the House

of Lords and continues

his ministerial role.

Their father was the ty-

coon Sir James Gold-

smith.

The Defra board

meets quarterly to provide

strategic, corporate leader-

ship with particular re-

sponsibility for monitor-

ing performance and de-

livery. Defra said that it

was investigating.

Dominic Kennedy

Thomas & Friends A family favourite has returned to the Mid Hants Railway, which says that lockdown has cost it £1 million

The financier Ben Goldsmith faces an
inquiry over possible breaches of biose-
curity and animal welfare after dozens
of red deer escaped from his farm.
The police are investigating whether
Mr Goldsmith, brother of Lord Gold-
smith, an environment minister, had
breached the Wildlife and Countryside
Act. Mr Goldsmith’s position as a non-
executive director of the Department
for Environment, Food and Rural Af-
fairs (Defra) could be in doubt after he
admitted lying to neighbours that he
had rounded up all 22 deer.
He appeared to defy his critics at the
weekend by retweeting a puff for a book
called Rewilding: the Radical New
Science of Ecological Recovery.
Nick Hutton, a dairy farmer, said that
Mr Goldsmith’s red deer, a known pest

to farmers, came to graze on land set
aside to feed cows over winter.
“My biggest challenge in the past five
years has been TB. There is a lot in this
area and we are in and out of trouble
with it. This idiot has brought in a herd
of animals known to spread
TB and allowed them to
run all over,” Mr Hutton
told the Daily Mail. “It’s
dangerous and irrespon-
sible.” Herds infected with
TB need to be slaughtered.
Mr Goldsmith, 39,
bought a herd of deer for
his 250-acre Cannwood es-
tate in Witham Vale, Somerset,
but said they had escaped because
he “should have had better fen-
cing”. Red deer must be kept be-
hind 6ft high fences.
He wrongly told neighbours

Ben Goldsmith

bought a herd

of red deer for his

estate in Somerset