THE fate of a rare Medieval crucifix found near North Weald will be decided tomorrow.

An inquest will take place tomorrow to decide if the gold-plated silver cross, which dates back to the 15th or 16th Century, is classed as treasure.

Police officer and amateur metal detectorist Craig Carter, 37, from Harlow, found the cross in a farmer's field near the village last year and has been scouring the land ever since to see what else is buried in the ground.

He said that when he first found the crucifix, which is just under two inches long, he nearly threw it away, thinking it was one of the arrow shafts that he normally found on the field.

“When I got it home, it was still heavy after the mud was washed off and it was shiny.

“It seems like a large lump of precious metal for someone to lose. There's a box on the back that would have been used for holding a relic, like a bit of cloth from a saint's clothes.

“It' exciting to think what might still be in the ground.”

He reported the find to Epping Forest District Museum in Waltham Abbey and it is now at the British Museum.

If the coroner conducting tomorrow's inquest in Chelmsford declares that the crucifix is treasure, it will be valued by experts, with half its worth going to Mr Carter and half to the land owner, but he said he had no idea what it was worth.

He has since found Roman and Medieval coins in the field, but nothing as interesting as the crucifix.

Laura McLean, of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, which keeps track of finds that date from before the 1700s, said that the crucifix was a rare find and could have been thrown away when king Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in the 1500s.

“There was a big social and religious change going on in the country,” she added. “It would not be the done thing to be seen with religious objects.

“It could have been owned by a religious house or a lay person, but they would have been very high-status.”