Eddie Reay, the first through the door at the Fabulous Finds Day at the Hancock Museum, Newcastle, donated a 300 million year old fish tooth to the museum.
On Saturday April 30 2005 Fabulous Finds Days were held in museums all over the country from Newcastle to Liskeard.
Members of the public were invited to bring in finds of all kinds, be they the result of a spring clean in the attic, a rummage in an antique shop or a lucky bleep from a metal detector.
The days were organised by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) as part of Museums and Galleries Month, which runs for the whole of May. They brought together two major national initiatives: the Renaissance programme to revitalise England’s regional museums and the Portable Antiquities Scheme, (PAS) which is the country’s largest community archaeology project.
Ronan Graves, aged five, stunned experts at Roots of Norfolk at Gressenhall museum, when he turned up with a box filled with fossils including a 100-million-year-old ammonite deposited during the Ice Age.
Museum curators and experts from the PAS were on hand at each of the museums to identify and tell visitors more about their finds – from a 300 million year old fish tooth to a section of a hangman's noose.
Of course, the 24 Hour Museum was also there at all nine venues and our Renaissance Student Journalists will be bringing you the lowdown on every one of them.
During the next few days we'll be running stories from each event as well as compiling a series of online galleries with photographs of some of the best and most interesting finds.
So, make sure you keep coming back to read the stories via the links below as they appear.
We'll also be bringing you news of the search for an under 16 Finder of the Year. The deadline for entries has now closed, but judging is underway and the title will be awarded to the finder with the best story behind their collection.
