Sutton Bridge site does hold King John's hoard says treasure hunter

The man leading the search for King John’s Treasure says he is 100% confident that he has found the hoard.

Raymond Kosschuk has been conducting tests at an undisclosed site in Sutton Bridge over the last week and says his equipment is picking up overwhelming evidence of the treasure.

King John lost the treasure to The Wash during an ill fated crossing on October 12, 1216 - just days before the unpopular monarch’s death in Newark Castle.

Using equipment he has designed to pick up anomalies in the readings of magnetic fields, Raymond has received strong signals for high value items along with a wealth of handmade nails and other artefacts during a quick sweep with a metal detector.

Now Raymond and the farmer are hoping to start digging out their findings in the coming weeks.

Skipton native Raymond, who now lives in Keighley, said: “I am 100% certain that this is it. This is the real thing.”

As we have previously reported, Raymond has been researching this project for more than a year and discovered the site while testing out his equipment last year.

He believes that King John had set off from King’s Lynn without a guide and the baggage train, made-up of 2,000 people and more than a mile long, was then caught up in a thick fog.

Raymond says his equipment picks up the magnetic fields emitted by objects such as gold and metal horse shoes.

The electrical and mechanical engineer began testing on the site on Tuesday last week.

He said: “When I gained access I isolated an area of high value targets and it tested positive for elements of gold, silver, emeralds, sapphires and rubies.

“The biggest attraction of this area I detected an is accumulation of silver. This tells me there is between 60lb-120lb of silver but it could be more. I believe this was the cash box that King John was carrying.”

Raymond has also had positive tests for gold and hopes to have found the Royal Regalia from the 13th century which was lost when the treasure disappeared.

He said: “There is something there or I won’t have the high readings or reactions that I am getting.”

Raymond has also found readings for a large number of horse shoes in sets of four.

He said: “Those horse shoes are completely damning evidence - there is no question.”

On Monday, Raymond swept a small section of the area with a metal detector and was able to find a number of hammered blots, nails, an eyelet and even a metal buckle.

He said: “The field is littered with this kind of find.”