Exhibition hopes as cauldron lifted from river

There are hopes an iron cauldron which was lifted from a river bed could be displayed locally after further research.

The object was recovered from the River Wear at Offerton, near Sunderland on Sunday and is currently in York, where conservation work is taking place.

Gary Bankhead, who spotted the cauldron during a dive in September 2025 said he was "blown away" by the artefact's size when he finally saw it in daylight.

"It's a new layer of the history of Sunderland that we previously knew nothing about," he said.

The underwater archaeologist previously said the River Wear cauldron could be "the only one ever found in a British river" and its shape suggested it could date to early medieval times.

Cauldrons were mostly used for cooking and boiling water, but were also deployed for other domestic tasks, such as washing clothes, dyeing textiles and even brewing early ales.

Bakhead said iron cauldrons were rare and usually decomposed on land over time.

However, the Offerton finding was in a central channel of the River Wear and protected by sandstone bedrock.

"I guess that's helped make it safe over the hundreds of years it's been under there," Bankhead said.

"Its weight was incredible, we've estimated it's in the region of I'll say four to five stone (31.7kg) in old money."

It meant a single person could not lift it on its own, so the team had to use a group of trained scuba divers and a boat.

Bankhead said he was "overjoyed" when the cauldron made it out of the river intact, with its three legs and handle in place.

"I'd seen it previously underwater and I estimated how big it was but when you see it in the daylight you just you marvel at its sheer size," the honorary fellow of Durham University's Department of Archaeology added.

The cauldron is set to undergo radiographic examination in the coming weeks, which could reveal repairs, decorative elements, manufacturing details and evidence of how it was constructed.

It is hoped the artefact will be displayed in a local museum once work is complete.

There are also plans to continue exploring Offerton after recent surveys found evidence for an extensive prehistoric landscape in the surrounding area.

Bankhead said what looked like large dugout canoes had also been spotted during a recent dive.

"If they are what we hope they are they would be additionally wonderful discoveries for the site," he added.

More than 800 Roman whetstones have been uncovered so far, as well as coins, stone-working tools and 11 stone anchors.

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