Prospector finds Britain’s biggest gold nugget – worth £50,000 and the size of an EGG – raising hopes a £120m shipwrecked haul could be nearby

A prospector has uncovered Britain's biggest ever gold nugget, worth an estimated £50,000 and the size of a small chicken's egg, just off a beach in north Wales.

Vincent Thurkettle, 60, was stunned to see the incredible three ounce (97.12g) lump of precious metal gleaming in a crevice on the sea bed off the coast of Anglesey.

The nugget is believed to be part of a £120 million haul of gold which went down with the Royal Charter when it was shipwrecked during a hurricane in 1859, and Mr Thurkettle's discovery raises hopes the rest of the stash could be found. 

Prospector Vincent Thurkettle, 60, (pictured) has found Britain's biggest ever gold nugget, worth an estimated £50,000 and the size of a small chicken's egg, just off a beach in Wales

The nugget (pictured) is almost twice as heavy as the UK's second biggest nugget, which was found in Cornwall more than 200 years ago

Treasure hunters have spent 150 years trying to find traces of the lost gold and Mr Thurkettle spent seven summers scouring the shore before he was rewarded for his efforts. 

He spent around six weeks each summer looking for gold dust with a team of his family and friends and uncovered the nugget when he was shallow diving around five yards from the shore.

'I was absolutely stunned when I first saw the nugget. The sun was out so the gold was gleaming and because it was under water it was magnified, so it looked huge,' he said.

'I was really only expecting to find gold dust so I couldn't believe it when I realised it was a huge nugget, it was a magical moment.

The nugget is believed to be part of a £120 million haul of gold which went down with the Royal Charter (pictured) when it was shipwrecked during a hurricane in 1859

Mr Thurkettle (left) was stunned to see the nugget gleaming in a crevice on the sea bed off the coast of Anglesey (pictured)

'My first thought was that I had only ever seen nuggets like it in a museum. I didn't want to touch it at first, just to savour the extraordinary moment and burn into my memory how beautiful it looked.

'It was stuck in a crevice and as it lay where nature had hidden it, the nugget reminded me of a Faberge egg. When I picked it up it was surprisingly heavy.'

It is almost twice as heavy as the UK's second biggest nugget, which was found in Cornwall more than 200 years ago in 1808 and weighed 59g. 

Mr Thurkettle made the extraordinary find in 2012, but kept it secret until today, while the area was searched for more gold.

It was found about five yards below the water and around 44 yards from the famous Royal Charter shipwreck, which sank just to the north of the village of Moelfre on the north-east coast of Anglesey on October 26, 1859.

The nugget was found about five yards below the water and around 44 yards from the famous Royal Charter shipwreck, which sank just to the north of the village of Moelfre on the north-east coast of Anglesey

Treasure hunters have spent 150 years trying to find traces of the lost gold and Mr Thurkettle (pictured in his diving gear off the Anglesey coast) spent seven summers scouring the shore before he was rewarded

The ship, which was bound for Liverpool, was carrying gold from Australia and around 450 people are believed to have died in the disaster.

When Mr Thurkettle made the discovery storms had taken away about two metres of sand which normally covers the site, exposing parts of the sea bed which had been hidden for decades.

He added: 'I've spent 39 years prospecting and I have handled a lot of gold nuggets, but I never thought I would find such a large one myself.'

As the nugget was found close to a shipwreck Mr Thurkettle had to notify the Receiver of Wreck and the piece is now property of the Crown.

Mr Thurkettle believes the nugget could fetch as much as £50,000 due to its extreme rarity and the fact it was discovered near such an important shipwreck

Mr Thurkettle made the extraordinary find in 2012, but kept it secret until today, while the area was searched for more gold

It is being kept in a safe place until it eventually goes on display in a museum and Mr Thurkettle expects to receive a finder's fee.

He believes the nugget could fetch as much as £50,000 due to its extreme rarity and the fact it was discovered near such an important shipwreck.

He added: 'It has broken my heart to part with the nugget, but I think it's important that it ends up in a museum for everyone to see.

'I had grown very fond of it. Other pieces I've found before have been quartz with gold in, but this was a big lump of gold with bits of quartz in.

'It just goes to prove that if you go out and about in the British countryside and get stuck in you can still make spectacular discoveries.'

Britain's second biggest nugget was the Carnon Nugget found in Cornwall in 1808 and weighing 59g. The Rutherford Nugget, which was found in Scotland in 1869, comes in third at 57.9g.

Other recent gold nugget finds include an 18g lump in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, a 37.7g beach find at Westward Ho in Devon, and a 20g chunk on Whitesands Beach in Pembrokeshire, Wales.

LADEN WITH GOLD, THE SHIP WRECKED IN A STORM OFF THE WELSH COAST 

The Royal Charter, a 2,700 ton steam clipper, had been sailing from Australia to Liverpool when it was wrecked in a fierce storm off Moelfre Bay on the west coast of Anglesey on October 25, 1859.

The ironclad ship had been carrying 452 passengers when it sunk, many of them bringing riches uncovered from mines during the Australian gold rush back to Britain.

All but 41 survived, as many of those who tried to swim to the shore were weighed down by their pockets and money belts full of gold as they desperately tried to save their fortunes from the sea, or were dashed onto the rocks.

The Royal Charter, a 2,700 ton steam clipper, had been sailing from Australia to Liverpool when it was wrecked in a fierce storm off Moelfre Bay on the west coast of Anglesey on October 25, 1859

The ship had been on the final stretch of its two-month voyage when the storm, one of the worst of the 19th century, hit. 

The waves made it too rough for pilots to help guide the vessel along the coast, and when the captain, Thomas Taylor, tried to take shelter the anchor broke under the strain as the 60ft waves and 100mph winds sent the boat crashing onto rocks.

It was ripped in two as terrified passengers, who were just 50 yards from the safety of the coast, tried to swim to shore.

Many of those who survived had a Maltese seaman, Joseph Rogers, to thank after he made it to shore with a rope tied around his waist and called upon locals to form a human chain of 28 men to help the passengers.

However, all of the women and children on board were killed, many of them perishing as they waited to be rescued and were swept overboard by a wave. The others were told to wait below deck for safety only for the vessel to break up, sending them to their deaths.

It has been estimated that at least 79,000 ounces of gold were on board, worth up to £120million today.

The author Charles Dickens, then at the height of his fame, travelled to Wales to report on the aftermath of the wreck, and unlike some of his press colleagues was praised by locals for discounting rumours that they had been more interested in looking for gold then helping the victims.

The storm, and the resulting wreck, also marked the start of weather forecasting. 

The Meteorological Department of the Board of Trade, which later became the Met Office, had been set up five years earlier and the storm inspired founder Robert Fitzroy - previously the captain of Charles Darwin's HMS Beagle - to start producing charts enabling weather predictions to be made. He also set up a system of observation stations linked by telegraph to submit daily reports to him, and began producing weather reports for newspapers.