The Havering Hoard
In 2018, archaeologists excavating a site at Wennington in Havering made an extraordinary discovery. Buried inside a ditch surrounding a small Bronze Age settlement, they unearthed 453 metal objects — the largest Bronze Age hoard ever found in London. The find had been anticipated. Aerial photographs taken in the 1960s had revealed the faint marks left by the ditch of an ancient enclosure, and when archaeologists finally broke ground, the earth gave up its secrets: axes, spearheads, swords, chisels, bracelets and more, deliberately buried roughly 3,000 years ago.
What makes the Havering Hoard particularly fascinating is the story it hints at. Some of the objects originated far beyond London — as far away as Switzerland. Whether they arrived through trade, or belonged to a traveller who passed through this corner of what is now East London three millennia ago, we can only imagine.
The objects are now part of the collection at the London Museum, where you can see them for yourself.
Find out more and visit the Havering Hoard: www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/havering-hoard/
Further reading: www.the-past.com/feature/the-havering-hoard/
The Music
When composer Vahan Salorian was commissioned by Havering Concert Orchestra, it was the Hoard that captured his imagination — a remarkable local discovery that spoke of ancient lives, long journeys and buried secrets. The result is The Hoard for Orchestra, a brand new work responding to this extraordinary piece of Havering’s history. We will be giving its world premiere at our Summer Concert, Dreams and Discoveries, on Saturday 4th July 2026.
Purchase tickets here: WeGotTickets
About Vahan Salorian
Vahan is a composer and orchestrator, originally from Lancashire. His music has been described as “truly genre breaking” (Bachtrack) and “subtly and beautifully achieved” (Opera Magazine). A graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he has worked extensively in music for the stage as well as the concert hall. His first major work, Boys of Paradise (2017) was recently revived with a new Portuguese translation in Lisbon (2025). His opera, Goldilocks and the Three Little Pigs, was hailed as “a swinish pearl of an opera” in The Observer. He has been commissioned by companies such as Tête à Tête, The Opera Story, ETO and BBC4, and has had his music performed internationally and on television in venues as diverse as the Barbican, the Copeland Gallery, Hoxton Hall and EGG nightclub.
