A SWEEP of Charlie Pounder's metal detector usually throws up nothing better than a bottle top or some decaying Victorian ceramics.

But a chance visit to a Hartlepool building site sent his detector into overdrive and his heart racing.

There - among the mud, bricks and machinery of an urban building site - was a Bronze Age hoard that has since been identified as one of the most significant ever in the North-East.

The 40-year-old unemployed club steward had stumbled across a treasure trove of 3,000-year-old artefacts that included a large earthen pot, rings, beads, horse attachments and, most impressively, a 10in spearhead and socket.

The hoard was found in a pot buried only 18in below the surface and was brimming with objects made from jet, amber and slate.

Now, a week after his amazing discovery, Mr Pounder has been told the haul was put into the ground, probably as a religious gesture, more than a millennium before the birth of Christ.

Charlie feels almost guilty at his monumental find for he has been metal detecting for only six months.

He said yesterday: "I feel incredibly jammy because some metal detectors could do this for a lifetime and never find anything like this.

"I had another stroke of luck because, just 24 hours after I found this haul, the land was bulldozed. Another day and 3,000 years of history would have been lost for ever.

"I had been all over this site but never found anything interesting when I chose a grassy bit that hadn't been cleared yet.

"Well, the signal was blaring in my headphones so I got down and dug. I first saw a couple of bronze rings then the top of a pot.

"I dug it out with plenty of room to spare and took it home, then to Tees Archaeology the next day."

The historically significant haul, which proves there were wealthy farming settlers in Hartlepool at the time, will now be cleaned and restored by experts at Durham University before they are returned to Tees Archaeology for public display.

Mr Pounder added: "I will carry on looking for things, but anything else will be an anti-climax."

Robin Daniels, archaeology officer at Hartlepool Borough Council, said: "There are no other finds like this in Hartlepool, in fact it is of major regional significance."

* The burial site in north Hartlepool has not been revealed for fear of excessive interest.