Britain's biggest gold nugget found on Welsh beach

A gold nugget weighing more than three ounces has been confirmed as the largest ever found in Britain.

Vincent Thurkettle found the piece of unrefined gold on the shoreline near the village of Moelfre, Anglesey, in 2012.

Tipping the scales at 3.4oz, it is double the weight of the largest ever nugget previously found in the UK.

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The area has long attracted treasure-hunters searching for booty from the Royal Charter shipwreck.

The clipper was dashed on the rocks at Moelfre on its way back from Australia in 1859. Many of the passengers were gold miners who had struck it rich in Australia and were bringing their haul back to the UK.

Warren Kovach, who works for Anglesey History, told the North Wales Daily Post that some of the cargo had washed ashore in the aftermath of the wreck.

"Quite a lot of people in the area suddenly got richer in the years after," he said. "But I have not heard about many finds recently so Mr Thurkettle has been lucky."

Thurkettle kept the discovery to himself while he combed the shore for any other pieces of gold. After searching for four years, he has now decided to make his find public.

However, he will not get to keep the gold, which is now property of the Crown and will go on display in a museum, but he is entitled to a finder's fee which he hopes will be around £50,000.