Clash of cultures How Vikings took a grip on northern England

When Anglo-Saxons buried their jewellery in an attempt to keep it safe from marauding Vikings, it is unlikely they envisioned their treasures would be dug up a millennium later and studied by their descendants.

- Robyn Vinter North of England correspondent

Nor would they have expected them to sit alongside everyday objects owned by their Scandinavian oppressors as part of the largest exhibition of Viking-age artefacts in the country, aiming to tell the story for the first time of the Viking power base that was the north of England.

"This is the finest collection of objects from Viking-age England that you can see in a museum in this country," said Dr Adam Parker, the curator of archaeology at York Museums Trust.