Vincent Megaw, emeritus professor of archaeology at the University of Leicester, has conjectured that the helmet may have belonged to a British auxiliary fighting in the Roman army during the campaigns against the Brigantes in AD 71–74.

[2] The provenance of the helmet is unknown, but on stylistic grounds it is thought likely that it comes from the north of England, in the area of Britain controlled by the Brigantes tribe.

[2][3][4] The helmet is first recorded as part of the collection of arms and armour accumulated by Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick (1783–1848), and so must have been discovered some time before 1848.

It is made from a single sheet of bronze, possibly spun finished, and has repoussé decoration in the La Tène style, similar to that found on the Waterloo Helmet, on the neck guard and on the fragmentary side pieces.

On the neck guard are two flat domed bosses with criss-cross grooves which would originally have held red glass enamel studs.