[3] The largest brooch is a silver disc with an intricate openwork pattern and inlaid with black niello.

The (6.1 centimetres [2.4 in]) brooch consists of an openwork silver sheet metal face with simple decorations of entwined plants, that cover a gilded copper alloy backplate.

They are embellished with intricate plant, animal and geometric ornamentation in panels surrounding a central cross-shaped area.

The central area is ornamented with four lobes and multiple panels filled with exotic beasts and stylised plants.

Each brooch contains an outer band with alternating panels of plant and animal engravings carved into the silver.

[9][10] In 1978, William King, a sexton for the church of St. Mary Magdalene in Pentney, Norfolk was digging a grave and noticed a circular piece of metal embedded in the soil.

Three years later, the new church rector, John Wilson, found the discs and gave them to the Norwich Castle museum.

[13] The five largest items of the hoard, based on a comparison of similarly styled brooches, were judged to have been made between 800—840 AD.

It has been proposed by scholars that the hoard could have been buried in the middle of the 9th century, during the Viking raids on East Anglia.

There was an alternative suggestion that the placement of the six discs in the churchyard had an unknown reason not connected to the Viking invasion of England.

Characteristics of the Trewhiddle style are: the use of silver, niello inlay, and zoomorphic, plant and geometric designs, often interlaced and intricately carved into small panels.