The boy found the items buried in a hollow, about three metres below the surface, on some waste land by the side of a road leading to Ribchester church, and near a river bed.

[1] In addition to the helmet, the hoard included a number of paterae, pieces of a vase, a bust of Minerva, fragments of two basins, several plates, and some other items that the antiquarian collector Charles Townley thought had religious uses.

[4] In addition to the items purchased by Townley, there was also originally a bronze figurine of a sphinx,[2] but it was lost after Walton gave it to the children of one of his brothers to play with.

[9] Arrian describes how soldiers of high rank or with particular skills were allowed to wear these helmets in the hippika gymnasia or cavalry tournaments.

The helmet was voted Britain's "second best Roman find", behind the Vindolanda tablets, according to a web site poll by the Channel 4 television programme Time Team.