A CORRODED medal picked up on a Poole beach in 1962 has finally been identified.

Local man Chris Cockwell was delighted when it was researched by Sue Beckett, curator (collections) at Poole Museum and discovered to be a centenary Sunday School medal dating from 1880.

“I was walking along the beach at Baiter and looking at the ground,” said Chris, a retired aircraft electrician who lives at Longfleet.

“I happened to see something round. I didn’t know what it was.

“I picked it up and thought I would look at it later. I put it away and forgot about it,” said the museum volunteer.

Years later he came across it again and took it into the museum to be identified.

“The first thing was to examine it,” said Sue.

“I had seen one before in one of our own collections. Then it really was good old Google.”

Her research discovered that the white metal medal, 4.5cm in diameter, was struck in 1880 to commemorate the centenary of the founding of the Sunday Schools by Robert Raikes in 1780.

On one side is his likeness with “Cent-enary of Sunday Schools 1880/Robert Raikes” around the border and on the other side Christ with three adults and four children, with “Suffer the little children to come unto me” below.

Chris said: “It is so interesting. I want to try and find out more if I can. Sue has been very helpful and pointed me in the right direction.”

The museum’s experts will be on hand at Poole Museum on Tuesday mornings from 10.30am to 1pm to help people identify historical artefacts that they own or have found. People can also email photos of objects or phone during this time and offer items of historical interest for donation.

“We haven’t got a specialist in every area but we will research and find out what we can for people,” said Sue.

Contact the curators at museums@poole.gov.uk or call 01202 262600.