Hundreds of children entered a competition to investigate the mystery behind one of York's greatest artefacts.

Run by the Jorvik Viking Centre, the competition invited young visitors to come with a theory behind the discovery of the helmet which was unearthed during the building of the centre.

Now housed in the Castle Museum, it dates from AD750-75 and a replica is kept in the Jorvik Centre.

But budding detectives were invited to put their imagination to the test and come up with an idea as to why the helmet was hidden in a wood-lined pit.

Part of the prize was to have their written entries printed in the Evening Press.

Sam Orange, from the centre, said: "Children entering the competition mostly thought that the helmet had been lost because its owner had died in battle, it had been stolen or hidden like buried treasure.

"We chose the winning entry from Aaron Hopkinson because he had come up with a more unusual and imaginative theory.

"Runner-up Gregory Moore's was one of the first entries that attracted our interest and still stood out from the competition at the end of the week. The other runner-up, Amy Cotter, had our vote for the simplicity and originality of her entry."

The winning entries were:

Aaron Hopkinson, aged 11, from Seacroft, Leeds.

I think the York helmet was hidden because someone thought it was cursed and wanted to get rid of it. Maybe they were having lots of bad luck and assumed it was the helmet that was cursed.

So they dug a hole and buried the helmet so that it would bring them no more misfortune. Everybody must have forgotten about it and eventually it was dug up.

Gregory Moore, aged 11, from the Wirral

Allbrit was getting ready for battle. He sharpened his sword, checked his belt and shield and got out the helmet which had been his father's before him. He remembered sadly the battle where his father had died. If I die today, I would like to leave my helmet for young Albritson to remember me.

Thoughtfully he packed his helmet away, strode to the door and lowered it carefully into the pit out by the river. He collected his working helmet, said goodbye to his wife and left for battle. He never returned and the hiding place for the helmet was forgotten for 1,000 years.

Amy Cotter, aged eight, from Solihull, West Midlands.

The wife hid it.

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