ARTEFACTS found during the discovery of the Saxon king in Southend in 2005 are to feature in an international exhibition in Germany.

Southend deputy mayor Chris Walker and senior councillor Derek Jarvis are travelling to Paderborn on July 26 for the Credo event about the Christianisation of Medieval Europe.

The Sacon king is a major part of the exhibition as it shows the Christianisation of England at around 590 AD.

Other exhibits on show are from the British Museum, the Vatican Museum and the Berlin Museum.

The costs relatedto the exhibition have been paid for by the Paderborn Museum. The council says its only costs are £1,130 for the overnight trip and easyJet flights.

The Diozesanmuseum Paderborn is internationally recognised for its exhibitions and Southend has lent some of the glass jars, the gold buckle, shoe buckles, the crosses and some X-rays of the flagon found in Priory Park for the displays. Mr Jarvis, Southend councillor responsible for culture, said: ”Our finds fit very nicely into this exhibition.

“It will be great to see our elite prince and some of the finds on show and we hope to learn a lot from the museum and be able to explain about the background to our finds.

“This keeps the issue alive. It’s a very important project for the town and will be housed in the cliffs museum to be built between 2018 and 2020 we hope.

“We haveabig role to play in the Saxon history of the country.”

The council has received £10,000 towards the academic research around the Syrian flagon and will be given £30,000 worth of specialised display cabinets, used to display the Prittlewell Prince, when the exhibition closes.

These cabinets will allow some of the artefacts to return to Southend for an exhibition later this year or possibly in January.

The Saxon finds are usually housed at the Museum of London and the aim is to bring them all back to Southend once a museum is built on the Cliffs.

They will only be displayed as a complete collection when the new museum is built in Southend.