Chatsworth fountain coins raise £7,000 for charity

Now it is always nice to find a bit of money you had forgotten about and at Chatsworth House in North Derbyshire they did just that. They raised over seven thousand pounds for charity - from coins found in a fountain.

It is thanks to the efforts of Tony Verdon and his family. Last year Tony lost his son Sam to cancer and was determined to do something in his memory. Here's Sarah Clark.

The Duke of Devonshire met with Tony Verdon and his family at the old stables at Chatsworth House this morning to recognise Tony's efforts at retrieving more than a quarter of a million coins from the courtyard fountain.

Tony lost his 22-year-old son Sam to cancer last year. Since then he's been helping to clean out the fountain which had become clogged with cash.

They retrieved £7,000 pounds which will go to Macmillan Cancer Support who helped Tony and his family through his son's illness

Tony used a cement mixer and jet washer to clean the coins which all had to be counted and cleaned before being handed into the NatWest Bank.

He said: ''At first we thought we were looking at 25 small bags of coins. It was only when two vans turned up at my house with 87 large sacks I realised this was going to be a bigger project than I originally thought!"

Coins worth around £7,000 which have lain in a fountain at Chatsworth House for up to eight years are being cleaned and sorted to raise money for Macmillan cancer support.