THE mother of treasure hunter Peter Cawley who died 12 days after unearthing a 300-year-old ring near the enigmatic Avebury Stones said his death was a tragic coincidence and she did not believe it was linked in any way to his find.

Mr Cawley, 38, died three days after being found lying in a road near his home in Avebury Trusloe with severe head injuries.

Police at first suspected he had been the victim of a hit and run driver but subsequent tests by pathologists ruled out any suspicious circumstances.

Mr Cawley died in hospital in Oxford and at an inquest held in the city the coroner gave the verdict that his death had been an accident.

The coroner was happy that his injuries were consistent with a fall as he walked home.

Unemployed building worker Mr Cawley died 12 days after unearthing the valuable 17th century gold ring while searching fields near his home without the permission of landowner Robin Butler.

Some reports have suggested that his death could have been linked in some mysterious way to the discovery of the ring but that was refuted this week by his mother, Joan Cawley, with whom Mr Cawley had been living since parting from a girlfriend in Calne.

Widow Mrs Cawley said: "It was just a coincidence, no more than that."

She said her son, her only child, was an alcoholic and had been unable to work for some time.

She told the Gazette: "He used to go out detecting quite a lot, at nights and in the day. He was interested in that sort of thing."

Mrs Cawley said that as soon as her son realised the ring he found was made of gold and could be valuable he informed the curator, Dr Paul Robinson, at the Wiltshire Heritage Museum Devizes and told the farmer on November 1.

She said she was convinced there was no connection between him finding the 300-year-old ring and his death.

The ring, identified by the marking WG as a love token made by Marlborough jeweller William Gough in the 1600s, was the subject of a treasure inquest held at Swindon last week by the Wiltshire Coroner, David Masters.

He decided that the ring was treasure and he seized it on behalf of the Crown. He told the treasure inquest: "Since the find was made Mr Cawley has died.

"His mother has written to Dr Robinson to indicate that in the circumstances she is happy for the find to be passed to the museum."

Mr Butler, 55, said Mr Cawley had previously been refused permission to use a metal detector on his farm and had not asked for permission on the occasion when he found the gold ring on October 29 last year.

He told the inquest the ring was found on land at Manor Farm at a depth of about four inches. No other items were found during the search

Dr Robinson said the ring which was inscribed with the words "Noe recompense but love" was stamped with the mark WG which indicated its maker to be William Gough who worked in Marlborough in the 17th century.

As well as being recorded twice as Mayor of Marlborough, Gough was recorded to have lost property valued at £1,134 in the Great Fire which swept the town in 1653 leading to a national appeal to rebuild the town.

Dr Robinson said the love token ring was very probably unique and said: "Rarely do you get two rings the same. They either had a romantic or a religious format and this could have been a ring given on engagement."

The ring is currently being valued by the British Museum, and Dr Robinson said the Wiltshire Heritage Museum was keen to acquire it to display it at the Wiltshire Heritage Museum.

The British Museum has said that the value of the ring is still being assessed.