The farmer who owns the field where the Staffordshire hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold was discovered arrived at the British Museum yesterday in a state of mild distress.

Fred Johnson has put up with teams of metal-detecting archaeologists on his land, police patrolling his fences and reporters knocking on the door of his ramshackle farmhouse, but the thought of his first visit to the museum to see part of the hoard go on display caused his first sleepless night.

Mr Johnson, 65, rarely strays far from his farm in Brownhills, near Walsall. But the man who will soon become Britain’s unlikeliest millionaire decided that he would make a trip just this once. “I’m a country lad,” he told The Times. “I got [this suit] special. I’ve never really liked putting a tie on. I’m much happier in jeans and a T-shirt — and it’s a damn sight cheaper.”

He is still coming to terms with who much he will receive when the treasure finally finds a home in one of Britain’s museums. He is entitled to half the market value of the hoard, which is now the property of the Crown under the Treasure Act 1996. No one is quite sure of the exact value, because the find is unlike any other, but it is expected to be a seven-figure sum. The rest of the money will go to Terry Herbert, the metal detectorist who found the treasure.

Mr Johnson has tried not to think about how the windfall will change his life. “I say, once the accountant gets his hands on it, it’ll be invested away before I see it. I’ve never allowed money to be wasted. If you’ve worked hard for your money, you should make your money work hard for you.”

Visitors to his farmhouse, which is surrounded by junk, would not disagree that he has reined in his spending, although he had plans for a new home on his land before the find.When The Times saw him a few months ago he was nervous. “They say life gets harder, don’t they? People say [money] is life-changing.” He glanced at the pallets, bricks and scrap metal in his yard and said: “I hope not.”

Mr Johnson is thrilled that 40,000 people went to see the hoard when it was put on temporary display at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and believes that it will touch people’s lives. “Had we been shown something like this at school, I’d have shown more interest in history,” he said.

The farmer is modest about his education. Asked by Jonathan Williams, keeper of the British Museum’s department of pre-history and Europe, to sign a visitor’s book he responded: “You’re assuming I can write.”

Mr Johnson visited London once before, many years ago, to see farm machinery at Earls Court, and had never considered returning.

“You don’t go anywhere you don’t have to. But I couldn’t miss this, could I? It’s once in a lifetime. It’s the first time I haven’t slept. It was the thought of coming down to London, to the big city.”

Does he wish that he had kept hold of one of the beautiful garnet-encrusted gold objects? “No. Everyone has a right to see it. What would you do with it? You could sit and gloat, but it would be wrong.”

The 18 items on display still have dirt stuck to them because cleaning will not proceed until money has been raised to pay for the hoard.

A syndicate of museums from Staffordshire, including the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent, are expected to be unopposed when a price is set later this month by the Treasure Valuation Committee.

Rita Madeley, Mr Johnson’s lifelong friend, said the find could have been hers had Mr Herbert not investigated the field first. “I was going to do that field next year, when I retired,” she said. “I’d sorted out my metal detector, which I bought years ago when I lost a ring in my garden. That would have been nice, wouldn’t it?”

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