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Previous Dig - Archive Page

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The two-day meeting at in Hampshire last week was not as good as it could have been. You got the feeling that the ground had more to offer if wet but the signal conductivity was down due to the dry condition. How on earth did you manage to keep going on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year? Pretty remarkable! 

Sunday 27th February

We got away with the weather today and missed the morning rain. The
pasture was dry enough to park on and it was a relief to keep the cars off
the grass verge and parking problems were avoided. The dig at Horton Wharf
Farm failed to fill this page with reports of hammered coins everywhere and
this that and everything that you could imagine being found. I know the tell
tale signs within two hours of a quiet site as people come back very early
for a coffee saying that it’s a nice day anyway, dragging their spades
behind them.

Mid-way through the day, Peter persuaded our farmer to give us the remaining fields on his farm. Nice for two people, one finding a Mary groat and the other finding a superb large bronze 20-point spur rowel. The best find of the day was from the second field towards the canal on the left: a lovely bronze Roman statuette wearing a toga but although sadly minus its head, still a very desirable find.

Sunday 2nd February

Initially the February 2 dig dig got off to a slow start. This, as I said in the newsletter was an untried farm but this really turned out to be a dead site. Or so we all thought!  A Roman silver denarius of Severus Alexander 222-235 ad in superb condition was a great find. On the reverse is the goddess Providence holding a cornucopia, Seaby’s no.2231. A second superb find was a gold coin, a George 111 1/3 Guinea dating 1800 and Seaby’s no.3738. There was talk of a less well-preserved 1/3 guinea, slightly tattered due to plough damage. A phone call that evening from a club member informed me of a large heavy gold ring, likely to be Roman, which has been sent off to a museum for identification. Now considering that four out of sixty one diggers were making good finds and the remainder were finding a great deal of emptiness in each hole, it was time for me to use plan B. That means get some more land and get it quick! You all drive a long way to get to the Wanderers digs and I like to see the day go well, so a door-knocking I went and was fortunate enough to get us an afternoon on 200 acres at nearby. The run up to the farm was dead straight and just had to be a Roman road! Some of the fields were ridge and furrow and others were in stubble. All looking great, we moved camp, lost our burger man and several others and relocated on our new patch. Excitement was short lived, as all the fields were just as quiet, the best find being very nice 3rd century silver Roman ring. 

Sunday 26th January

This dig was a very good one with a higher than usual turnout, many members found something collectable. From the outset Roman coins and artefacts showed. The busiest fields were where we were parked but the furthest field seemed to be full of hand grenade parts!  The most impressive coins were a silver ¼ stater of the Atrebates and Regni, Commios Ladder Head Wheel silver unit. References: Van Arsdell 355-5, British Museum Catalogue 758, Spinks Coins of England 2003 edition no.69. Retail value (according to Spinks) Fine £40, Very Fine £125( pictured ). I heard an Anglo-Saxon penny was also found. Among the many 2^nd-4^thc.Roman bronze coins was an Allectus 293 – 296AD. A Roman nail cleaner and cosmetic spoon, an oval gilded brooch, several fibulae, a Roman knife handle, R. bronze pin were among many finds reported. Not a great deal of hammered but the most outstanding was a Henry V11 ½ groat. An enameled annular brooch ( pictured ) was a very nice find as was the large bronze handle from a vessel or dish that may prove to be Roman. Also, the trumpet end of a Bronze Age bracelet. Congratulations go to our newest members on finding their first Roman coins! Richard from ‘Shine’ productions was filming with possibilities of a new metal detecting show on C4. He even borrowed a detector and found three Roman coins

Sunday 22nd December - Christmas Dig.

What a wonderful day we had, well most of us any ways. Two exceptions were the junior detectorist who got stuck in the Mud leaving their wellies behind and the Madman scouring the countryside looking for extra Mince pies and cups !!

The turnout for this dig was excellent and it was so nice to see everyone after such a long time. The token hunt went very well indeed, we had never seen so many of the tokens returned before, Peter planted 500 and we actually received 485 back after about 2 hours detecting. Luckily Peter had hoards of prizes to keep everyone happy, I wonder if he did get that loud hailer for Christmas ??

Dave Rayment did, as usual, a wonderful job with the kids treasure hunt keeping them all happy till prize giving time. 

There were some excellent prizes this year and many thanks to those that donated prizes this year, even the consolation prize of a Turkey with stuffing was well received.   My heart went out to the finder of the 4th prize token who dropped it in the field and which was found by another detectorist.

There were some spectacular finds made on the day as well ranging from nice hammered silver coins to a lovely Saxon Strap end found by Jim, mind you it was his second visit as he thought the dig was on Saturday and it was only 120 miles for him so no biggie eh !!

We were also lucky with the weather as it looked like it was going to be a nasty day but at prize giving time even the sun shone down on us.

All in all a great detecting end to 2002.

Thursday 21st November

The Museum of London Visit.
It was a happy little group of about 14 club members who met up at the
Museum of London and had a thoroughly great day. Personally it was my first
day at this particular museum and I must say that I was most impressed by
the quality and layout of the displays.
It was quite amusing to hear the others saying that they had similar
articles in their own displays at home, myself included.
I think that the Stone Age and Bronze Age displays were fabulous and noted
that most of them originated from the Thames or in my old detecting stamping
ground.
Following a tiring but satisfying day, we nipped into the nearest pub for a
few drinks and decide that it would be fun to do it again soon, maybe
meeting at the British museum in the New Year.

Wednesday 20th November

This dig was covered in the dark stuff. No not Guinness otherwise I wouldn’t
have gone home so early with the rest of you. It was the product of a cow’s
rear end that gave us the trouble and boy did it stink!  But we all know that
farmer’s noses have lost their sense of smell and therefore he selflessly
thought to share his pleasant farm aroma with us!
Maybe in a perverse kind of way there were not many signals to dig and we
avoided poo fingers and a belly full of worms but the finds bags were
regrettably empty.

Sunday 17th November

Last Sunday we nearly had a close encounter of the turd kind.  I think wisdom prevailed and most of you kept off the poo field (You could tell who did try it though!)  It was a strange sort of dig as most of the fields were driving distance and away from our meeting place we seemed to have lost the usual atmosphere somewhat.  The heavy rain that morning put a few off and it seems that they didn’t miss much. I only saw three hammered and four Roman coins and heard of one Roman brooch. It’s strange but you would expect more Roman finds in this area but I will keep getting you new sites. Hopefully the new land near Winchester will be coming up after in February.

Thursday 10th October

Today's dig was good. The early showers stopped before the dig started and the promised slurry lorries didn't get started until after 3 o'clock.
The area where Roman coins were discovered last November in the deep ploughed mud was reasonably productive today. One of the nicest finds was a Roman fibula in top condition. Another superb find was a Saxon globe headed pin, silvered and is in Benets book, p124. A large Roman steelyard weight, a heraldic pendant lacking enamel, two hammered coins, one was a short cross I think, and a scatter of Roman coins, although in very poor condition they focused everyone's attention to the point that lunch seemed to have been forgotten!

Sunday 6th October

Today's dig was very disappointing. Despite a very good turnout and a promising site, the farm only offered us mainly Georgian and Victorian things. There was a William and Mary hammered and a few others. There were only a few poor condition Roman coins found.  If only we knew what was beneath the ground ! Still some times that's how it goes.

Saturday 5th October

Today's farm once again produced some lovely finds. A large cast bronze medieval beehive thimble circa 14c. A lovely heraldic pendant with blue enamel, hammered coins and yet more Roman coins from the small square field. A Tudor clothes tag and Tudor buckles, nice condition rose farthings, a Roman steelyard weight, something that was possibly a potin and all on very dry soil. Wetter ground would have increased the finds rate significantly on this dig.

Thursday 3rd October

Todays dig turned up a Henry 111 penny and a Henry 111 cut half. The best find was a 5" solid silver pin which could be a bodkin but more than likely is the pin from a large brooch. The pin is decorated and un-hallmarked and looks as if it is Saxon. A photo is on its way to me so watch out picture gallery for this one.

Sunday 30th June

This was the first dig I have been able to attend in months and it was lovely to see some friends I haven't seen in ages amongst the good turnout of detectorists today.  The weather was nice and not to hot for us but the ground was very hard in the first field.  We had very nearly 100 acres to detect today covering 3 fields, the grass in the first field was a little long for some and they quickly moved on to the 2 adjoining fields where the going was a little easier.  I saw some people pointing at me and I was heartened to think people had recognized me,  until that is I looked behind me to see that I had about 20 cows following along in single file behind me.  Peter also opened up another field nearby at lunchtime for those that fancied a change of surroundings.  I'd rather not discuss my pitiful finds from today but I am happy to mention the other finds I saw today.  2 Gold coins were found today one being a Sovereign and the other a hammered, well done to the finders,  I saw and heard of quite a few hammered silvers being found today from quite a range of monarchs I reckon at least a dozen of them but I'm sure I will get to hear the exact amount during the coming week. I heard of a very nice Roman brooch and I think I was the only one not to see this find as I was told about it by many people that had seen it.  Tim found a very nice ring which felt heavy enough to be Gold but more of that when it is cleaned up. There were some nice medieval buckles found and I heard of a Saxon strap-end being dug as well.  There were the usual finds of Crotal bells and Victorian coinage and thankfully a good selection of buttons were found so it will be worth a return visit.  I didn't get to the field Peter opened up after lunch time so I cant tell you what was found there, if anyone can enlighten me send me an e-mail and I will update this report.

I received an e-mail from one of our members who stated .............

I have only been to a few of Peter's club digs and have been generally impressed by the turnouts and the general quality of the finds made.  We were both finding the usual "bits and bobs"...  buttons etc.. and after meeting up again around 2.00pm,  the ground was very chattery (a bit like being next to 4 or 5 Minelab Explorers!!) but we persevered! My first good signal here produced a nice Saxon Penny of Aethelred II - 978 - 1016, Seaby's Reference: 1144 very much to my surprise! after calming down and letting Les finish drooling! we both carried on hoping to find more, but alas, after carrying on for another 10 feet, another good signal produced a complete Medieval Purse Bar a much welcomed first for me.  Les not to be outdone came up with a Pewter Pilgrims Badge and a worn Jetton (must have trod in a Cow Pat!!).  Needless to say, we were both very happy with the days proceedings as usually we don't find much of interest.  We managed to show Peter just as he was leaving the site. 

Sunday 21st April

Great results for most of you I hope! There were certainly plenty of hammered silver coins mostly of James1 and Charles 1. A few 14 century coins showed and one broken short cross coin of the 12^th century. Hardly any Roman finds from the first field save for one Langdon Down fibula, one silver denarius and a couple of bronze coins. Medieval finds were varied. Two pipe tampers, coin weights, 16^thc buckles, studs, a book clasp, cast bronze beehive thimbles, two lozenge shaped pendants, crotal bells, 3 hooked clothing tags, a lovely bronze circular pendant seal, a fob seal, a Saxon brooch with face of Woden (guess) the list goes on. Not bad considering that the soil was dry and ‘fluffy’ Oh yeah, I nearly forgot about the erotic piece of a couple fornicating in graphic detail! Can’t put that on the web site! 

The circular pewter item with the Star of David has been identified as an early Tudor pilgrims badge of the Star of Bethlehem with the Mary Rose in the centre. We have 150 acres of unsearched land on the West side of the Bletchingdon village after silage cutting in June and a return to last Sunday’s fields in Autumn when the soil is compact and wet will produce more goodies!

Sunday 14th April

This must be our most beautiful venue to date. The weather was fine as was
the company. You all filled you holes, the farmer was delighted with your
donations and glad to have us back and thought that we were a nice bunch! He
has 2 other farms but his father-in-law has a farm too, more of which later. Sundays finds were a great improvement to our declining success rate! Saxon predominated with a 7” double-edged bronze knife blade, a Saxon penny, ornate Saxon buckle, a stirrup mount, a bronze looped arrow-head (blade missing). On the mill island a Charles 1 hammered and several other Charles showed from around the farm. Hammered coins of
Edward 1 and Elizabeth, a silver candle snuffer (guess?) a bronze pipe tamper seal, a modern gold bangle, a predominance of Tudor and post Tudor artefacts. In fact I know that I have missed of a lot, crotal bells, buckles musket balls etc. but hardly any Roman though. Odd

Sunday 3rd March

Sunday 3rd February

Sunday 27th January

Thursday 24th January

This venue has been slow so far. Roman coins from near the river. A nice little hot spot threw up an heraldic pendant, circular bronze 13c seal, medieval buckles and Eliz. hammered.

Sunday 20th January

Heavy rain, high wind, awful parking problems, mud, a stuck articulated lorry blocking the only way in and out, horses running about, horse owners running about, you name it, it happened on this dig!  It was nevertheless a fair dig at the end of the day. Some Roman coinage was reported. Two short cross silver hammered and Elizabeth hammered, crotal bells and Georgian coins plus modern coins were the tally for the day.

Sunday 13th January

The first field that we searched in the morning had plenty of signals but unfortunately most were modern. The soil was very sandy and objects of age had sunk beyond range. There was plenty of old iron at quite a depth too. The oldest find on this field came from the roadside corner to the right as you drove into the field, a lovely short cross penny of Richard 1. A bronze finger ring, a modern silver bracelet, one crotal bell, two bronze Roman coins and several pre-decimal coins were all.

 With only 35 acres of non-productive land to search we had to fall back on land that on earlier occasions we had detected. The field was very quiet but fearless Phil managed to eke out one more hammered, a very nice two pence silver hammered of Elizabeth 1 at that. The land between the canal and the river was also quiet! You must have been very thorough on your last search here; in fact I reckon that you must be doing things right as there was not much left to find this week!  I saw only one Roman coin and heard of only a few hammered

Sunday 6th January

My alarm went off at 7am so I switched it off, just another 5 minutes I thought, any way when I woke at 9.20 things were all a little rushed and I arrived at today's dig to see some people returning to their cars for lunch !!

It was a damp foggy morning but we had  quite a good turnout for today's dig.  The ground frost had thawed and we had that horrible sticky mud to deal with, you know the sort, when you appear to be wearing diving boots after 5 mins walking in the field.  One of our members had to scurry off to Tesco's mid morning to buy his little daughter new clothes as the poor thing fell through some ice into a large puddle and got soaked, still she got some new trousers and shoes out of it and thankfully she wasn't hurt at all.  As to finds there seemed to be a few hotspots on the field today,  I heard of around 20 hammered silver coins being found and some very nice Roman silver as well,  I saw a very nice bronze spear head dug and a couple of rings as well, one of them was inscribed "Fear Only God" and the other was a posy ring.  I heard that fearless Phil found a special Roman coin but I didn't get to see that one. I also heard of a nice heraldic pendant with an enamelled red shield and white cross.  I am sure there were allot more finds from today but we were very well spaced out so I didn't get to see everyone today.  All in all not a bad day on this untried site.

On my drive to the dig I decided it may be nice to give the buttons a rest today and see how many bullets and shotgun cartridges I could find. I did alright thanks !!!

I must apologise to all those that have sent me pictures of their finds for the web site pictures page recently,  due to the amount of traffic our web site is attracting these days we are continually exceeding our allocated band width so I am not able to add the new pictures to the site at the moment.  I have spoken to Peter about this and we are going to increase our allocated server space and get rid of the adverts on the web site at the same time, as soon as we have some spare time we will attend to this and I will then be able to add your pictures to the site so please bear with me on this.

Christmas Dig Saturday 22 December

Sunday 16th December

Not a bad turnout today considering the temperature, boy did that wind cut through you on the top of the hill !!.  This was the first Sunday dig I have been able to get to for quite some time and it was nice to meet some friends I haven't seen for a while. I was disappointed to see that fearless Phil had a coat on today but my faith was restored to see the coat was open and he did have a T shirt on underneath and only a T shirt !! I had thought that digging would be a problem today with the heavy frosts we have had of late but it couldn't have been better the soil was sandy and so easy to dig.  I had my youngest lad with me today and by 2pm he had enough of the cold so I had to leave but I did hear about some nice finds from today's dig before I left, these included a Rose farthing, 8 hammered silver coins some of which were, a Henry 7th Groat,  2 Edward penny's and a cut 1/2 short cross,  I saw 3 nice silver thimbles in very good condition and a silver Saxon strap-end,  a gilded Heraldic pendant with a cross engraved,  a section of  short cross cruciform brooch,  a Roman crossbow brooch, an unusual hawking whistle and I heard that a couple of silver Denarius were found today, I saw a lovely bearded bust in lead which looked very Roman but we will have to wait and see I also saw an excellent figurine but more of that later when it is properly identified, all in all not a bad day out.  I know your all dying to know what I found,  well I was getting more and more depressed as the day went on, I mean these hammered silver and roman coins are OK but nothing compares to a nice 4 hole button does it.  I had all but given up and was going to have to be satisfied with my brooch and hammered silver when a whopping great signal came on the way back to the car after a short dig I was delighted to see a shiny stainless steel button staring up at me from the bottom of the hole, success at last !!!!  One final moan I'm afraid,  when I ventured down into the valley I was disappointed to see that up at the road end it looked like a war zone with all the craters some kind soul had left behind,  this was a new farm to the Wanderers today and  that really isn't the way to impress a landowner into inviting us back onto the rest of his land.  Thanks to the couple of guys that I did see filling other peoples holes in, sorry I wasn't close enough to see who you were but it was good to see. Once again would you please backfill your holes, its a shame that a very small minority spoil it for the majority of the members. 

Sunday 9th December

I was site hunting every day last week and didn’t get home until late Thursday afternoon; too late to make the last post. Consequently the mail was sent on Friday, following an eleventh hour decision to use the Surrey site again and I know that many of you did not receive your letter until this Monday. Mail delivery times are a bit out this time of year. First class post in not guaranteed to arrive the next day I have been told. Someone at the Royal Mail informed me delivery is guaranteed after two clear working days for first class stamps. It seems they want to do less for more and want to charge £50 a year to guarantee delivery on your doorstep before 9.30 the following day! At any rate that’s what I read in the newspaper a few weeks ago. Anyway, for those who made the Surrey meeting the weather was pleasant and I believe that we all had a good day out. Only four Roman coins were found but five hammered silver and lots of buttons prove that this site is not worked out. It really does need to be deep ploughed to refresh the finds rate though. Thoughts go to Margaret and Steve who had a bit of a fire in their car and had to wait to be rescued by the RAC.                     

Sunday 11th November

Endurance was the name of the game today as the mud built up on Detectorist’s soggy boots. The pasture fields turned out to be deafeningly quiet except for one beautiful Groat. Mainly hammered coinage came from the maize stubble and a fair amount too by the end of the day. The best field seemed to be across the road. Roman coinage and pottery were notable on higher ground but is was a shame that the contractors had to work on our day out. The muck spreading improving the soil for the farmer but not for us alas! Turd dodging has now become an art with the Wanderers who can be spotted from a distance not only by their smell, but by their elongated stride and worried glance over their shoulder in anticipation of the muck spreader catching them out! That’s the trouble with having such good earphones. Ha Ha! 

Sunday 28th October

I heard of some interesting finds today. Its nice to get some feed back on new venues and to hear of such great finds. We will certainly return to this productive venue some time in March when the soil will be rolled dead flat prior to drilling. Reports of a bronze Celtic unit, one Roman bronze coin, part of a Roman knife, a Saxon strap end, a Saxon stirrup mount, one Short cross penny, (12^th century) plenty of silver hammered coinage dating Edward 1 (13^th century) to Elizabeth, (16^th century). Significant amounts of lead powder measures indicate that troops from the Civil war were billeted here. Several detectorists had two or three powder measures; one even had a musket shot inside. Coins of Charles 1 such as Seaby’s no.2907 and others popped up. I heard reports of two gold rings, one a modern wedding band, the other a large and heavy morning ring inscribed with dates and other text yet to be read. Great finds! Well done! More yet….. a gold ¼ guinea showed to an already lucky detectorists well rewarded for his long journey. More yet….a gold 1/3 guinea to an equally fortunate searcher. Brilliant!! A lead vesica shaped seal, a bronze medieval pouring spout similar to M21 in Benet’s Artefacts of England. Tudor buckles, crotal bells and more. An excellent day out!

7th October

Many thanks to John for the excellent dig report below

16th September

Another lovely sunny day for our dig today which was, as is usual these days, well attended.  It was good to meet some of our new members as I can now put a face to your e-mail addresses.  It was particularly nice to receive an e-mail after the dig from one of our new members, Richard from Northants has asked me to thank Frank and Brigitte for sharing their finds with him and also Frank for his wealth of information on detecting and finds, thanks for that Richard and well done on your first ever Roman coin find today.

I spent most of today out in the field digging lumps of iron out of the ground for my 8 year old and trying to convince him that he really hadn't found precious metal. The rest of the time I spent fine tuning the button finder program on my XLT, apparently !!!.  I didn't get to see many of your finds today I'm afraid but  I did hear that fearless Phil found a nice medieval finger ring along with 2 thingy's and I know that there were quite a few Roman and hammered silver coins found today.  I was shown some very nice silver maundy money and I heard of a couple of farthings and silver sixpences being found. My best find of the day was a very nice four holed butt... Oh never mind.

If you found anything interesting please drop me a quick e-mail and I will add your finds to this report.  

13th September

Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend today's dig.  As soon as I hear how the dig went I will update this report. I did hear that Brigitte found a lovely Bronze age spear head.  I managed to get a photo of the spear head at Sunday's dig and I have added  it to our pictures page.

9th September

Thankfully the weather forecasters were wrong today and we had a nice sunny day for our dig, mind you that wind was chilly.

A very good turnout at this popular location and it was good to see some new faces at today's dig.  Unfortunately I had to leave at midday to attend to family matters ( shopping) so I only managed to record your first 3 hours of finds today, if I have missed your find I'm sorry, if you drop me an e-mail I'll correct this report.

The finds I did see this morning consisted of a lovely Medieval buckle found by Grahame Payne (pictured),  a very nice Edward 3rd Groat dated around1351  was found by Mark ( pictured),  a small Georgian fob seal was found by M Witcombe (pictured),  A lovely Saxon strap-end with a cross on the end,  it was nice to see one of our members find his very first hammered silver coin today and what a first hammered it was, a nice short cross penny,  a Victorian ring,  a rose farthing,  an Edward 1st penny,  Alan found a very large steelyard weight,  Dave managed to find a lovely silver Denarius showing a Galley,  2 Tudor clothing fasteners were dug today as was a king Henry groat.

Not a bad mornings work I'm sure you agree.  Do I need to mention my buttons ??  No I don't think so.

I finally managed to catch up with Frank today and took some pictures of a beautiful ring he had found, the ring is pictured on our Jewelery pictures page, have a look and let us know if you can identify or date this ring please.

2nd September

It was nice to see another very good turnout today, is it because of all the wonderful finds we have made lately or because of the rest we have had lately due to the Foot and Mouth crisis ?? what ever the reason its good to see you all.

Some of us got a good soaking this morning in the few very heavy rain showers we had whilst others were eating bacon sandwiches in a camper, it was nice to see fearless Phil still detecting in his T shirt as usual, it takes more than a drop of rain to put our Phil off  his detecting.  As the morning progressed into afternoon the sun was a welcome visitor although most of us were a few inches taller due to the mud clinging to our boots by then. 

As to today's finds, where do I start !!! I should say at this point I had to leave the dig at midday due to a prior engagement so I only have details of the mornings finds.  Before I did leave I had seen that numerous Roman coins had been dug and a lot of  hammered silver as well, I saw a very nice heavy silver ring and a nice sword belt fitment ( we think) there are pictures on the appropriate web pages of those 2 particular items.  I was also shown a part of a Roman ring brooch, several tokens and a lovely Beehive thimble. It was good to see one of our newer members find his first Roman coin today, well done. The site was as promised by Peter and it seemed that most people had found something. I hope to have a fuller report of the days findings later in the week when I speak to Peter. Oh I nearly forgot to mention that young Julian found a Gold 1/4 noble of Edward 3rd dated around 1350 to go with his other finds today of a Roman or two, the Gold Noble is pictured on our web site, well done Julian not a bad find, I suppose. Congrats to young Doris on finding her cut 1/2 hammered silver today as well. 

31st August

One of our female members who shall remain nameless was out detecting on one of her own sites yesterday with her partner PETER.  She found what looked like an old corroded tractor part and being a responsible detectorist put it into her finds bag for disposal at home later. Once at home the item was inspected more closely it was indeed disposed of by the bomb disposal unit !! They took away an 8" armour piercing high explosive aircraft shell which was
highly unstable and incendiary !  It was corroding in the middle and was definitely dodgy!

All joking aside though if you do find live ordnance do not take it home but leave it where you find it, keep people away from the area and inform the police. 

The bomb disposal lads said that the longer they are left, the more unstable they become. The chaps from the army said that although the fuse was gone, it was likely that the casing is packed with TNT and that the nitro-glycerin in the TNT becomes very unstable over years and could explode on any impact!

They also mentioned that if we find clear glass bottles with tin caps filled with milky liquid, leave them alone and alert the police. The bottles, used by the army during WW2 are full of phosphorus which ignites on contact with air. You should also be aware that possession of any live ammunition requires a firearms certificate and possession without such a certificate is an offence and carries a maximum 15 year prison sentence!!

Please be careful out there !!!

27th August

We had glorious weather for our bank holiday dig today which brought lots of members out.  I heard that a few members weren't to happy with the location but those that were very happy with today's dig managed to find an Elisabeth threepence piece,  a William 4th sixpence,  a William 3rd florin,  a white enameled cross,  a medieval gilded bronze ring,  a beehive thimble and an open thimble.  It was good to see Allan Waller again and nice to see the Queen Mary 1/2 groat he found today.  It was also good to see Julian actually find something this week even if it was only an Edward 1st penny, I was thrilled to see Doris find a Henry 3rd cut half, it just shows you don't have to spend lots of money on a detector these things can be found with any old detector.  

After lunch time Peter opened up another 100 acres for us and most dashed off to the new fields, I didn't hear who found what on these fields but I did notice that Gary left early with a bulging finds pouch.

Around lunch time Dave Raymont set up a wonderful display for us and spent all afternoon explaining his finds and identifying yours, you can see Dave's full list of finds on his web site at http://www.foundintheground.com/. Thanks Dave.

Later in the day Dave Phillips arrived and setup another wonderful display of  finds.  Well done lads and thank you very much.

Many thanks to Peter Sarah and Dave for making my youngest lads day he is still  holding on to those coins very tightly !!.  

26th August 

Today's Buckinghamshire dig was reasonably well attended  and most people seemed to do well. We had been told that this weekend was to be one of the hottest bank holiday weekends ever,  because Peter and myself wore shorts and T shirts the weather was obviously lousy !! the promised sun didn't show and we had light rain by 4pm, having said that it wasn't cold and we certainly were not suffering from heat exhaustion.

Today's finds were many and various, the top part of the field was giving us medieval and the bottom Roman, cant be bad!

I saw many hammered silver coins dug today and  lots of interesting odds and ends including a commemorative coin of the Duke of Wellington, there was a lovely Saxon brooch,  a Roman P style brooch and a Disk brooch found. I heard lots of talk about a Celtic gold being found but I didn't see it, I did see a Celtic bronze which was found by Fred.  One of our members was lucky enough to find a lovely Roman heavy ring and a coin of Hadrian as well.  I saw 2 lovely medieval buttons dug along with yet another hammered silver. I saw one of our members find a hammered silver and within seconds and only a couple of feet away he found a fine example of a small Roman ring brooch. I also saw a very fine Celtic Potin and a very nice hawking whistle. I saw a lovely Charles the 2nd silver cufflink which was found by Andrew Coe. Although I didn't see it myself I heard of a very nice square trade token being found which ws inscribed Princess Risborough.

My day wasn't so good, I had to put up with 2 gold rings and 2 hammered silver and not 1 button all day, I must have the XLT checked out. 

I left at 4pm in the rain and there was still lots of people out in the field digging which is always a good sign.  I cant wait for tomorrow's dig.

24th February

Today's dig was cancelled due to the Foot and Mouth Disease epidemic in the UK.  For full and further details on this disease check out our calendar page.  There will be no digs until we have been given the go ahead from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

15th February

We had to put up with thick fog today until about 11am. When the fog cleared the sun shone through and continued to shine all day, it really did turn out to be a lovely day today.  Peter did have a few problems today with our land owner,  the land we were going to detect on today had suddenly become unavailable so Peter used a 60 acre pasture field across the road.  There was a distinct lack of finds on this field so after Peter had found and asked the landowners permission we retreated to the fields we used on last weeks mid-week dig.  I didn't hear of many finds today, I'm not sure if that was because there weren't many or because I was away detecting my self and I didn't get the chance to talk to many people. I found a cut 1/4 hammered coin and a very large lead bag seal and not much else worth mentioning.  I saw a couple of hammered silver coins come off the first field and some Roman grots from near the field gate.  Most members disappeared off into the back field today and spent most of the day there for some reason ??. Someone found what was thought to be a pipe tamper from the pasture field early on in the day and Simon Neal found a "Thing" in the stubble field, Simon's find is pictured on our "Other interesting finds" page if anyone has any ideas as to its identity Simon would be pleased to hear from you via the club e-mail address.  If you made any interesting finds today please drop me a quick e-mail and I will tell of your finds here.  

10th February

The day started quite slowly and the rain turned up by about 11am but a few nice things turned up to reward those that persevered in the rain. The first was a bronze arrow head, more than likely Roman.  A lovely Roman bronze coin was found near our cars. Several Roman bronzes turned up at the at end of the field and some of them were in very nice condition indeed. There was a silver coin found that may be a Denarius but I think was too thick and small so it is probably a Celtic unit.
A 13th century vesica shape bronze seal in excellent condition plus a jetton and a 17century buckle were all found by one member.
A really lovely tinned Hod Hill 1st century Roman brooch and another brooch I think probably less than 300 years old were also found.
One member having a great day found a bronze buckle decorated with
white enamel with the pin intact which may be Saxon or even Roman, he also had an Elizabeth 1st shilling with a great portrait, a Roman steel yard weight with iron suspension loop, again intact and a bronze Roman coin. 
A William the conqueror silver penny was found and a Roman pin bent at a 90 degree angle on purpose with a swirl design on it and a large Roman coin in nice condition also came up today.  A Charles coin weight,  a medieval brooch and a medieval spectacle brooch with turrets also showed up today.  Sarah found her third bronze Roman child's ring ! and Peter found a bronze 16th century sword belt mount. A cut short cross half and a short cross silver penny without sceptre was found today as well, because of the lack of sceptre I 'm not quite sure of the King though.  Most people had left by about 1pm as the rain came down hard and washed them away!! but about 20 hardy and wet souls braved the weather until mid-afternoon. It just shows you what perseverance can turn up.

Thanks to Tim Chandler for his e-mail about this dig, Tim reports :- 

Alan's first find was a bronze spear tip ,very nice. Throughout the day we found found 2 thimbles, Lizy sixpence, part of a Roman brooch, a nice Roman coin good detail ,Tudor clothes fastener,  George 2nd halfpenny,  lead weight, part of a bronze mount, buttons and thingy's.  A good site, Phil  had a very nice buckle Saxon (we though).

2nd November

Unfortunately I couldn't get to the dig today at Ivinghoe but I have just
spoken to Peter and those that did brave the weather had a wonderful day,
well after 11 am when the rain stopped they did.

The farmer gave us an extra 2 new fields to detect on today and some
wonderful finds were made.

Those that showed Peter their finds had found 2 Henry 8th hammered silver, 2 cartwheel penny's,  A medieval Brooch with pin attached which was in very good condition ,  and a bronze brooch with a bar and knot design.  A very nice Saxon buckle was found as was a Saxon strap-end.

Not a bad day out for the few that made the trip I'm sure you will agree.

29th October

First of all I must apologise for the late change in the parking arrangements today but it was just to muddy and the verges had just been trimmed so parking on the verge wasn't an option today, things were a bit tight until just after 9 am when the farmer relented and let us park in the farm yard with quite a few spaces under cover, which was handy for the after detecting tea club !!. 

Not a bad turnout today despite the bad weather forecast, apart from some rain early in the day before we started today's dig the weather was lovely  until around 3.30pm when the wind picked up and the promised rain arrived.

We had quite a few fields available to us today including the DMV field, it seemed though that most of the nice finds came from the top field, the DMV field was hard going and the finds surprisingly few and far between. detecting in the top field was a delight, the stubble was short and soft and the soil was sandy and soft.

The first decent find that was brought to my attention was a Celtic silver unit in extremely good condition. Other finds I saw today were a particularly nice and extremely rare James 2nd coin, a very nice English Jetton,  there were several hammered silver coins found and some Roman silver and bronze made a few people very happy, I heard of a Roman brooch being dug today and I saw lots of Victorian and George 3rd coins throughout the day, I heard of a medieval seal being found and I saw a few crotal bells found today, club member Phil had a particularly good day finding a beautiful Saxon pin, to accompany his  Roman bronze and English jetton, he also found an interesting silver item which was identified later by Julian as a silver thingy !!, this was later identified as the top of a heavy silver ring. I saw a couple of lovely thimbles today and one in particular found by Julian was a fine example of an early beehive type.  My Whites (XLT) button hunter, as usual, did me proud  today but it did let me down with a silver watch chain.  As always I only got to see a few of you with finds so if you found anything else of interest please drop me an e-mail with details for this report.

22nd October

The weather forecast for today was wonderful, just by way of a change the weather we got was far from wonderful, we had rain on and off for most of the day but it was only light and didn't seem to stop anyone detecting.

We had two 30 acre fields available to us today one of corn stubble and the other pasture land,  it was hard to say which was the most productive of the fields but the pasture was much easier going and did have the most detectorists working it.  As to finds, I surpassed my self today, the XLT button hunter program I use really turned  up the goods today plenty of buttons found their way into my finds pouch and I was lucky enough to find a very special black onyx carved button, I was later distraught to see that George had also found one exactly the same !!. Because we were so spread out today I didn't get to see many of you so therefore I didn't hear of all your finds today, feel free to e-mail me with details of your finds from today and I will update this report later.  The finds I did hear of was a nice Gold sovereign which was unfortunately slightly damaged, I saw several bronze 3d coins and lots of George 3rd coinage, there was a nice brooch from the stubble field, a lovely silver threepence, a few silver shortcross hammered coins, a Queen Victoria farthing, and a few Roman grots also showed today, as did a few crotal bells,  One of our members was thrilled to find a nice Roman  minim until he got home and washed it to find four centre holes appeared !! maybe it was a Roman button !!.  I found quite a nice medieval mount in the stubble field, along with some lead sack seals and a small clock wider key. I'm afraid that was all I got to see today so do let me know if you found anything worthy of mention here.  

19th October

Another lovely sunny day for us today made detecting a joy, I didn't get to the dig till nearly 3pm so I didn't hear of all the finds from today but as soon as I do I will add them to this report.  I had a very poor day for my button collection only finding 1 today, that was backed up by a nice buckle, a lead token, a few George 3rd coins and a bronze ring.  Whilst I was there I did hear from Tim that 5 hammered silver were found and Tim found a coin of Napoleon all after 3 pm !!.  When I hear of more I will update this report. Peter does apologise for the late newsletter this week but he had a computer problem which stopped him getting the newsletters out in time for this Thursday dig so only the members on the e-mailing list received details of this dig.

I have just received the following from Ray a WWDC member :- 

"I just thought I would drop you a line and tell you about the success I had
yesterday at the Ivinghoe dig. This was my 3rd week there and up to yesterday had found 13 coins.

Yesterday started quiet but at 12:30pm when I had decided to check the same piece of ground by going over it from a different direction I picked up a low ring pull type signal on my Bounty Hunter detector, after scrabbling in the dirt and almost giving up with it, there it was my first hammered coin for 22years ! ( I found my last  and only one in 1978 with my cscope BFO 10). I
must say that I have only returned to the hobby since January this year.
It is an Elizabeth 1 half penny ( I think ) it is tiny (13mm) and severely
clipped but to me it is wonderful!.

To top it all, going over the same ground again after lunch I pulled out a
Charles II  sixpence 1679, unfortunately holed and slightly bent but a lovely
find. I reckon that's the 3rd or 4th hammered from that same small piece of
ground.

Amazingly, 20 mins later I picked up another small coin type signal and there lodged in a small clump of earth was a...... pre decimal 1/2 p just to bring me down to earth.

I couldn't see Peter in the field so unfortunately left at 15.30 without
showing him the coins but went home singing!!!"

I do like e-mails like that one, thanks Ray and well done.

15th October.

Not a bad turnout to this dig which was at a very promising location.  I hear most of you were very tired as the fields were really spread out round the village. I think just about everyone made a nice find today and the finds I heard about included, 3 silver thimbles, a Roman steelyard weight, a Saxon strap-end, at least 20 hammered silver coins, a papal bullah, plenty of musket balls, a gold ring, 2 short-cross penny's, some commonwealth hammered coins and 1 Tealby penny.  As usual these are only the finds we were shown on the day and I'm sure there was more.

14th October.

I wasn't able to attend this dig but I have been told that a couple of Roman brooches were found, as was a Roman ring, there were a couple of short cross penny's found, there were 2 medieval strap ends found, and a lovely religious medal with a picture of Noah on it,  some Tudor buckles, a nice hammered silver of Edward 1st, a 14th century brooch. The best coin find of the day has to be a lovely Phillip and Mary shilling from the 1500's and the best artifact find of the day was a Celtic head about 1" x 1/2". All in all not a bad days detecting.

12th October.

I wasn't able to get to this dig till after lunch time and when I turned into the field there was only 2 people in there detecting, apparently all the others had moved back to the fields we detected on last week, the weather was lovely and I stayed in the new field till 6pm so I'm afraid I didn't get to see or hear of any of the finds from the other fields.  I can tell you that I saw one lucky guy find 2 wonderful hammered coins. I was lucky enough to increase my button collection by 6 buttons, I also found a nice thimble, a silver pocket watch backing plate with the hallmarks dating it from 1858 , a clock winder with ornate hanger, a very nice small spectacle buckle, and a cut half penny. Other finds from the day included 2 12th century Tealby penny's,  a Tudor clothes fastener, a couple of crotal bells, some Jetton's and 2 more Medieval buckles.  As usual these are only the finds we were shown on the day and I'm sure there was more.

8th October.

Another good turnout to this popular location although it didn't feel like it because we had so much land to search today which was well spread out around the farm. The weather forecast for today was a fine morning and rain in the afternoon, as per usual they were completely wrong, in fact the weather was lovely all day, you don't often see people detecting in T shirts in October but there were a few today.  As to today's finds I'm afraid I didn't get so see as many people as I would have liked so if I have missed your finds from the list below I apologise. There were lots of Roman coins of various denominations found today most of which were in very good condition, a lovely Celtic unit was found by young Jamie, there were lots of hammered silver found including an Elizabeth 1st sixpence, a short cross cut half in EF condition, a lovely Elizabeth 1st silver farthing, some voided cross penny's and a cut 1/2 voided cross penny, gold half guinea of George 1st (S 3635) of 1719, a Saxon penny or two, a lovely fish shaped Roman brooch, some lovely pewter crotal bells and a lovely silver crown brooch. I am sure there was allot more found that I didn't get to see today. Don't forget you can always e-mail me details of your finds to be added to this report.

5th October

I do like these mid week digs, it was nice to see around 20 or so members at this dig, the digging was quite easy today and the stubble nice and short. It was sunny for most of the day but we did have a couple of heavy rain showers during the day which saw everyone running for cover in their cars, thankfully they didn't last to long. It was good to see so much Roman pottery and Oyster shells on the surface of one of the fields but I don't think there were any Roman finds today. There were some nice finds made however, one of our members had 2 hammered silver from within feet of each other very close to the car park, even our Peter found a cut 1/2 shortcross penny today !!.  I, as usual, managed to increase my button collection substantially today, I saw a very nice jetton, a James 1st penny, an Edward 1st penny, about half a dozen crotal bells, a few silver thimbles, some assorted buckles, lots of Georgian and Victorian coins, and some very large lead sack seals, my favorite find from today has to be a lovely prick spur which was found in remarkably good condition.    

1st October

Unfortunately I couldn't get to today's dig till after lunch time. Wasn't it a lovely day, when I did finally arrive I wasn't surprised to see a very good turnout as this dig looked like it was going to be a good one  being surrounded by so much Roman history. We did have over 160 acres of land to search on and that's allot of land for a Sunday club dig.  Some told me it was a disappointing dig and others thought it was a wonderful dig !!!  It all depends on if your finding or not I suppose. I didn't get to much detecting done my self due to taking photos of finds, chatting and chasing a strange man around who was wearing a straw hat !!.  All I found worth a mention was a belt mount of sorts and of course I managed to increase my button collection somewhat.  I did hear of some very nice finds being made though, once Phil came down from the clouds he showed me his very first hammered silver finds, and lovely ones they were, being a William 2nd and a John both found today within feet of eachother, congratulations Phil and very well done.  I also saw a few very nice crotal bells which were all in excellent condition, a Roman fibula with pin, 3 Jetton's, a Queen  Elisabeth Groat circa 1578,  2 lovely silver thimbles, a couple of Roman AE3's of the emperor Constantine, a George 3rd Shilling, a William 4th shilling, and 2 from James 1st. I saw quite a few Roman bronze coins sadly to far gone for a proper ID but still nice to find and lots of Victorian and George 4th penny's.  All in all not a bad days detecting, as to hole filling in "could do better".

24th September

When I woke this morning ( late as usual ), I looked out and the weather was beautiful, I checked the forecast and they said it would be warm and sunny till late after noon !!!!!!!! Great.

On the way to the dig it started to rain and when I arrived it was torrential,
some brave souls were detecting never the less, not me though I decided to
wait till it stopped and wait and wait and wait I did.   It is such a shame our day was spoilt by the weather as we had a very good turnout to this dig today and it looked a very promising site. We did have a couple of short breaks from the rain when there were detectorists doing a bit but most were hovering near the cars, such a shame as the detecting area available to us today was huge and there is allot of history in this area.

I heard whispers today that another club had already detected today's fields but this is not the case, they have however detected on the other side of the road to were we were today.

I had enough by Lunch time so called it a day,  I'm not sure what was found
throughout the day except I did see a lovely heraldic pendant and a nice hammered silver long cross penny of Edward 1st, strangely enough this was found by the club's other button specialist. I also heard of a very nice 16th century lead token being found. Most people were sheltering in their cars but when I left there were still lots of detectorists waiting around for the rain to stop so there must have been something worth waiting for.

I didn't find a thing but that's not surprising as my XLT only came out of
the car boot twice in lulls between the storms but it never did get swung,

If you did find anything worth a mention here please let me or Peter know as we have had requests to re visit this site in the future in better weather.

23rd September

Another dig I wasn't able to get to, doesn't work interfere in your life !!!  This Saturday dig was in Hampshire which is always a popular location and quite well attended.  The weather was kind to us today providing some lovely sunshine for us. The finds I have heard about so far are quite exceptional and include:-a gold quarter Stater,  a full gold Stater,  a gold 1/2 Guinea,  a Saxon Sceat,  a heavy gold Roman ring,  a medieval gold ring,  an Elisabeth 1st Groat,  a lovely roman bronze of Constantine,  several Roman AE3's and AE2's and lots of Roman grots, I'm told there was also an English Jetton found which was in beautiful condition .  Well done to all the finders.  If there were any more finds I didn't hear about please drop me an e-mail and I will include the details here. 

22nd September

This our first Friday dig was attended by about 30 Weekend Wanderers members, unfortunately I wasn't able to attend this dig which is a shame as I do like detecting in this area. I am told that most, if not all present found hammered silver coins today and as well as the normal finds a lovely enameled Roman Brooch was found, as was a short armed and ribbed Roman fibula. Well done.

10th September

Not a bad turnout to this our second visit to this farm, thanks again must go to Wanderer's member Dave Phillips for getting the club permission for this dig on one of his farms,  Dave also brought a very nice display of his finds to the dig and spent a great deal of time showing them and talking about the them. Dave has a selection of display cases for sale should anyone want one, they are the same as the ones Dave's finds were displayed in, if interested e-mail me for details.

The weather on the day was beautiful and I saw quite a few detectorists wilting in the heat, the extra land we had on this visit had just been cut and the stubble was hard going in some places but those that stuck at it were well rewarded.

The finds I saw on the day included,  8 hammered silver coins, several Roman coins, (some nice and some grots), I saw a particularly nice silver Denarius, a Silver thimble, a few crotal bells, a Livery button, a spectacle buckle, 3 Rose farthings, one Scottish hammered penny, a queen Elisabeth sixpence dated 1562, and 3 Heraldic pendants. It was also nice to see our American day visitor find a couple of roman coins.

This field is about to be ploughed and rolled so we may be making a return visit in the future.

Doing The Right Thing

I wish that the following report wasn't true but unfortunately it is !!

On Sunday 13th of August on a Weekend Wanderers dig two of our club members namely Martin and Adam Parker made a spectacular find.  Martin, detecting with his new Minelab Explorer started getting a very strong signal but wasn't sure whether to dig it or not, he was soon joined by his son Adam with his XLT and between them they decided to dig.

Lead Roman Oil Lamp Base