Day Seven Part Two

Part of visiting any foreign country is meeting the locals. Mindy had a neat experience this afternoon. She sat down at the edge of the upper field to rest a while. She soon heard a man's voice calling to her from the house near the field. " Would you like a cup of tea?" he asked. She responded and he brought out a cup of tea for her. The two sat there and visited while she enjoyed her tea. Mindy told him she would be back in October and was told to just come knock on the back door anytime and he and his wife would be happy to brew up a pot of tea for her. He was quite interested in what we do and how we work with the museums. He already knew the land owner had given us permission to detect on his land and probably gets a kick out of watching us detecting in all kinds of weather. We do our best to be entertaining as well as good ambassadors for this hobby. Chance encounters like this one just make your day.

This was another great trip. We can't wait for the next one in March, 2011 where we are going to detect for two weeks instead of one. Thank you for reading along during our latest adventure.

Mary and Clarence
The Lucky Dogs

Day Seven

We returned to the farm where we had our night hunt but this time we are across the road in a field that was being rolled two days ago. Don and I stayed in the huge front field while the other three crossed the five foot deep ditch into the back field. Right off the bat, Don dug a beautiful GOLD monogramed cuff link. Late in the afternoon, I had been digging plenty of greenies and buttons and junk, when I went to join Don who was resting his back. I left my gear with him and went off to find an appropriate place to answer nature's call. All the trees were on the other side of that darn 5' ditch, but there was a small corn field that would work fine. I worked my way back into the corn for a bit of privacy and suddenly there was a symphony of dogs howling. It got louder as they got closer. Then I heard horns being blown and more loud noises which seemed to be getting closer. It was a fox hunt and they were headed my way! I had visions of being surrounded by a pack of hounds with horses and riders in hot pursuit and here I am, in the middle of a corn patch, not quite ready to receive guests. I pulled myself together and hustled back to where Don was waiting with my detector. We both wondered if we were about to see a fox hunt up close and personal. Twenty minutes later, it was all over. Clarence and Marilynn had seen the pack of about 30 horses and riders from their viewpoint in the upper field. It was a pretty exciting end to our week of detecting in England. The finds weren't too bad, either. Clarence found a 1817 silver George III coin and I found one of the same. Marilynn found a Medieval lead token, Mindy a 1500's ornate crotal bell complete with dinger. We all had the usual greenies, buttons and "old stuff". It was a good day.

Day Six

Saturday morning already? We drove a little farther today to a field notorious for it's monster size and the fact it is right next to the McDonald's parking lot. At least we had restrooms and hot food for lunch today. As we drove in, Don and Marilynn spotted the Car Boot Faire across the road. This is like a big garage sale but everyone opens up the car trunk (boot), sets up their table and sells right there in the field. They even had someone giving haircuts. We started detecting while they went over to check it out. There is no such thing as a retired antique dealer and they proved it. Mindy went to try out a smaller field, with the antique dealers eventually joining her. Clarence and I gave the big field a try. Just as we headed back in for lunch, Clarence got a signal and dug a hammered silver coin. It wasn't just any hammie. This one was a Saxon penny, Aethelred II from 978AD...."rarer than hen's teeth" as our leader says. It's kind of scrunched by the plow but will straighten out nicely. We are waiting on a confirmed ID from Dr. Martin Allen of the Fitzwilliam Museum but it looks like he has found another rare one. Our club has found six Saxon pennies in eight years and Clarence has two of them! What a Lucky Dog! The rest of us found hammered silver, a 15 Century field weight, military buttons, 15C thimble, huge Georgian harness mount, 33rd Regiment button, junk buttons and greenies. It was definitely Clarence's day. He's still smiling......

Day Five

It rained enough at night to make our day quite the mess. All the freshly plowed and rolled land was sticky with wet, clay mud. This is the stuff that sticks to your boots and the bottom of your coil. I had to stop every few minutes to scrape the inch or two of mud off the bottom of my coil or it got too heavy to swing. I didn't want to wear my arm out with more detecting days still ahead. Clarence and Marilynn both found James 1st hammered silver coins, Mindy a 1709 bale seal and we all had greenies, buttons and junk. Marilynn found her first ever thimble and later discovered a hole in her coin purse where she stashed her good finds. She lost a coin and some musket balls somewhere in that muddy field. Clarence, once again, had the find of the day. I thought he had a 1950's era clip on earring with some decorative stones. I could just picture the lady of the house out plowing the fields in her Sunday best when she lost it. Turns out, it is much older, probably 1800's or earlier, and a decorative brooch with a silver back. It has tiny little pearls and some unidentified stones. This will be one for the museum to ID. On the walk back to the van, Mindy and I stopped to visit with four Alpacas standing near the fence. Sorry Mindy. I really didn't think Alpaca's would spit at you like Llamas. At least we had a good laugh about it.

Day Four - Part Two

After dinner, Mindy, Clarence and I decided to go back and do some night hunting. Lots of the "hard core" guys who come here, stay out until 9 or 10 or later and hunt with headlights. We wanted to experience a little of that, too. Don and Marilynn, being the sensible type, stayed home to relax. The three of us stopped to do some grocery shopping and replenish the beer supply, then returned to the same field we were on earlier in the day. It was different hunting at night, very quiet and peaceful. The floodlights on the buildings turned off at 10pm leaving us in pitch black. I quickly learned how disorienting it can be in the total darkness. I would stop to dig a target and then had no sense of which direction I was walking. If the others were looking down, digging a target, I couldn't see their headlights and didn't know where anyone was. I had a sense of what it must be like to be lost in the woods. No wonder they tell you to stop and "hug a tree" until daylight. The bugs, and there were lots of them, flew into the light which was on my forehead. Bugs were everywhere and all flying at my face. Mindy and Clarence found more greenies and buttons. I lucked out, finding a nice 1809 Russian bale seal and a lead Boy Bishop Token. None of us wanted to leave but we had another long day coming in just a few hours.

Day Four

I am now writing from my notes and I am discovering I should have been more complete in my descriptions of our finds. The field we were in was perfect, newly plowed and rolled and ours were the first footprints. It was on a gentle hill with some lovely big trees at the bottom, away from the road and the buildings. This is an important fact, more for for the girls in the group than they guys, if you know what I mean. It was a good day with Mindy finding an early 1790's bale seal and a decorative mount. Clarence found a toy cannon about 2" long, a small chunk of silver and a watch winder. I had a 1690 silver coin, assorted greenies and buttons. Don came in with two parts of a toy gun found about 25' apart. Marilynn said "Well, look at this!" and produced yet another part of the same gun. The plow had managed to spread parts all around the field. Everyone had a good day and we piled back into the van about 6pm and headed home for dinner and a shower.

Technical Difficulties

Sorry about no posts for many days. The internet service at this house is off more than on. There are two internet junkies with two laptops here and we are going a little bonkers. I will try to get caught up, in order of the days, as soon as I can. Today is our last day hunting and we leave in just a few minutes. Don't give up on me. If I have to finish the daily posts when we get home, they will all be there. I think you will enjoy hearing about this trip.

more later................

Day Three

Sorry for the late entry. I had Wednesday's post half written when the internet service dropped again. I will try to recreate what I wrote yesterday....
This was quite a day. My detector completely lost all it's electronics mid-morning. Mindy drove me back to the house after lunch to pick up our backup detector. Some of this groups finds of the day were pretty impressive. Marilynn found a late Saxon (10th Century) mount with red, blue and gold enameling. Don had a 69th Regiment of Foote military button and a palm guide. Clarence had a rose farthing and an 1848 Victoria schilling. Mary found a partial Saxon strap end and my first ever whole crotal bell complete with it's clanger. Mindy came in at the end of the day with the find to beat all. A huge hunk of GOLD! It is ancient gold, looks a bit like a huge gold band or one that was soon to be make into a ring. It is one long strip and wrapped around in a circle.
Last night, just as we were finishing our roast chicken dinner, some of the guys from the other group came over to visit and see our finds. Mostly, they showed up just to see Mindy's gold. It was nice to sit and visit with them for a while. We are on different fields during the day so rarely run into them.

Day Two

It poured rain last night and the wind was howling. This morning we woke to blue skies and big mud puddles. There was just enough rain to make the mud a bit sticky but not too bad. We detected the Abbey site today. I found what appears to be a gold watch winder with lots of little twirly bits and maybe some little colored stones. After cleaning it up tonight, I'm not so sure it is actually gold. I found one silver coin and alittle hammered coin. Clarence found a token, bale seals, musket balls and some early English coins. Mindy found a silver six pence. Don and Marilynn have an assortment of greenies (copper coins)lead bale seals and some neat looking artifacts.

We are using a local GPS to get around to our proper fields. This one has a British accent and we are having trouble understanding the names of the roads to turn on. At dinner last night in the pub, one of the women sitting behind us remarked to her friends that Americans have such strange accents. I'm out of space so stay tuned for more tomorrow.

September Hunt 2010

Well, we made it back to Essex, England for another round of metal detecting. We lost two members of our group already. Jim and Mary C were not up for trip and have decided to follow along from the comfort of their own home. We will try to do them proud this week. Last night, we stayed in a wonderful B&B near the Heathrow airport. It is a beautiful place, built in the 1600's with all the original open timber framing and low doorways.

We picked up the 8 passenger rental van and had it stuffed full with luggage and detectors. We drove up to the Colcester area of Essex, had lunch with the other group of six guys who got here two days earlier. Then we hit our first field and detected until 5pm. We drove to the vacation house where we are staying this time, unloaded the van, washed off a layer of dirt and grime and headed out to the little town of Mannington for dinner. Fish and chips and beer sure tasted good after a day of traveling and detecting. We hit the grocery store to stock our kitchen and discovered it was harder to find our way home in the dark and the rain without the GPS. Next time, we will know better to have it programmed and ready to use. Tomorrow morning, Mindy is cooking us breakfast and then we are all out the door by 8am. Forecast is for heavy rain tomorrow but we are prepared.

We haven't had time to clean up and look at our finds for today. There were some interesting bits and bobs. I might have a hammered copper or silver, Clarence has a possible trade weight. Tomorrow we should have more time to really get things cleaned up and identified. Right now, a hot shower sounds really good. It's nearly 11pm and it has been a long couple of days. Sorry this entry is not too eventful. I will try to do better tomorrow. Good night for now..................