England 2012 Photos

Here is a link to our PhotoBucket pages with photos of this year's trip.  Enjoy!

http://s1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj637/luckydogsupply/

April 15th The Epilogue

Just because we left Heathrow for Portland didn't mean the adventure was over.  We arrived in our driveway at 11:30pm Sat only to find that Clarence's keys (house, truck, garage) were missing.  We dumped out both backpacks on the front porch and were searching through everything with flashlights but no luck. They must have fallen out somewhere between home and Colchester, UK during the last couple of weeks. What to do? All the neighbor's lights were out. We went to a 24hr cafe to get something to eat. I called my sister who lives 60 miles away but has a key to our house. Her phone was off or she was out of range. I left her a message. We went back home and dozed in the car in the driveway. I left another message for my sister. At 7am Sunday we drove to my sister's house to try and get a spare key.  She wasn't home.  I left her another message. Drove back to Oregon City and called a locksmith.  $229 later, we finally got into our house at 9:30am on Sunday. My sister finally called back.  She was out of town, and out of cell range, visiting friends and our extra key was on her keyring. We have now been up for 39 hrs and are a little rummy in the head. This last little episode was just an exclamation mark ending for our latest fantastic detecting trip. Thanks to all who came along through this blog. It was a blast!

April 13, 2012

Our final day of detecting.  The rain held off till late this afternoon.  We went back to a farm we had been to a couple of days already these past couple of weeks. The soil is the sticky clay that sticks to your shovels, detector coils and boots.  However, each time someone has found something really good there.  By the first hour this morning, Clarence had found one teeny tiny milled silver and I had found two milled silvers.  I also found two interesting lead tokens, buttons and some modern trash.  I did better today than I had the last three or four days.  The odd thing is, all seven of us had hit this same field before and there were still good finds to be made.  It all depends on turning left or right at any given time. We came in at 2pm to clean out the van, wash mud off detectors and boots and get stuff packed up. With all the borrowing back and forth, it's time to figure out who belongs to what. Our tour operator will come by at 8pm tonight to pick up all our finds, photgraph them, submit to the museum for identification and export approval . Export licenses will take about five months so we pick up our finds on our next trip.  It was a great trip, really fun group, lots of laughter, joking, teasing, Bailey's and Advil. We will be back March 2013.
Pedometer stats (half day): 12,296 steps = 5.43 miles

April 12, 2012

The two of us came in after lunch today to catch up on some rest. Not much interesting in the finds dept after that crazy day yesterday.  I found a pretty little watch winder, one of my favorite things we find here, plus a few buttons, chunks of lead and a couple of interesting doodads.  Tonight, the hard core guys will be picked up at 8pm and we will all go to one of the local pubs for dinner.  Mindy usually cooks fabulous dinners for us but she gets a night off tonight. We are staying at a place called Rye Farm.  It is an actual farm with a flock of sheep and lambs right outside our door. This particular building was once a storage area for farm equipment. The owners converted it to a vacation rental for the Londoners who want to get out of the city. Clarence and I are staying in the one bedroom handicapped accessable unit. We're beginning to understand why they gave the old folks this unit. We have floor to ceiling windows facing the fish pond with lots of semi-wild coots and ducks and three guinnea hen who like to come up and peck on the window in the morning. Mindy and Sarah are sharing the other one bedroom unit with two twin beds next to us.  Upstairs, the three guys are sharing a two bedroom unit with the largest lounge area.  We had popcorn and movie night up there last week.   All units have a full kitchen, leather couch and TV. We combined the small table and chairs from each unit and set them up in Mindy and Sarah's unit.  That is where Mindy fixes us hot breakfasts and dinners each day and we all gather. Right next door is a neat old barn that the owners have set up for us to clean our metal detecting finds and set them all out to look at and ID the unknown pieces we dig up. The barn is the first stop when Mindy drives the van in so we can leave all our wet and muddy rain gear and boots out there.  There is an additional refrigerator and freezer out there for us, also. After breakfast, everyone makes their own sandwiches for lunch and we pack them in the cooler for lunch in the field. Such is life on a metal detecting tour in England.
Pedometer stats (half day): 10,214 steps = 4.51 miles

April 11, 2012

Today was a Triple Gold Day!!! Unfortunately, none of them happened to be found by either of us. Mindy found a Celtic quarter stater this morning.  That woman can cover more area on a field that anyone I have seen.  Just before Clarence, Mindy, Sarah and I were piling  the van for an early ride home at 6pm, Jim was yelling "Gold, Gold". He had just found his very first gold coin and what a nice one it is.  Before the 8pm final pick up for the three hard core guys, Jim was again calling "Gold, Gold".  Mike and Ron just looked at him in disbelief.  What?  Again? Seriously? In the same area of his gold coin, he found a gold puzzle ring.  These are three gold bands interlocked that are worn stacked together.  They are modern but gold is gold.  Jim worked hard for both pieces of gold.  He stayed in that one spot all day and didn't even come in for lunch.  It sure paid off for him.  We were all there after lunch, bottomfeeding where Mindy had found her gold this morning. Jim was the only lucky one to find gold at the end of his coil...twice!

Today was also prank day.  Clarence  had found a spun wire bracelet last Fall that looked very much like a Celtic arm torc*. We painted it gold and brought it with us.  Today at lunch, Sarah (a self proclaimed good liar) pulled it out and told Mike and Ron she had found it in another field this morning.  Mike was a little skeptical but Ron fell for it...at least until he picked it up.  It just didn't have the weight of a gold torc.  We all had a good laugh and I have the moment on video in my camera.  We all had a great day with lots of laughter.
Pedometer stats: 20,070steps = 8.86 miles
*see Glossary below

April 9, 2012

You see some strange things in the English countryside some mornings.  We were on our way this morning when we came a corner on the narrow two lane country road to find a car stopped in the lane ahead of us.  Running down the road toward us was a lady, obviously on her way to work.  She stopped and picked up a shoe, then ran toward us a bit and picked up another shoe. She waved at us and ran back to her car saying she had driven off with her shoes and specs on top of the car. People just stop in the road for whatever reason and no one seems to mind. Detecting today was a challenge. We are limited on the number of fields available as crops are going in and many fields have started tilling in this burned recycled waste from London. You can't go ten feet without digging handfuls of bits of cans and foil. Wait until someone cuts into their baked potato and finds a bit of aluminum foil inside.  Clarence and I basically didn't find much of interest today. I think I found enough modern English coins to make a stop at McDonalds.  Mike found the nicest fibular brooch I have ever seen.  Ron and Jim found some milled and hammered silvers today.  Sarah found a milled silver.  Clarence and I and two others came in at 6pm tonight, cleaned our finds and had hot showers. The three hard core guys stayed out until 8pm tonight.  We just had a knock on the door to say supper is ready so I will wrap this up. Tomorrow will be "the day" we hope!
Pedometer reading: 15,454 steps = 6.82 miles.  No wonder my feet hurt! 

Monday, April 9, 2012

It's Spring in England.  Cold, rain, wind, mud...just like Oregon.  Clarence and I had just hiked over to the same field where he found a silver thimble a couple of years ago when my detector decided it didn't like the cold and wet and just quit working.  We got to walk all the way back to the van and get the backup detector. The day went downhill after that.  The backup detector eventually did the same thing. This time Mindy had taken the van back to the house to start the beef stew we were having for dinner tonight. I walked across the road to one of the barns to get out of the rain and wind and wait for the van to return in a couple of hours.  Had a nice chat with the head worker for the farm and he even knew where Oregon was.  The land owner and his workers have always been very nice to all of us but I'm sure they are glad when we are gone so they don't have to keep an eye out for us when they are working in the fields. Clarence and I both called it a day after lunch and came home to nap and do some laundry.  It was a nice break and the nap was wonderful.  Obviously, there were no great finds made today by us.  One of the other guys got a hammie but it was slim pickings today. 
Pedometer stats:7582 steps = 3.35miles  It was only a half day today.

April 8, 2012

Happy Easter!  We started our morning with French Toast then loaded up and headed out to the fields.  Not much traffic this morning at 7:30. We did a drive to check out a number of our fields to see what the conditions were.  It is about two weeks later in the Spring than we usually come here.  Many of the fields are already being planted with potatoes and onions which means they are now off limits to us.  We can still detect fields planted with wheat and other grain crops. Most of them are just 6-10" high and we can still push our coils through with a little extra effort.  No hammies today and only a couple of milled silver coins.  We hunted until 8pm today and only got rained on a couple of times.  Most of the day it was like a misty fog, cold and damp.  We just finished a late Easter dinner of locally fresh made pizza.  Now we are thinking about hot showers and bedtime.  The long days are beginning to take its toll on all of us, but we come here for the detecting and we want to get as many hours in as we can. 

No pedometer reading today.  Somehow it got set on "pause" and didn't register any of the 23 miles I"m sure I walked today.  I will try again tomorrow. Thanks for checking in with us.

April 7, 2012

GOLD!!!  Clarence found gold today! We're waiting for the ID to be confirmed but we believe it to be a Celtic Cunnobelin Quarter Stater*.  He and I were the only ones in this particular field this afternoon.  Suddenly, I heard his voice over our two way radios say "I've got gold!".  I didn't even answer him, just picked up my detector and shovel and hightailed it over to where he was.  The amazing part is, this was the third field we had been into this afternoon and all were really quiet.  You get to a point where you just pray for a signal, good or bad, just to be sure your detector is working.  We all stayed out until 8pm to search for another one.  No such luck. We all remarked that as tired as we were, when news of a gold find came everyone suddenly had lots of energy and hustled to get up to that field and search for another one. I forgot the pedometer this morning so let's just say I walked 43,217 steps or  17 miles.  At least it felt like that much.

*Celtic Cunnobelin(tribe) quarter stater (denomination) coin

April 6, 2012

There is a sad trend happening here with the farms. At least one person farming the fields we do here has started using processed household trash to dump on their fields.They till it into the soil and keeps the heavy clay soil workable.  Some of our best fields now have bits of tin foil, burned bit of aluminum and pieces of plastic yogurt containers. It's really frustrating when you have to dig a dozen pull tabs or bits of aluminum for every old target that we are looking for.  This is what we were contending with today. Though the landowner has given us permission to detect these fields, he leases some of the land to someone else to farm.  This is the farmer who has chosen to ruin these fields with the "trash" fertilizer.  The same farmer decided today that he had to spray the two fields that we were detecting in this morning, effectively forcing us to leave. The landowner says he cannot control the guys farming practices.  Fortunately, we have many more fields to choose from each day.  Clarence found his first hammie of the week today.  You still cannot tell which one it is but we suspect a Lizzie*. Sarah got a beautiful Lizzie hammie that looks like it was lost right after being struck.  Ron also found another Lizzie hammie.   I found a hammered copper coin called a rose farthng.  It is a tiny little guy.  Mike found another hammie bringing his total to seven.

Pedometer reading: 15,756 steps equal to 6.96 miles
*see Glossary below

April 5, 2012

Brrrrr...it was cold and windy this morning.  Today was the designated Lucky Dog shirt day and I planned to take our group photo this morning at our first stop or during lunch.  It was so cold, no one wanted to take off the many layers to get down to their official Lucky Dog shirts.  We took it inside after a salmon dinner tonight, instead.  Now I need to remember how to post photos here. Even in the cold, we all had a good day today.  I found a silver Victorian pencil end and finally found my first hammie* for this trip.  Clarence found two lead tokens and some greenies. Mike found four hammies...the Lucky Dog! The mystery item I found yesterday turned out to be a Saxon belt slide, as we suspected.  Clarence and I had an early day and came home at 6:30.  The other three guys stayed out until 8pm tonight. We've begun to realize we can have a good time, find good stuff and not have to kill ourselves by staying out for 12 hours every day. 

Today's pedometer stats:  16,908 steps equalling 7.47 miles.  No wonder I'm tired.  Meet you back here tomorrrow evening. 

April 4, 2012

It rained last night leaving the bare fields a muddy mess this morning but resulted in better signals for our metal detectors. When not scraping  a few extra pounds of clay muddy goo off our boots and bottoms of the detector coils, we were coming up with some pretty good finds.  I may have found a stonker* but will wait for the expert ID probably tomorrow.  I believe it is a Saxon belt or harness slide with a decoration that just screams Saxon to me.  It came from a field that I have wanted to detect for two years but the field conditions just weren't right before.  Clarence found another large Roman coin, an interesting lead token and a Templar's badge. Ron found a Roman fibula brooch,which is
 a prized fnd and also a long cross hammie*. After dinner tonight, we had a popcorn and movie night.  ChicagoRon had left his personal copy of his National Geographic Channel program "Lucky Muckers" because some of our group hadn't seen it yet. 
Pedometer readings: yesterday 19,417 steps or 8.58 miles.  Today I must have slacked off some as the reading showed only 13,731 steps and 6.06 miles.  See you here tomorrow!
*see Glossary of Terms below

April 3, 2012

We got home tonight just before 10pm after 12 hrs of detecting and dinner at a nearby pub. We're both beat and decided to not go through our finds and clean things up until tomorrow. Instead, we just want a hot shower and bed.  Why is it so tiring to have fun?  Go figure....

It was finally our day to break the silver jinx.  I found a milled silver but won't know exactly what it is until we get it cleaned up.  I suspect a George V but we'll have to wait and see. I also found a beautiful lead bale seal (like sealing wax for a letter, this is for bolts of cloth), and a small bronze Roman coin.  Clarence also found a George V milled silver six pence, a large bronze Roman coin and some buttons and greenies. Our friend Mike got top hunter award today for TWO hammies. 

We got sprinkled on a little today but it was raining hard when we left the pub and headed for home.  It was a better day for all of us today.  We can't wait to see what happens tomorrow!

April 2, 2012

We left a little earlier this morning and hit two different areas.  There hasn't been any rain for a while and the ground is getting pretty dry which makes signals harder to pick up. That sounds like a perfectly good excuse why we haven't found any gold yet, doesn't it?  It seemed to be my day for trash metal of all kinds, a few buttons and a pretty good sunburned/windburned face. Clarence found a nice big bronze Roman coin, some greenies*, complete crotal bell* and more buttons. Ron continues to  find the good stuff with a silver thimble, huge coin weight, silver buckle, and a button for the 88th Regiment. Mike found a huge silver button. The rest of us just enjoyed a day in the sun the English countryside.  I used a pedometer today and took 17,235 steps which would have been 7.6 miles had they been a normal stride.  Hey, a step is a step and we're getting plenty of exercise out there.  I actually called it a day early at 6pm and came home to a hot shower. Clarence and the rest of the guys came in at 8pm. Tomorrow we are going back to our "old land" for an extended day and some night hunting with headlamps with dinner at a local pub.The good stuff just hasn't found itself under our coils yet, but we are optimistic. See you here tomorrow!
* see Glossary of Terms below.

April 1, 2012

No April Fool's joke for our birthday boy, Canada Ron.  He found two hammies* today and they were just about the only good stuff found from all of us. Oh yes, CA Sarah found a beautiful silver decorated thimble today.  I found a thimble, too, but it was just plain.

 It was brisk this morning when we drove out at 7:30.  By early afternoon the sun was out and a few us got a little sunburned.  I may have set a new personal best by staying out with the guys and detecting 12 hrs today. Just had time for a hot shower and a beer before dinner and I'm sure that helped the old muscles relax a bit.  Although we had an early start today, we weren't early enough to see the reported Roman soldier ghost that patrols the causeway at Mersea in the wee hours.  I wish he would just tell us where that pot of  Roman gold is.  It sure would make this treasure hunting a lot easier..   The adventure continues...

* See Glossary of Terms below

March 31, 2012

Our group of eight packed a rental van  plus a ca rto overflowing with all our gear and drove to Essex this morning.  We met up with ChicagoRon's group at the car rental place this morning as they were on their way home. They have given us a tough week to follow as they found three gold coins in one day. We are up for the challenge.  Our team consists of our fearless leader,driver and guide Mindy, Mike from Mass.,Sarah from CA, Ron and Jim from Canada,Stuart from OR and Clarence and I.We dropped all the stuff at our holiday home and headed to the fields. A couple of our guys found silver Romans* and the rest of us found assorted stuff.  A few of us left early and did the grocery shopping, then picked the rest of them up and came home for a homemade spaghetti dinner. Tomorrow we are going to one of the new areas, rich in Roman, Saxon and (we hope) Viking. I hope to be a little more coherant by tomorrow night and have more to share with a full day of hunting behind us.  I'm trying to fight off a cold and it left my brain in a fog.  Tomorrow will be The Day. I feel something good coming tomorrow from someone out of group. Check back and find out how we did.
*see Glossary of Terms below...

Timeline of British History (condensed version)

5000BC-100BC:  Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Celts
55BC-410AD:  Roman Britain
410AD-1065AD:  Saxons
1066AD-1484AD:  Medieval Period, Black Plague
1485AD-1602AD:  Tudors
1603AD-1713AD:  Stuarts
1714AD-1836AD:   Georgian
1837AD-1900AD:  Victorian
1901- Present:  Modern

For more information, go to http://www.colchestertreasurehunting.co.uk/ and click on the "history" tab.

Glossary of Terms

Stonker: outstanding find; jaw dropping find of a lifetime
Cracking: "Jolly Good"
Greenie:  copper coins which turn green over time
Gobsmacked: speechless, stunned, knock me over with a feather
Hammie (hammered): hand made silver coins, usually quite thin, can be cut in quarters or halves for change
Milled Silver: 1662-1947 silver coins were machine made
Long Cross: introduced in 1237 with a cross extending to edge of coin, preventing clipping of silver edges
Sceat: small Saxon coin, silver with base metals, usually sound like trash to a detector and often passed up
Slick Willie:  silver six pence from William III, these remained in circulation so long they were worn smooth
Lizzie: Queen Elizabeth I 1558-1603
Vickie:  Queen Victoria 1837-1901
Torc: neck or arm bands, usually twisted gold or silver wire with knob ends
Crotal Bell: think of a large jingle bell, worn by sheep or cattle or attached to a harness, sometimes decorated

March 24, 2012

We are just days away from catching a place to London and meeting up with our group of seven. We will spend two weeks metal detecting the fields of Essex.  At least one of us is bound to find gold this trip and I would love to be the one.  Although Clarence has found a Celtic gold coin from 30 BC, my gold coin find was a fairly modern 1806 one third guinea.  I have had my heart set on finding a hammered gold like an Elizabeth I.  It is a stunningly beautiful coin.  I hope this is my year.

Meanwhile, a few of our non-detecting friends have asked for some help with the terms I often use like "greenie" or "hammie". I have written a glossary of sorts that may help you out.  I also will post a basic timeline of British history that will help when I talk about our finds of the day.  I hope you will enjoy coming along on our latest adventure. We will be with a very fun group so I'm pretty sure it will entertaining.