Cleeve Prior club dig September 20012.

Clodhopper first club dig.

38 members turned out for what was to be a surprisingly good dig. I say surprisingly good, because after about 3 hours of digging, little had been found. The grass on the pasture was extremely long and clumped. On five of the seven fields it was impossible to get the coil within 3 inches of the soil. The wet summer and autumn appear to have caused a growth spurt in the pasture lands of England.

Team talk.

Tufted grass.

It’s easy to turn up to a dig with a club and take the attitude of I paid my fee so I will just detect and not help. Well that is ok, but if everyone took the same attitude there would be no club and no organised digs. I do try to help in my own way, for instance I always have a go on the club raffle (which I won today). I always keep one eye on the affairs and well being of the club wherever possible. If members need advice, or help while on digs I’m only too happy to speak to them. What use I am is a different matter, but never the less I am always willing. That being said, the clodhoppers team are a fantastic bunch of people. As with every voluntary organisation these people spend lots of time and inevitably lots of money keeping things running smoothly. I doff my cap to you guys, well done.

Picture courtesy of Clodhoppers and Gregor.

I know there were a few Hammies found by one member of the club (Gregor). It’s no coincidence that he regularly finds more than most. I have watched his method and he is LOW AND SLOW. He keeps his coil flat and takes his time, I’m sure he is working as one with his machine. I found a few interesting bits and bobs, one of which was a cap badge. I now lay out a challenge to you all, to find out what era it came from and what it represents. Leave your ideas in the comments page at the bottom of the blog. As with most finds, the fun starts when we get home and begin researching the things we have found. I also found a toy pistol grip. The trigger is there but being made of steel it has blown up. There is a nice design on the handle, but the barrel is missing.

pistol handle about 2" long.

Cap Badge but which regiment?

I left for home early as I had a load of home work to get done. I do find that Sunday digs leave me feeling guilty of the time I spend on them. I always seem to have things from work which I could be spending the time on. This is not the way it should be, but I am not the only one I suspect that has this problem. Metal detecting is a great release from the stress of everyday life. You head out into the wilderness with your machine and a shovel, you don't have to speak to anyone if you are that way inclined. You see wildlife that most people don't get the opportunity to put their eyes on. And finally you can actually find something that may just change the history of the country (if you are very lucky).

Well it was a very enjoyable day had by all, my thanks go out to the organisers, Especially Aurelia who found the land.

The big dig in Evesham, first ever closed dig for Clodhoppers.

Tomorrow brings the first ever Clodhoppers closed dig. by that i mean only club members allowed.
Looks a promising venue even though the fields are featurless.

7.00am start for me as its a 60 mile run there. Car will be loaded and i aim to detect until abot 4pm, so i can get back in time to rest up before work on Monday.

i will put in a full report with photos tomorrow.

Christmas claim culture!

It is that time of year when anyone in the type of industry in which I am involved, will have to watch out for bogus claims. Punters are looking for some extra income, and the fact that someone is coming to work in the property is a god send. A broken microwave, a window blind has broken or a burnt carpet. All of the above are regular claims that come in from these desperate people.

The most annoying thing is that the claimant starts with the upper hand, as the landlord usually will not get involved. At best the landlord will acknowledge that it looks like a spurious claim, and then leave us to sort it out.

It costs a damn fortune to get solicitors involved, and any solicitor who looks at a claim for a £75.00 microwave will say “just pay them” it’s not worth fighting it.

I am however made of sterner stuff than that. I will not turn the other cheek when confronted with a fraudulent claim. If I think it’s wrong, they can damn well get ready for a rough ride.

There are a very high percentage of honest people, who would never claim even if someone did cause damage.  These people are a joy to work with, and often very much appreciate what we and their landlord do for them. I have no problem settling up if we have clearly caused a problem.

This message ends.............

Gas fitters and electricians required.

I don't know if this is a sign that things are looking up for the hoards of gas fitters out there, but they are in popular demand. I spent almost 2 hours on a conference call today discussing the labour needs of all of our contracts. It appears that we need to recruit sub contract plumbers/gas fitters from across a broad area of the country. Now you would think that the pay offered for their services would be increasing in line with demand. Well it is, but not drastically. 

We also discovered that we were going to be short of electricians. I have a problem with our electrical department (management) as they have a very poor relationship with their engineers. It seems to be almost impossible for the management to talk to the workforce. I personally sympathise with the engineers, they have been shit on for the last couple of years. Their wages are poor to say the least, and this is unfortunately reflected in the effort they put into their tasks.

I then moved on to a meeting with a very important client of ours. A working lunch was on the cards at the local Harvester. I sat in a meeting room with the client and two of my underlings, thrashing out a few fine details with him. The meeting only lasted half hour however it was time spent well.

The meal at the Harvester was ok, but the service was poor. it appears that staff cut backs were implemented recently and the punters were paying the price. Well you live and learn, somewhere else will have my custom next time.

The drive back to the midlands was interesting as several of the lanes i travelled on were flooded. At one point there was at least 9 inches of water in the road. It was a road i knew well. As i passed through a puddle nice and slowly, i noticed a bright orange transit van ploughing through at a good rate of knots. i could see that on his side of the road two 1ft deep pot holes were hidden by the water. They were just at the back of the kerb line. On a normal day one would wait for passing traffic to negotiate the holes before negotiating it one’s self. The van driver was totally unaware of them, and hit them at about 15mph, his van was thrust into the air and down and then back up again! It must have almost shaken the driver’s fillings out. I must admit i had a little chuckle as he should have been going a lot slower.

I arrived back at our office at about 3.30pm, and as per usual the atmosphere was not great. A lot of the problems with the electrical team manifest themselves at this office. Its not the fault of the electrical management team in that office but their superiors who dare not show their faces there. The contractors who have put the wiring into the offices for the I.T and alarms etc were still working. They have only been there for about 12 weeks! And yes we have to use contractors, don’t ask why as it pisses me off big time.

The journey home was uneventful and short. I was greeted by my better half with her beautiful smile, she really is my rock.

Decorating for Brownie points.

I have spent the whole of the weekend confined to quarters. It was decided some time back that we needed to decorate our lounge. She who must be obeyed has been very considerate with my metal detecting forays of late; I therefore thought that with this weekend being a 50/50 job (50% sunshine and 50% rain) i might take the opportunity to gain a few Brownie points. You see the theory is that if one behaves themselves and knocks a few chores off their list they will be allowed to get some well earned detecting done in the future.

My brother had over-boarded our ceiling and a bloody good job he had done to. No skimming, just filled and sanded the joints. We had moved everything from the room prior to him doing the job. the ceilings were painted white (three coats) and the walls were "neutralized" with pale creams. A new wall mounted fire was installed over the opening in my chimney breast. I had to fit two new radiators, and to my utter shame (being a plumber as such) i had a bloody leak on my new pipework.

The hardest part of the job was getting all of the furniture back into the house. Its a good job that she who must be obeyed is a real hard grafter. Our house is not of a minimalistic type, we do have ornaments etc. The  point being is that all of those ornaments had to be brought back into the house, a job she who must be obeyed did. We don't have hundreds of ornaments, just the usual candles, a few bronzes and a whole load of John Beswick horses. I was banished from anywhere within 5 meters of the horses as they were put back in their display cabinet.

the horse cabinet © w parry 2012.

Any way Brownie points were accumulated in the bucket load, so a detecting adventure could well be on the cards for next weekend, hurrah!

Camping out on Clodhoppers inaugural dig 15/912.

 The inaugural Clodhoppers open dig 2012.

After making the decision to Haul my ass off for a weekend dig with clodhoppers, I realised I had many things to do. For a start off I was going to overnight in a tent.....but I don't have a tent!

Anyway mi Julie gave her blessing for me to go, with the expected send off of "don't come back moaning about not getting any sleep".

I picked up a cheap 2 man tent from Argos £14.99 on the Friday, as we were due to camp on the Saturday (I always like to leave plenty of time to cover for problems). Mi Julie then informed me that there was no chance of the air bed fitting in the tent; well I could do without it because I’m hard!

Early morning Saturday and the girls tent is up. © Warren Parry 2012

Friday night and I have the car loaded to the rafters. I put the breakfast meat in the freezer in the hope that it would stay fresh until Sunday morning. All I had to do now was get the meat out in the morning, take my batteries off charge, load all my stuff into the car and I would be away.

7am on Saturday and I have remembered everything, so off I go ......wait a minute! Why won't the doors open on the car? Nor the boot for that matter!! Oh crap, why me? I run back into the house creeping around like a baby Hippo with slippers on and wake everyone up.  I need the spare key fob as I think the battery may have gone in the one which don't work. To my relief the spare key works. The sat nav says 58 minutes to destination, via the M5

Sid collecting the cash and doing the admin stuff. © Warren Parry 2012   

The directions given by Sid took me directly to the gate in the field where we were to park. Sid had already pitched up his tent on the Friday and spent a lonely night in the field. I think I was first there, although others were there at about the same time. I paid up and pitched my tent. I gave some of the ladies (who were camping) a hand to put up their tent, although they were more than capable of doing it on their own. People began rolling in on a regular basis as the 9am start time rapidly approached. A brief talk from one of the group on hole filling and the fields which were in play and we were off.

people arriving and chatting. © Warren Parry 2012

Ayit giving a speech before the off. © Warren Parry 2012

Gold Quarter Nobel in the hands of the finder Dave H . This was found on a previous dig. © Warren Parry 2012

It was quickly established that the fields were heavily iron infested. They were also giving up plenty of finds, which is what everyone wants to see. My first find was a George iii penny which was still readable, and that's not that common for George iii coins. Others were having the same sort of success, especially along the canal side. News broke at about lunchtime that one of the detectorists (Brett) had been seen doing the hammy dance, it was indeed true. This was his first hammy, an Elizabeth half groat I think. My day continued with a few more old coppers and a sixpence. I also had a pound coin and a musket ball in the afternoon. It was fairly hot and sunny so I took to resting up at about 4pm and catching a few rays.

 A copper in the hole. © Warren Parry 2012

At about 6pm I noticed that my breakfast sausage and bacon had become exposed to the sun. I therefore had to use them for my evening meal and pop to the supermarket to get some more breakfast stuff. Being the useless shopper that I am, I came back with cooking bacon! Oh well, that's why Mi Julie don't take me shopping with her.

When I returned to the field, there were only a couple of detectorists left out on the dig. Most of the campers were milling around the admin area. We came to a team decision that a fire pit should be dug. Greyhound (one of our lady members) had brought an admirable amount of fire wood; however she thought we might be a little short. We both headed into the darkness to find some more firewood. There was a dead pear tree lying in one of the fields which we headed towards. There were plenty of heavy dead and well seasoned pieces lying around which we took back to camp. The fire was going like a good-un by now, and looking like it should be the place to be for the rest of the night. Most of the team had brought food and cooked it up, burgers, sausages of many types and plenty of buns. I cooked off my breakfast lot and had a real belly full. 

The beginnings of a truly magnificent fire. © Warren Parry 2012 

By now everyone was well fed and the Alcohol was freely flowing. The stories around the camp fire from all parties went down well and the atmosphere was very good. Aurelia (lady member) read a ghost story which captured the imagination as her story telling was spectacular. At one point Andy almost caught fire as he was listening so intently, and got too close to the flames.

Once the stories subsided and the alcohol had taken affect, the mood became one of hilarity. Most of the group headed out to the pear tree to collect more wood for the fire. They came back with some huge chunks of tree trunk which lasted to the next morning.

Everyone hit the sack at about midnight.

After what can only be described as a fairly restless but warm night in my sleeping bag, I realised that I should have brought a ground sheet or air bed. My back was wrecking, and the chorus of snoring caused me to emerge from my tent like a dazed moth from its pupa. I do admit that most of the snoring would have come from me as I had consumed the best part of two bottles of wine and a good slug of vodka.

The whole camp emerged between 6 and 7am, as the first of the Sunday detectorists were going to be rolling in from about 8am. Breakfast of cooking bacon in baps was like ambrosia to me, as any food usually is after a night on the pop. My head was pounding and I felt like shite!

The morning after the night before. © Warren Parry 2012

By 9am there were about 10 detectorists on site, a few more followed later. We ventured over to the fields on the other side of the farm. The first field I went into had recently been ploughed and sewn with grass. It looked promising and i soon had a ship ha'penny out. The problem however was that the ground was very very hard. I gave up after about 1 hour of back breaking digging. I still felt like a bag of shite so I headed back towards the camping area. I had also forgotten to bring my pro pointer with me due to the foggy state of my brain. Once I had collected my pro pointer I decided to have another bash along the canal side, where I again found a few coppers. I had to depart at 12 bells so at 11.30 I headed back to my car. I had packed my tent up earlier so I said my goodbyes to a great bunch of people, who I now consider being friends and headed off home.

some of my finds. © Warren Parry 2012.

It was a great weekend which I would recommend to anyone who gets the opportunity.

Thanks to all involved.

metal detecting Rally near Cirencester.

I thought i might blog my recent adventures at a open rally near to Cirencester. This might give you some insight into how a rally occurs and how one prepares for the day.

I returned from my holiday on Saturday 1st of September with a huge appetite for getting out with my detector. My first port of call was to trawl through the Metaldetectingforums.co.uk web site. There is a section in there where forthcoming Rallies are often posted. My eye was immediately taken by a rally being organised in Cirencester. It was short notice, but i began finding contact details of the organiser, and investigating the validity of the dig. This didn't take to long as some of the forum members were going to the same rally.
I emailed the organiser and requested a place for the Sunday. The organiser responded to me with an email  confirming that i could attend . With this email came the address of the farm where the rally was being held.
It was a weekend rally with campers turning up on the Friday for a early start on the Saturday.

On the Saturday evening i thought i might ask a few of the attendee's via the forum how it had gone. I was informed that one of the fields had turned up a lot of Roman coinage as well as a Celtic stater and a few brooches. All of the other fields had not turned up many finds. However, as most weekend rally's do, there were fresh fields for the Sunday.

I spent Saturday evening going through my check list, as driving 85 miles and realising you have forgot something is not a great idea. Batteries were charged, shovel and detectors loaded. Sandwiches were prepared and drinks at the ready. I loaded the address into the sat nav and hit the sack.

Sunday morning came and i departed at 7am. The journey down the M5 is fairly easy at that time of the day. i arrived on site at 8.30am and bright sunny morning awaiting. The registration tent was easy to find, and attended by two extremely polite young ladies. They took my £20.00 and handed me maps and information leaflets.

field 7, my first destination.

car park.

looking across to the village. The largest field being behind the houses.

I met a couple of familiar faces and got into a bit of banter about metal detecting. We decided which fields we would head to and got our stuff together. We all gathered around the organiser who gave a brief talk, in which he stated that the field where all of the finds had come, had a section which was out of bounds. All detectorists were to stay out of the said area which was demarcated by stones.

I thought i might give that field a miss as it would be heaving with detectorists again. I always think that the grass is greener on the other side so headed for one of the new fields. The field i chose gave up a few buttons and a bronze gold gilded ring. There was obviously a dearth of Roman finds, so i decided to move on. it was back down the beautiful country lane and to the largest of the new fields.

I had two hours on field 12 which only threw up a few modern-ish finds. I began to think that i had better try the Roman field (26) or i would regret it the next day. One of the guys showed me a silver roman brooch which was absolutely stunning, and i don't say that lightly.

Field 26 was beginning to look like the Somme, with pot holes everywhere. There were at least 25 detectorists on there still finding things. I had an hour on there and found little, so i moved on to the field below it. Here i found another bronze finger ring showing some gold gilding, and  at last a Roman coin. The coin was unmistakably a Roman, but with no recognizable markings on it.

This was the field below 26, field 26 was above the hedge at top.

I stayed on the fields around 26 for the remainder of the day. At about 4 pm i decided to call it a day as i had a 2 hour journey back home and my legs were hurting like mad. I showed the FLO my finds and noticed that the Silver Brooch i had looked at earlier was now on display in the FLO's case. I do wonder how long it will be before the guy who found it will see it again, if ever? It's definitely a floor in the process of declaring ones finds. The FLO's and their hierarchy can't turn these finds around quick enough. This will inevitably cause some of the finds to go below the radar.

All in all a good day out and i would recommend.

Can Barclay's Bank allow their reputation to sink any lower?

You bet they can!! Barclay's bank Wroxham Norfolk.

While on holiday in the beautiful Norfolk broads, we paid a visit to the Beautiful village of Wroxham.

It was quite a dull grey day with nothing exceptional occurring in the village, just the usual excursions on the passenger boats. 

The kids loved the sights as did the parents. We popped into Roy's food hall prior to us departing from Wroxham and picked up some groceries. My son and I spotted an opportunity to have a look the in guns and tackle shop, while the women got their things together. We crossed the road and turned towards the shop. We were greeted by what looked like a couple of young girls, one of which were lying on the floor and the other crying and looking very distressed. i immediately went over to ask if they were OK, when the person on the floor looked up, she was in fact a lady of about 40. The young girl was obviously with her and in quite a state of shock. I asked what had happened. She said she had fallen. i asked my son  to call an ambulance, however he had no signal. I looked up and noticed we were directly outside Barclay's bank. i ran inside the bank and asked for their help. I said do you have a first aider that can help this lady? They looked at each other and told me to go to Roy's (the shop from where I had come)! i said can you call an ambulance then please? Again they told me to go to Roy's store!! I was totally livid with them and gave them a few choice words. i then had to run around to Roy's, who called the first aider's to the check out. They then allowed me to call an ambulance.

The first aider's then tended to the lady who was now sitting up, with the young girl looking a bit calmer. 

I informed the small crowd that were around the lady of how unhelpful the people at Barclays bank had been. 

I don't know what happened to the lady as she was in good hands when i departed. I do know this though, if Barclay's were the last bank on the planet i would rather burn my money than let those uncaring bastards deal with it.

Barclays bank shame on you yet again.