Two weeks on a whore of a field. Paid feilds for metal detecting at your leisure.

THE WHORE AND A BETROTHAL SEAL.

After developing a rain induced bout of "cabin fever", i decided that i would go detecting. My idea was to visit a farm not far from my home, where the farmer charges £5 for a day of detecting (a gauranteed yes).

Now if these fields where human and had a name, they would be "Sticky Vicky" from Benidorm. They have had more men...and women paying to get on them than Vicky could ever dream of.

Anyway, my mind wanders…..

I had mentioned on a forum that I was going go to one of my detecting buddies.  He was one of the few that lived close to me from the clodhoppers club. Lets Call him Smudge for old times sake. Smudge said he wouldn’t mind coming along, so the arrangements were made.

We met on a McDonald’s car park after a 5 minute drive from home.The McDonalds lies next to one of the fields. I took Smudge a ride around the farmers land in my Saab to give him an idea of the land available (those tracks were awful).  We happened across some fields that were ploughed (still some parsnips in them), adjacent to a stubble field which is where we decided to put coil to soil.

It’s always a good idea to do some research on your land; however I have to confess i didn't as I knew a lot about this land from conversations with other detectorists. There used to be a pond on this part of the land where medieval farmers would take their cattle for water.The pond had been filled some 300 years ago. A lot of finds have come from here, including a fair few hammered.

Well, we had about 3 hours on here and found not much more than a few buttons. The rain had heavily waterlogged the ground which I believed was reducing the depth the Deus was working at. We could clearly see where the pond had once been, however it was deep mud and not navigable.

We then moved allong to a field next to the busy A5. This proved to be a rewarding decision. Within 1 hour I had my first and only hammered silver coin. It was an Edward I 1273 I think (don't mind being corrected). It was not in great condition as it has sustained some damage, but recognisable none the less. Smudge had found a Saxon strap end, which he was made up about. I have never found one and would be delighted if i ever did. About 2 hours in I had one of my favourite ever finds. It was a 12^{th _} 13^th century "betrothal seal", in great condition. This is yet to be confirmed, a knowledgeable colleague gave me the identification. Smudge wasn't doing bad either, to follow his strap end, he had a large Roman grot.

The clouds were quickly closing in with rain forecast. After a quick conversation we called it a day. We made a run for it at about 3.30pm which was just in time to avoid yet another deluge. I managed to ground my car on the way off the track which is a risk we detectorists take on our adventures. Smudge had a SUV which handled the muddy tracks with ease.

TWO PEOPLE FACING EACH OTHER AND SHEILD BELOW, LEDGEND AROUND EDGE.

BETROTHAL SEAL THE CORRECT WAY UP.

NIBBLED BY TIME, BUT PORTRAIT STILL VISABLE.

EDDY I THINK.

During the following week, my son had expressed a interest and wanted to come along with me on the Saturday.

The weather forecast was dreadful for the whole weekend. The only light at the end of the tunnel was a few hours on Saturday morning. According to BBC weather there was a possability of a break in our part of the world.

Again we met on the McDonalds car park; I only had coffee…..Honest. We decided to firstly put coil to soil on the field that yielded the betrothal seal. This time I had a George ii half penny not long after we started. My son had a Roman grot possibly a minim. I had a further two George ii one was a penny and the other possibly a farthing. My son had a coin which we suspected was a George ii half penny. He then unearthed an oak leaf pendant, sadly there was no decoration left on it. I had a mysterious Korean cut half coin. One of my forum friends Wayne had said that he might go so my mind was on venturing off to find him.

I stupidly decided we should head across country to a field where I had previously found two Bronze Age arrow heads circa 2000bc, and a few flint tools. The rain had saturated these fields, they were a quagmire which was pulling us down like quick sand. It was exhausting just to try and move 10 meters. We soon put the white flag up and headed for the safety of a stubble field.

NOT A GREAT IMAGE OF MY TWO BRONZE ARROW HEADS.

 It was about 1.30pm, we had met wayne and his buddy had a chat and moved off. As we crossed the stubble field we noticed the sky becoming very dark indeed. I had a chat with the farmer as he drove past and asked him about a field where a Roman building had been discovered. He confirmed that he owned it and it was in stubble. We jumped into the car and headed off to the said field.

As we disembarked from the car I stated to my son that we had less than a hour to work this field as the clouds were quickly filling the sky. Unfortunately we had only made it to the other side of the field before we were startled by a huge flash of lightening. Now I am no pussy, but standing in the middle of a field with a metal detector during a lightening storm is not a good idea. We headed at a pace towards the car, accompanied by numerous flashes of lightening. I had a cracking signal as we were heading off and stopped to dig it. Again it was a Georg ii half penny. We made it to the car with 30 seconds to spare as the heavens opened. It actually hailed for about 5 minutes making the roads lethal. The rain then set in and put an end to any hopes of extending our day.

Considering these fields are complete and utter whores that have been done to death, they still come up with goodies.

For £5 I get a days entertainment without any hassle driving around door knocking.

FINDS FROM A THUNDERY DAY.

These fields are open to anyone. I would recommend if you have no permissions of your own, and your not too far away, give them a go. Even if its just to practice with your new machine. Or may be to release yourself from a rain nduced bout of cabin feaver.

God bless.