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This page is all about Society members detecting stories, the writing and photographs in these pages are my own work, published in the hobby magazines, they are copy write protected.
The Lady and the Spear
By
Dave Mulliner
You may be wondering why I have called this storey the lady and the spear? No I am not talking of Boudicca, but of a club member who found a bronze age spearhead. I first met Angela Garman way back in 1993, when Angela joined our metal detecting club, the Bridlington Metal Detecting Society; yes I was the secretary way back then and I still am to this day,(I`m now the secretary to the Bridlington Quay Detecting Society, 2007). Angela was a collector of English tokens from the 17th to 19th centuries, one day a friend loaned her a copy of the Treasure Hunting Magazine, after reading this magazine the lady thought what a nice way to find and collect coins and artefacts. The first detector that Angela bought was a Vking Seven detector, although it took her more than three years to find her first hammered silver coin she was by then hooked on the hobby.
Today Angela uses a White`s legendary XLT Spectrum, which she finds good on all ground conditions; her back up detector is a Laser B2. The photo of Angela with her detector and the spearhead, note this photo was not taken on the day she found the spearhead, but sometime later at a completely different location.
One day whilst she was out detecting, the local gamekeeper approached Angela and asked her if she would use her detector to look for a silver bracelet that he had lost in the next field; thinking this was a good way to promote the hobby and probably gain some more detecting land she agreed, Angela was using her XLT at the time. This particular day the sun was shinning brightly; a day when one is at peace with the world, if there was a fly in the ointment then it was the tough stubble. It did not take Angela long to find the gamekeepers bracelet, and has predicted he gained her more detecting permission on the next farm. With permission granted she decided to carry on detecting in the stubble field. Whilst meandering along and hopeing to find a hammered coin or two, when all of a sudden a loud crisp signal came through her headphones; Angela`s first thoughts were this has to be something good or its one hell of a lump of lead. She removed the find from the hole and wiped the mud from it, she could not believe her eyes; the legs went weak, deep breaths had to be taken, she just sat down in the field and stared in amazement at the find, what a spearhead.
The find area was an old watercourse, and it is possible that this spearhead was a votive offering. The spear head has a nice even brown patina with some small patches of what look like iron stains. The shaft shows chevrons pointing to the tip of the spearhead . The blade itself has ribbed flanges with a dot pattern. It is believed that there have been only seven such Bronze Age spearheads found in England. This beautiful find probably dates from the early Bronze Age (1650 - 1400 BC).
The full story can be read in the back copy of the Treasure Hunting, June 2005.
Angela is now a member of the Bridlington Quay Detecting Society.
The Spearhead, it has been reported & returned to Angela
Angela with her XLT & Spearhead
Medieval bronze ring
Some of her other finds from the field, a Saxon strapend
Roman or Medieval belt mount
Medieval buckles
This was Angela`s story; do you have any interesting finds worth a write up? Then have a talk with me (Dave Mulliner) and I will see if its worth the words.
Medieval seal matrix
A Forgotten Field
by
Dave Mulliner
One of my own adventures.
The weekend was a washout to say the least; if I said it persistently rained that would be an understatment. By Tuesday the weather had picked up enough for me to get out and use the Explorer XS that I had acquired, (this was in May 2002). I was planning to use the machine on the field with the hot spots in, (hot spot is a finds area in a given field). Unfortunately the field I had in mind had not yet been harvested, they do not lift sugar beat until late November and that depends on the weather. I made a courtesy call at one of the farms I detect on; Dave the farmer likes to collect coins and I had a couple of Roman coins for him. Whilst traveling the long narrow road to the farm I noticed he had a field still in stubble, the field is one Andy and I have been on in the past and found virtually nothing. I was itching to put the Minelab Explorer XS to the test on a so called barren field, ( I now have the Explorer SE a much better machine). I was working in the factory pre-set mode of Quickstart Smartfind; I have used this mode before and found it satisfactory in a field with a known history. If you want to read the rest of this tale then order the back issue of Treasurer Hunting Magazine, its in the May 2002 copy, some of you may still have this mag.s
Probably off some long forgotten cricket trophy
A medieval thimble
A medieval lead sealmatrix front & back
A Victorian horse bridle bit
16th or 18th century button
Two medieval buckles
Two silver scaets probably of a Northumberland king (Celtic)
A collection of Roman coins
A Roman nail
Part of a smelting pot could be medieval
A siliver hammered coin and a bronze sceat
Some kind of decoration
A lateen brooch iron age
The Glory Hole
By
Dave Mulliner
The Glory Hole
By
Dave Mulliner
Metal detecting, its a funny old game, all summer we wait for our favourite fields to be harvested when they are we get all excited, then in no time they are ploughed, rolled and drilled. The field Andy and I call the glory hole has been no exception, the field was seeded with sugar beat, this crop does not get harvested until November. I have been waiting all year for this field to become available. Robert Booth a detecting friend of mine brings fresh eggs for us from a farm he visits, this morning he brought the eggs round. Hi Dave your eggs mate, and by the way a bit ofr good news for you, your glory hole field is being harvested". "Oh boy eureka I`m away first thing tomorrow morning". But sods law had to put its spoke in; the weather was fowl, it was raining, sleeting and for good measure it was thundering and lightning, maybe I will get out on Thursday.
Thursday arrives, my detecting budy Andy cannot make it due to work commitment he will be miffed off to say the least. The sun is shinning and I am in full spirit (not the alcohol type), ready for the long awaited day when I could detect the glory hole field. When I arrived at the field it was very muddy, but not too uneven. Talk about pottery strewn about it was all over the place; I know this does show pottery but it has excelled itself this year. Fig 1 & 2 show some of the medieval pottery and Fig 3 shows Roman pottery all collected from the Glory hole field. Did you know that pottery was one the earliest technologies to be developed aboy 700 BC. Clay being the raw material was widely available and easy to mould and shape.
The first pots were sun dried, but man soon realised that by using a wood-burning kiln and firing the pot at a temperature high enough to virtrify the outer surface, pots could be produced that were harder and far more durable.
The potter`s wheel, a disc connected to some kind of treadle arrangement operated by the feet, revolutionised the art of pottery. The wheel left the potter with both hands free to shape the pot, and regular shapes could be produced more quickly than by the old method of hand moulding.
When and where the potter`s wheel originated is unknown. It was used in Egypt, Persia, and Babylonia in very early times. Excavations in Egyptian tombs show that pottery making was well advanced as early as 3000 BC.
All pottery can be put into three basic categories: eaqrthenware is the oldest and simpler type of pottery; stoneware, made by firing the pot at a temperatur high enough to vitrify the outer surface; and last but not least porcelain, which is equally hard but much finer and translucent. The potter soon realised that by coating the pot with glaze before baking or firing made it water-impermeable. Keep your eyes peeled for pottery when you are detecting your favourite field, for a smattering of pottery in a field could mean that it was the site of a villa or settlement.
I set my Explorer XS to the quickstart factory settings, but adjusted the sensitivity up from 16 to 30. On the test bed in my garden, I had found that if I set sensitivity at 16 I would miss some hammered coins. Set at 25 I was missing the cut halfpennie, but at the 30 settings the Explorer XS picked up the quarter cut hammered coins at a healthy depth.
Meandering along and sweeping my detector in a figure of eight motion, I recieved a faint sound in my head phones. When I swept the detector from left to right, and top to bottom in a cross formation the signal became stronger. When the coin came to light I thought it might be a silver issue of William III. But on turning it over I realised that it was not an English coin. Later, I was informed that my find is a French testoon of Henrick IV dated 1603.
You can read the rest of story in the September 2002 Trasure Hunting Magazine, back issue.
Harvest Time
By
Dave Mulliner
Harvest Time
By
Dave Mulliner
To add a touch of yearning at this time of year, can you remember back to the harvest time? Fore the farmers, as you will all know, it`s a very busy time, and if you are like me, a farmland detectorist, then you have to get your skates on guy`s, its all go.
That`s because most of my farmers can harvest, plogh and seed before you can turnaround.
So on Saturday evening, the phone springs into life with a, "Hello", "Hi, Gareth", "Am I goingdetecting in the morning? You bet I am", "Okay, meet you at Oaktree Farm about 9 c`clock".
The Sunday morning saw me driving te campervan onto a stubble field, Gareth was lready there as usual, with a mug of tea in his hand.
Gareth Taylor is a friend I go detecting with on a Sunday and we are both members of the Bridlington Metal Detecting Society, (I was the secretary and founder member in those days).
Weather it excitment or what, it didn`t take me long to gear up for the day`s detecting, the weather was rather muggy, and the stubble was like bristles on a brand new scrubbing brush. When you have stubble like this then it calls for the use of my trusty old Laser Power Max 3, with its small detecting head, Gareth asked, "Are you not using your Whites XLT Dave?" I pointed at the Laser and answered. "No this one will do fine".
Then I started meandering across the field towards an old gate at the far end of the field. I had the Laser set at full sensitivity (9) and the discrimination set at (2). My first signal was a right belter, and I thought. "Here goes, this sounds good, a gold coin on my first dau out this harvest? Wake up man and dig the find out". The object was about 5 inches down. It is made of lead, with what appeared to be a bunch of grapes with leaf foliage as a background, and a fixing screw on the back, probably some sort of furniture decoration. Fig 2.
My next half dozen finds were 12 bore cartridge ends, which as you know are a common find on farmland. But, by the time I reached the old gate at the far end of the field I had added to my finds bag a pre-decimal halfpenny dated 1942, and an old threpenny bit also dated 1942 Fig 3; I wonder if they were lost by the same person?
After dinner, quite appropriately my next three finds were spoons, and when I met up with Gareth about an hour later he also had three spoons, and what`s more, our finds up to now were more or less find for find. I would say over the last year at least 12 or more spoons have come off this field!
Noah, the farmer, thought that in the past they may have used them to put poison down the rabbit holes, so this may account for all the spoons.
What I do not understand is why only on this field, why not on all the other fields they must have had rabbits to poison on them as well.
At the end of the day we had found plenty of targets each, but the most interesig find didn`t come until last thing .
That`s when the Laser made what I call an `iffy` sound, that is to say. `Reject` and `Accept` at the same time.
Now you never walk away from an iffy sound. If in doubt, DIG!
The find must have been presenting its narrow edge up to the surface thus causing the iffy signal, because on retrieving the find I was pleased to see it was a bronze medieval seal matrix, circular with a 22mm diameter, a loop at the back, a voat of arms in the centre with a motto around the edge. Fig 4.
A couple of days later I was traveling around the farms that I have permission to detect on, taking stock of what fields had been harvested to date. I called in at Horse Chestnut Farm, and I noticed that the rape field that had been harvested a week or so ago had been dragged, and I thought, great, this is just perfect for detecting on. Now, if you have ever detected on a rape stubble field you will know what I`m about to say; your detector head bounces from one stalk to another rather like the ball in a pin ball machine.
I phoned my friend Robert Booth and invited him to detect with me on the following day at Horse Chestnut Farm.
The day started off with what I call watery sunshine and by lunch time it was raining, but what few finds we had were worth the effort, I thought.
That day I was using my White`s XLT and I chose to use it in coin and jewellery mode, the reason being I find this quite acceptable on rolled or dragged fields where the surface is reasonably level.
Again we had the run of old 12 bore cartridges and I did not bother to photograph them as you all know what they look like.
Just as I entered the gate I received a solid signal and when I looked at the meter it was registering in the lead zone. None the less when I retrieved this find I was rather pleased to see it was one of those lead tokens with a faint design on it. Fig 5.
My next find was a nice surprise, because on removing the mud I first thought it was a pr-decimal half-crown, but to my great pleasure it was a George IV half crown dated 1821. Fig 6.
Georgian silver coins are far and few between in this field; I have had the odd bullhead shilling of George III, and plenty of grotty Georgian copper coins. The usual assorted musket balls were putting in an appearance an Robert and I had quite a few between us. Fig 7. After these, the next item to be sniffed out by the XLT was also a bit of a surprise as this was about the size of a shilling, but it was not English. It was a silver Republica Portugues 50 Centavose dated 1947. Fig 8. After this, we retreated back to the campervan for a well earned cup of tea and a sranie, yet on returning back to the field the sky was looking a bit dismal but one of my motto`s is "Not to worry, forever onward".
meandering across the field I was looking at the men laying a power line across the field and it crossed my mind that when they have finished how would it affect my detector?
They had dug a very deep ditch to bury it in, and hopefully they may have turned something interesting up from the deep; I did not approach them due to it being a working area.
Then suddenly I was brought back to the job in hand with a lovely loud signal.
This story was published in the Searcher magazine in April 2002. You can read the rest of the story by purchasing a back issue of the magazine.
Detecting Dave.
