DetectingWales.com

Despite the threat of a major storm approaching the UK over the weekend, the day of the rally dawned bright and pleasant. The massed ranks of the DW faithful gathered just outside the little village of Keinton Mandeville and prepared to scour the countryside for the usual historical relics.

The area has a long and varied history so more or less anything could have come up but sadly there wasn’t the same kind of cascade  of hammies that appeared  at our previous rally in Penmark. Having said that a variety of finds did turn up, including a smattering of hammies.

After the usual meeting to let everyone know which fields were available, the members dispersed to start their search. Most of the fields were easily accessible but unfortunately one or two were ringed by electric fences. However quite a few people managed to negotiate these obstacles and gained access to these particular fields.

The first find to come up was a nice medieval strap end found by ianjohn12 in one of the fenced off fields. This was followed by a number of Georgian coins and quite a few musket balls. The musket balls that came up during the day seemed a little larger than usual. Military perhaps?

Nomad pitched in early on with a very nice sword hanger and followed up with a William III copper halfpenny and a George V silver florin. The first hammered coin of the day was a penny of Henry V.

One of the more unusual finds of the rally was a silver Turkish coin found by mikethefob. This had a hole through the middle and the suggestion was made that this had come from a charm bracelet. Heather made her challenge for ‘find of the rally’ by turning up an ancient, complete mussel (eyes only). This possibly goes back to the eighteenth century and even possibly back to the Romans?

Speaking of the romans, one or two roman grots started to appear in one of the fields during the morning. There were rumours of a roman brooch to go with them but I did not see this.

Later in the morning our FLO Laura appeared to take up residence in the marquee kindly provided once again by bigxhoni. It was nice to see members keeping her busy with finds to record.

After lunch the decision was made to open up some more fields, stubble this time, although they were a short car journey away from the main rally site so Rob led people to the new site in a couple of convoys.

Finds immediately started to appear at the new fields. One of the first was a nice spectacle buckle and this set the trend for the rest of the afternoon. Buckles galore of assorted types appeared. These fields must have witnessed a lot of medieval trousers falling down!

One of the nicest buckles to come up was a snake buckle in very nice condition found by jtalbot0001. These are always difficult to date as they were used from Roman times right throughout history with very little change to the design. I seem to remember wearing a belt with a snake buckle as part of my cub scout uniform when I was just a lad… But anyway this one had a nice patina to it so could possibly be early.

Towards the end of the afternoon another hammie appeared, in nice condition, one of the Henrys I believe. Melonhead and Ozziehead started to make some nice finds including, I am reliably informed, a Roman fibula. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of this so perhaps someone could upload a pic of it.

When we were leaving at the end of the rally my van got well and truly stuck in a rut so I’d just like to say thanks to the members who helped push me out. Laura the FLO left some finds with me to return to the members who had found them. I returned as many as I could but I still have some left. I will bring them to the rally next week. Could anyone who hasn’t had their find returned please collect it from me then.

Geoff

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Nicely written up Geoff, not one of the most prolific DW rallies but great weather and a good turn out by some great people.
My only find worth posting came right at the end and took the form of a Roman nummus of Constantine the Great but I thoroughly enjoyed the day.

Just a few of Melonhead, Marks finds. First a nice Rose farthing from the 1640's then a silver cuff link also from the 17thC and with a makers mark and the last a saw a nice Roman 1stC Fibula. Well done Mark.
And just to say that Jo had a cut piece of a silver ring which did look old.

very nice finds i wish had made the rally :( :( :(

well done everyone!some nice bits there!

Thanks to Tafflaff and Geoff for organising the rally didn't find much myself but that's the way it goes.really like the sword hanger because I got a complete one with one of the loops missing just like the one found yesterday.thanks

Great write up there Geoff,cheers  :) Some nice finds there,well done to all involved  ;)

well done to all who found the coins and other nice stuff no hammered 4 me but hay ho another day outhere somewhere had a few old buttons not the chocolate ones we ate them he he . i cant make the other rall as we will be in exmouth devon 4 a week so any rallies after that im in for them good hunting outhere folks and thanks 4 a nice day sinky . 8) :( ;D :)

nice day out in the westcountry,lovely picturesque view ,of Glastonbury's tor and surrounding area,from the top fields.no great finds to talk about just the normal ,bits of copper,lead,grots etc.enjoyed the day and company,thanks guys.

It was a great day out, and fab views !!   Lost the will to live in the top fields as the electric fence played havoc with my detector.

Plodded around, found the FAB mussle shell - still whole !!  lol  and on my last but one dig found this...

Elizabeth sixpence - she looks like she is eating a spider and has the legs sticking out of her mouth LOL   

Thanks for putting it on guys.   

H

Lovely Vicky six pence there :)

I'm  not an expert on mussel shells but I remember when I was a young lad and a keen fisherman going into a pond in my bathers to help clean out the weeds and finding large numbers of fresh water mussels like the one found on the rally.
The pond was was called Warren Mill just off the A48 in the Vale of Glamorgan.
                Hope that is of interest in the identification.

                                                           Pat ;) ;)

PS. Iforgot to add perhaps there is a pond close to the rally fields which has been cleaned out recently !!
                                                    Pat. ;) ;)

its a swan mussel and yes there is a waterway right next to the feild were heather found the beasty

swan mussel,I've herd that before somewhere

mmmm yes wayne , yesterday from me :D :D :D

OMG its a small world, Warren mill is just up the road from me !!  Its a small animal zoo now.   

I just thought it was really cool, hundreds of shells all broken and this one was totally intact, and now sittting on my tv table, and Im hoping it doesnt come to life lol

H

Well Done Geoff - Great Report mate - enjoyed reading it.

Cheers
Neil

Well done to all the lucky finders.
Glad you all enjoyed yourselves  :)

Here's some rubbish Me and My dad (Cable) found yesterday, including the Hammered that I walked right over whilst Rambo was taking a dump!

The silver ring and the coin weight My dad found on the previous rally with You guys, can You help ID them and the Hammered? The ring is engraved with D M  P 1 7 I H.

My favorite find is the Cap Pin, I did a little research of My own and discovered it belongs to a soldier of the Somerset Light Infantry (now known as The Rifles) who were victorious in holding out a Siege against them in the fortified town of Jellalabad, Afghanistan in 1842, earning them the title of ''Prince Albert's Own'' and the Jellalabad Pin badge.

(Ain't a Prince Albert a rude piercing?)

The ring and weight;

i enjoyd the rally and here are a few photos i took .I found a lot of rubbish at the first site so i decided to stalk aide and shungav who were doing well. After lunch me and my sister went to the second site were we had more luck

they found these also

And here is mine and joes junk we dug a lot of signals but pulled out a few nice finds too the silver band is a broken ring

sorry put the same one twice meant this one

good day and thanks for the pics mark

Really enjoyed the rally. I dug so many old nails it was unbelievable!! Didn't find much myself but was pleased with my little bit of silver ring, the weather was kind (mostly) and it's always good to have a chat and a laugh. Jo

Hi Guys,

Thanks for a great day we had some nice finds

Cheers  ;D

well done everyone some interesting finds there I like the snake buckle seen one all cleaned up found by mickcoin.