DetectingWales.com Rally 56 – The Laughing Donkey Rally!

[Neil]

DetectingWales.com Rally 56 – The Laughing Donkey Rally.

Sunday’s rally saw a frosty 6.30am start for myself with a trip to Hereford via Treorchy. A bizarre journey at any hour of the morning, that transpired to be even more bizarre having witnessed 15 people queuing outside a corner shop, a horse wandering around Pontypridd and the curious incident of a hitch hiker I failed to pick up, who responded by jumping up and down in the middle of the road and banging his fist on the floor. Now if that doesn’t encourage people to pick him up I have no idea what will!

With Nobby and TaffLaff securely belted into the Landy, we headed up over the mountain into glorious sunshine, arriving at the Rally venue at around 8.45 to find that thankfully Nick Bates and Mike had kindly sorted out the early arrivals and directed their parking. Thanks guys – it really helped us out.

We had loads of new and returning faces joining us today including the imaginatively named: Jeff The Wizard, Big Lee, Diamond Doyle, Euroace, Pentop, Long Dog and several more - Hope we made you feel welcome and that you enjoyed yourselves.

Following a quick overview on the area by Paul (handing out the Kiss of Death on the Roman finds!), the usual safety instructions for the day were issued, and around 70 brave souls headed off with numb feet into a number of orchards and pastures, that were to be our play ground.  

The first finds of note came from the unusual source of Proconsul who was modelling a new E-Trac and used it like an seasoned pro to lift a George III sixpence from its earthly grasp. Well done on popping the new machines silver cherry Geoff.

Next in line was Big Lee who was sporting a 1837 Victorian “Cumberland Jack” Hanover token. An unusual find and something to do with her relative, the Duke of Cumberland who as she couldn’t take the Hanovarian throne succeeded in her place. Apparently he was quite unpopular, and this token was issued as a humorous comment on his departure from the British Isles. I’m not sure I really get the joke – but someone in Hereford clearly found it funny!

An interesting incident involving our master locksmith, Deadlock (aka Alun) was reported to me via a laughing Taff.  Alun was detecting close to Cherry and Bob of Rookpair fame, and kindly offered them to try a signal he had found with their own machines. He commented to dig it up and you can have whatever it is, which was very kind of him, particularly when you consider it transpired to be a hammered Medieval groat! In fairness to Cherry and Bob they refused to accept it, and it duly went into Deadlocks pocket. Well done all involved.

A large percentage of the finds throughout the day were the normal sort of Georgian/Victorian daily losses and included: Da Monkey with a young head three pence, Nobby and a Vicky young head sixpence, Jan with what should be a lovely whistle when cleaned, Mike the Harp with a Jaws Cheffy and Charles with a 1750’s buckle. I saw several other silvers and most people seemed to have the usual copper coinage, musket balls and buckles that were lost freely at the time.

Early in the day someone showed me what initially appeared to be a lovely piece of gilded openwork, but it was encased in mud, and the owner was waiting to get it home before cleaning it. Oddly another member showed me something similar, then another one, and then a member with 5 pieces of it including a “Romano” looking bust. I think the answer lays in the shape of a Art Deco style belt that somehow has been broken into about 10 different pieces. Certainly got us all excited for a little while.

One of the more unusual finds was discovered by our pork loving Napoleon, who turned up three lead bag seals form the late 1800’s all coincidentally from France – they were clearly homing seals! They started a bit of a theme as a vast array of lead seals turned up all over the farm with most people I spoke to having found at least one (even I found two).

One of the nicest finds of the day was reserved for KGB428 and took the form of a gilded hawking ring – lovely little item to find and quite the scarcity.

Mrs Steptoe also had a unusual detecting find in the shape of a William IV farthing that the soil for once has been kind to. You don’t see these very often as his mintage was low and his reign a short one of just seven years, 1830-1837.

Throughout the day, the laughing donkey seemed to be having the time of his life with frequent smoothes from members, the occasional apple and the fun of chasing Tafflaff back and fore. As soon as anyone ignored him for than a few minutes he resorted to his deafening donkey laughter. It certainly was a happy donkey!

This was one of those rallies where the research had found an area that in theory should have been plastered in Roman and Medieval items. For whatever reason though, although a few Romanus Grottus turned up, and we found three hammered coins it just wasn’t to be. We do know that its waiting to be found somewhere in the area, so lets hope that our next visit to Hereford uncovers it.

Thanks for the fantastic company.
See you soon
Neil

[Neil]

Photo time

[Neil]

Photos

[Neil]

Photos

[Neil]

Photos

[Pipster]

Super report ... looking forward to seeing the pics 

[anthonyjay]

I had a great day again thanks. Just a little tale to tell told me by the farmers son. He could see a group detecting in the second field down and said, " All they will find there will be some horseshoes, I ought to know because I buried a horse there 5 years ago". I don't know how they got on.

[rookypair]

Yet another superb report, well done Neil. Looking forward to the piccies and next week

Cheers
Rookypair

[Mike]

great report as usual neil , enjoyed the day out in good company , strange detecting in an orchard , odd people just appear out of no where grinning at you through the branches 

[beachboy (viv)]

neil,another great write up and brilliant finds well done to everybody,.viv

[Roman (Ray)]

welldone everyone some lovely finds had...welldone neil on yet again a top write up mucker.again welldone all.

[Da Monkey]

Excellent report, great company and nice weather, I even managed a few coins and was very happy with my silver 3pence as I dont seem to find them much  I also found one of those French bale seals and DaveHa had another two, he always has to go one better...  

I think we should adopt the Donkey as the DW mascot !  

[WeCan-Octavian]

Had a brilliant day thanks to all, It brought a tear to my eye watching Taff catch up with his long lost relative over the fence 

P.S thanks for the push guys!!!!!

[DEADLOCK]

Thanks you guys for a great half days detecting really enjoyed it. Im sure taff will post pic of groat with new super duper camera. Thanks to rookypair and to push me out nick and caden for the bacon sarnies.

[the-BANGOR-citizan]

A few more pics. If you recognise yourself give yourself a shoutout.