Once again our arrangement with the weather man paid off and we were treated to fine weather for our third visit to the Chepstow area. This was our second visit to this particular farm, although on different fields, so we knew that we had a good chance of the day being productive.
The area has a strong Roman history and during the day the assembled members found plenty of evidence of that. It was a remarkably good turnout considering the rather short notice of the rally that we were able to give and very few of the people who had signed up for the rally didn’t turn up on the day.
There were plenty of fields available for detecting and once we had explained where members could and couldn’t go most people headed for the nearest large field which was next to the parking field. This immediately started to produce finds and within a couple of minutes Mr and Mrs Handyman unearthed the first Roman coin, a bronze, possibly second century.
This field was occupied by a flock of sheep and with the concentration of all the members in this single field, large as it was, the sheep became seriously spooked and started stampeding round the circumference of the field. As they were obviously distressed, the farmer asked us to vacate this particular field to avoid any further agitation of the sheep. Everyone therefore left this field and spread out over the surrounding land.
Bluebell was the next to strike it lucky. Having first extracted a coin-like object that she was certain was a Roman coin but turned out to be a button, she walked a couple of steps further and turned up a lovely example of a Constantine II (I think) bronze.
Meanwhile, on another part of the farm Steven King had unearthed a small metal horse’s hoof, presumably from a small statue. This has yet to be identified but I wouldn’t mind betting that it’s Roman.
I myself made my way up to one of the higher fields and it wasn’t long before I unearthed a silver shilling of George IV that I was rather pleased with. Talking to several of the other members, rumours started to circulate that a bronze arrowhead or spearhead had been found. Investigating further, this turned out to be true and Phil Ynysboeth turned out to be the finder.
Phil found the object at the edge of the woodland and it appears to be a large bronze tanged arrowhead, although some people think it may be a small spearhead. I think we may have to declare this the find of the day. I certainly wouldn’t have minded finding it.
The first hammered of the day came from JENKS who turned up a rather battered example, but a hammered nevertheless.
Rambo continued the Roman theme of the day by discovering a lovely fibula brooch in nice condition. He then compounded the feat by finding part of another one.
Bluebell contributed by following up her Roman coin with a nice fibula of her own and ancientpat got into the act with yet another nice fibula.
Several other members turned up Roman coins, including OzzyHead Steve, who didn’t realise he had a Roman until he was going through his ‘rubbish’ pile at the end of the rally. He was probably distracted by the fact that he had just found his first ever hammered – a nice James Ist half groat.
Ancientpat and peterh both added to the tally of Roman coins. Byron departed from the ‘Roman’ theme by turning up a nice ‘bullhead’ sixpence and Roman (Ray) found a George VI silver shilling.
Altogether it was a productive and enjoyable day. Those people who were still around once the rally had finished were given a bit of farming experience by helping the farmer move some of his cows from one cowshed, along the road to another. Those of us who took part in this cattle drive can officially now call ourselves ‘cowboys’ (or cowgirls if appropriate).
Thanks once again to Tafflaff (Rob) for finding us the farm.
Geoff
Postscript:
I didn't see Steven King at the end of the rally but found out later that not only did he find a nice Elizabeth I groat but also unearthed a cracking William III half crown! See here for details:
http://www.detectingwales.com/index.php?topic=6816.0