Detectingwales.com Rally 63 - "It ain't half hot mum!"

[Neil]

It had been a while since we last got the legions of Detecting Wales together, mainly due to injuries to Taff, myself, and a lack of available land to take a small army onto.

For Rally 63 we revisited a farm from 2010 which consisted of pastures, woodland, and a cut field not a million miles from Chepstow. To say this was the hottest DW Rally in living history would be an understatement, as temperatures soared into the high 80's on what is officially the hottest day of the year so far!

An early start, with the normal shenanigans of people getting lost (including Taff and I). lots of "how you doing" handshakes, and a quick overview resulted in us all being ready for the off at about 9.30am

Today we had a prize on offer courtesy of The Eydon Kettle Company. They had kindly donated a "Storm Kettle" for the finder of an elusive token. Thanks go to them for such a great prize and you can find out more about their products at www.eydonkettle.com

Into the fields and the first find of note fell to GJH in the form a tiny James 1st hammered half penny. Well done Geoff on finding such a small coin in challenging conditions.

In the same field a smattering of City of Bristol tokens came up from the 1600's falling to The Doc, Taff and the Medievalman - unusual to find so many in one field, but I suppose we were pretty close to the bridge - wonder how much the toll was in those days?

The vast majority of us were in this small field, as from the distance it appeared stubble, not quite but easier going then the hard pastures. Not long after Geoff's hammered find, the One Armed Treorchy Bandit himself had discovered an unusual find on a DW Rally. Now Rob normally spends his rallies talking, drinking Diet Coke, talking, scaring up standing citizens in his latest car, talking, oh and talking. As you can imagine it came as somewhat of a shock to all concerned when he produced quite a early hammered half groat from its earthly grasp. Well done mate - if anyone deserves one - its not you!!!!

Following the shock of Rob's find, I next got chatting to a Detecting Scotland member who was holidaying locally and had joined us for the day. He had found what looked like a hammered coin, but had no weight to it and certainly wasn't silver - verdicts out on it. But well done on joining us - hope you felt welcome.

The sun caked fields were producing the normal musket balls, buttons, coppers etc and I think a Hell of a lot more would have come out with some moisture in the ground. This didn't deter David from Czechoslovakia who found a Lizzy two pence and a Steel yard weight.

Medievalman was also in a hammered mood producing a short cross cut quarter probably of Henry III. This helped to prove that we had consistent working/occupation of these fields, as the hammered spread was now from the 1300's into late Tudor.

The last hammered I saw fell to Seasider and was a much sought after Commonwealth two pence (at this point Chef is reading this and cursing for all hes worth!). Well done Gerald on an uncommon find - see what I did there?

We had a few new members with us today, and the lads had a bit of a whip round of finds for Beach Hunter 101 as it was his first rally and he has just started detecting. It wasn't the best conditions today Ben, but stick at it and you'll soon be making finds.

Back at "Basecamp Sunblock" was the ever entertaining Rambo who was regaling Dawson, Taff, Nobby, Myself, Geoff, and Colin (who Rambo is in awe of - best way to describe it), with tales of his Spanish detecting friend, Speedos, losing land, his favourite sausages, and his phobia of Dawson's house! Kept us all highly amused and felt like free cabaret!

The sun had baked me today, and having not detected for 5 months, my knee was shot, so I headed home just after 4pm with news reaching me of two more hammered coins being found - photos please.

Well done to all who attended today - always a real pleasure to meet up with everyone and share a few laughs and hopefully a few finds. It was great to see members bringing some of their personal finds of late including a palstave axe, socket & looped axe and a cracking sword dangler - some quality finds guys.

Until next time
Neil

[Neil]

Photos

[Neil]

More Photos

[Mike]

great report mate , enjoyed the day and meeting old friends again , finds were a bit slow for me but conditions were brutal im sure there was much much more there , well done taff on finding the land

[medieval man]

Again, thanks for arranging the days detecting. Along with my Bristol token and cut quarter, I also found a cracking little buckle with pin and another hammered in the last moments. A Lizzy penny. Geoff took pictures, hopefully they'll pop up soon for all to see. Cheers lad

[alun]

You all did brilliant guys considering the ground being like stone. Gutted I could  not come family commitments and all that, maybe next time.
Great report Neil, always a fun read. 

[Napoleon]

Welldone all  nice finds . 

[BeachHunter101]

Thanks to everyone for helping me out and all the all the advice on my first rally, really enjoyed it, a bit gutted that i didn't find anything myself but thanks to everyone who donated some of there finds to me, much appreciated! Think I'll start saving for a minelab now  lol looking forward to the next one. P.s thanks for the melon

[Chef Geoff]

Great write up Neil and well done to everyone for proving that it's not just "Mad dogs and Englishmen".
I love the group photo but tell me when did Taff start wearing glasses

[Roadrunner]

Good write up and pic's of the day's finds Neil. Amazing to see as many finds considering the solid ground and extremely high temps during the day. (Well done to all the Hammy finders) Would love to be on the same fields after some rain  
It was also nice to meet up with some of the DW members and have a chat, in what looked a good turnout for the dig.
Managed a few coins & buttons, myself, before the heat finally got to me early in the afternoon prompting me to head back over the bridge to Somerset.
Hope to catch another dig the next time I'm down touring around in the RV. perhaps even meet up with anyone attending the Detecting Scotland weekend Rally at the end of August.
Good hunting guy's.

Cheers,  Les .

[MuckMan]

Thanks for another good rally lads, it was good to get out and get a few finds . My dad and I retreated to woods half way through to get out of the sun it was a bleedin scorcher!! I thought I'd found gold when I dug up the cuff link  

[Da Monkey]

Great report Neil

Some great finds there was nice to be out detecting again to see folks finds and have a chat. I only managed a  few pennies and part of a buckle but I agree with road runner I'm sure there would be more finds if the ground had been a bit moist. Worth a revisit under the right conditions I'd say.

Big thanks to Taff, Geoff and Neil for organising  so when's the next outing ?

[IFINDNOTHING]

Great report Neil, couldn't make this rally unfortunatly , well done to everyone on the finds.

[colin]

yet another fantastic report neil back of the net as you always say look forward to
the next one it was a good laugh and in great compan,just getting a bit worried
about rambo think hes on the change lol

[sharkey]

Great report Neil, did anyone find the token to win the kettle? 

Sharkey