Detectingwales.com Rally 72 - Fossils, Vessicas and Streakers!

[Neil]

Detecting Wales Rally 72 – Fossils, Vessicas and Streakers!

The fourth rally of the year saw an early start on Sunday, with four of us heading cross country to Shepton Mallet. The car was full of concerns of flooded fields and water logged roads, and we were pleasantly surprised to arrive in glorious sunshine without witnessing any sign of the recent horrendous down pours.

The farmer and his wife today could not have been more accommodating, having placed lots of direction and parking signage up. They are a lovely couple, with a genuine interest in the history of their farm, which we proved today had been occupied for at least 2000 years.

Todays battle with history was to be fought over a mixture of pretty soft stubble and some hilly pasture. Following a brief overview from myself and our resident Chef we were off searching. 

The first find of the day fell to the Treorchy Bandit, who happened across a helmeted Roman coin in lovely condition. Now, Taff has spent many a year digging Romans, and knows only too well that one often means more, but that they can be elusive things to find. For the next three hours he was taking small steps around the area of the first find like an arthritic sniffer dog. His patience was rewarded, as when I next checked in with him, his Roman total had advanced to septem (to the non Latin speakers that’s seven).

It wasn’t just Taff though, as a few others were popping out the odd Roman here and there and in generally good order – the soil and the stones appeared to be kind to the coinage. They were not just stones though in the traditional sense, as loads of them had fossils embedded in them which hinted at the area being underwater many millions of years ago. Most of them appeared to come from the Cretaceous Period of approximately 145 to 66 million years ago. I know Jan and Charles had a fair old collection of fossils, as did several other members.

Early in the morning, relative newcomer to detecting JCB Jones made his first decent find in this hobby of ours as he uncovered a silver thimble that was minted Chepstow and speculatively associated to the maker Charles Horner. Quite the collectable item – well done – that’ll leave you hooked on the hobby.

Back to Roman and our undercover South African, aka John Talbot had unearthed a brace of high quality early fibulas! Both were a pleasure to handle, and I started waxing lyrically about the enamelled one having a zoomorphic ox’s head on it. That was until Chef pointed out that I was holding it upside down! I still think it looks like a Bovine Fibula to me – new category for Richard Hattat perhaps?

Not long after this in an Erica Roe sort of style, the physique of Rambo could be spotted shirtless in the distance. The reason behind this impromptu strip will be left to beguile our children and even their children, and for many generations to come. Nobody seemed to know the reason why, but at least Rambo seemed happy – which was nice!

Mr Mayo was having a stellar day, and not content with finding a silver cufflink, locket and numerous other decent finds, thought he would pop his Roman cherry! Any old Roman coin would not be sufficient to do this, so he opted to find a Denari of Septimius Severus as his first Roman coin! An absolute beauty that dates to around 193-211 AD.

Added to this, Mr Mayo had scored a ‘Georgian Hat Trick’ having uncovered a coin of each of the three Georges! The standout coin being the Woods farthing of George 1st. I have not seen one come out of the ground like that before – a great trio of finds.

Well done to the chap who found the farmers mother wife which had once been gold plated and I think was returned it her at the end of the rally. Nice gesture mate I am sure it was appreciated.

Hammerhoid made an interesting discovery in the shape of a George III Irish Bank Token contemporary forgery. An interesting social piece, that in theory would have cost you not only your liberty, but your life if you had been caught making it or arguably spending it.

Numerous other finds appeared including a local saddle boss and barrel tap for Da Monkey, a decent George 1st Penny for Mike, George III sixpence for Caerphilly Castle, an enormous and lovely decorated piece of horse brass for Rambo, several cap badges of various regiments and far too many other bits and bobs to recall.

Towards the end of the day news rippled through that Colin, who in fairness always does well on DW rallies had uncovered a Tudor gilded dress hook. I’ve just seen the photo of it and it’s a cracker to be found laying on the surface.

Today four lads had travelled to their first DW rally from Plymouth, and one of them called Sandy was justly rewarded for the distance travelled sporting a ‘Birthday Hangover’ with an early (1300-1400) bronze vesicca seal with an intact suspension look. Surely the find of the day. It appears to show either a Peacock or a Heron. 

Peacock Symbolism.

In ancient times, the many “eyes” on a peacock’s tail represented the many eyes of Hera or Juno keeping an eye on ever philandering Zeus or Jupiter.  It was also rumored that the cooked meat of a peacock never spoiled which evolved into the rumor that eating peacock meat would lead to immortality. The early Christians and into the Medieval period borrowed that idea to represent Christ’s resurrection in early frescoes and mosaics.

Heron Symbolism.

During medieval times, herons were thought to fly above the clouds to avoid getting rained on. This supposed habit led them to become symbols of the righteous who avoided the storms of this world by placing their hopes and treasures in heaven.

Herons are considered melancholy birds. White ones symbolize innocence while ash-gray ones symbolize penance. Early Christians, believing that herons shed tears of blood under stress, made this bird an emblem of Christ's agony in the garden and the sweat of blood he endured there. Like many wading birds which eat snakes, frogs, and other symbols of the evil one, herons are images of the eternal struggle of good against evil and of Christ's battle against the Devil.

Now onto the inscription – lets see who amongst us can be the first to decipher it?

That’s about it for this report. I am sure there are plenty of finds I have forgotten about or just never got to see, so feel free to add them to this report.

Thanks everyone for a great day out in beautiful countryside with wonderful and engaging farm owners. We have another rally lined up on a new farm possibly in two weeks time, and I got a feeling your all going to like its location. More news to follow on that over the next week.

Keep the Faith

Neil

[Neil]

More finds including a few adult only photos!

[Neil]

More photos

[Neil]

Still Going!

[Neil]

Here come the show stoppers!

[legio11augustus]

amazing finds , well done all ...new it would be a cracker ,because i couldnt go ,,,fantastic brooches

[dances with badgers]

weldone peeps

[Chef Geoff]

As always Neil you've done us proud with the write up, as said in shout the seal says (I think) "I am the seal of Roger", the 17thC tradesmans farthing is definately local, Shepton Mallet, but I still can't track down who I.M. is John ? Where is the Siliqua we can't leave that beauty out

[Mike]

great report and pics as always neil , thanks to all the organisers once again .

with regards to Rambo this is why DW wont allow under 16's on rallies 

[legio11augustus]

wow lovely coin too, great write up and pics

[CUT/HALF]

Great write up Neil. As always top notch. There was some great finds and it was a very good laugh. The farmer and his wife were very welcoming and well done to the organisers for getting this site. Cheers for now.

[jcb (THE THIMBLE) jones]

brilliant write up neil , cracking day , a cracking farm , and some real nice company , massive thanks again to all at dw , a big thank you to neil for the searcher magazines also for the transport to and from the rally , i got weeks and weeks of reading now thanks mate , thank you also to nobby and chef geoff for the wifi chefphones  

[legio11augustus]

http://www.rarecoinsandtokens.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1417




john brtt shepton mallet farthing cheoff

[deepersweeper]

Great rally write up ,and what super finds it is great to see the pics on the site,well done to all a great day's detecting

[handyman [Alan}]

I did enjoy reading this report. Great finds on show and well done everyone for making the day a huge success. Thanks must go to Taff, Neil, Chef, Proconsul, and all those who helped on the day.

A great community spirit, which is fast becoming a huge feature of DW rallies.

Hope as many finds as possible are recorded with  the FLo as the finds significantly add to the history of the area.

Well done everyone