What Do You Think Of This? (Weekend Wanderers Rally Hoard)

[rjm]

Hi All
Spoke to my friend who went to The Weekend Wanderers Rally this Sunday and paid his £20 to detect with all the others.
One of the detectorists was lucky enough to find a Saxon brooch and one or so other items with a skull. All hell broke lose with the organisers rushing to the scene. Police were called along with archaeologists. They cordoned off 100 sq metres of the find, and told the finder to stay outside.
Allegedly the farmer/landowner arrived soon after and declared that the rest of the stuff yet to be dug was his! It turned out that the find is a likely Saxon chief buried with full regalia, sword etc etc with the likelihood that the total will be a million or two.
My mate spoke to the archaeologist who reckoned the brooch was priceless and maybe worth about 800K !!!!!!

Obviously the full facts are yet to come out as this was only yesterday and is from a person at scene.

I think, to put it mildly, that I would be pretty miffed if I was told to "b**gger Off" and that anything else found I would not be entitled too? This seems extremely poor treatment by landowner and archaelogists towards the detectorist and his wife who had paid between them £40 for the priveledge of keeping their finds.

What do you think?

I think I'd be seeing a solicitor with a view to securing my rights.

[mark barrett]

I went to this rally but i only had 2 roman grots and a 18th C lead token, did have other bits and i did enjoy it, Ade and shungav was with me and we could see the police and arkys up where the saxon stuff was found , i havent heard anything more as yet but surely the farmer cant claim all of the grave goods as i thought it was common practice to have a 50/50 agreement.  Did anyone else find anything ?

[waltonbasinman]

MMMMMM !!!!! Would like to see all the facts first but I am afraid the law would be on the detectorists side here. Any detectorist that detects with permission is entitled to a 50/50 with the landowner unless they sign a written agreement saying otherwise. If it is that important they will declare it treasure trove. The land owner will not be allowed to do this and fair play will be seen. I think Neil is more expert than I but the finder does have rights.

[DIG IT! (ADIE)]

Spot on paul with what you said the detectorist will get 50 % dont matter what the farmer says

[DIGGA]

I HAVE TO AGGREE WITH YOU PAUL  ,,,,I WOULD WANT ALL THE FACTS FIRST ,,,,  ALSO I BELIEVE THAT IF THE FARMER WAS PAID  TO USE HIS LANE ,,, AND THE DETECTORIST  ALSO PAID TO USE THE LAND ,,,,   HE IS ENTITLED TO 50%   OF THE VALUE OF THE FINDS

[Tafflaff (Rob)]

I think what the farmer is getting at is that the finder can have 50% of what he unearthed but the rest of the stuff (still under the ground) he keeps for himself. I think it will break down to wether the brooch can be tied to the hoard as a whole and proven to be part of the deposited hoard , which if the archeaologists have been called in then this should easily be proved, if this is the case then Treasure Law will dictate that the whole hoard is split 50/50 . That is unless the organisers of the Weekend Wanderers rally had a different agreement with the farmer.

[proconsul]

As I understand it if a detectorist makes a find then calls in archaeologists who make further finds at the same spot the detectorist is entitled to 50 percent of the value of these further finds. I think the same rule would apply here whatever the farmer says.

Geoff

[StumbledUpon]

The finder told me that anymore artifacts found connected to the grave he would have a right to his share, I was speaking to him and his wife inside the cordoned off area, archaeologists were doing a visual seach of the imediate area, they will be exhuming the remains today, They expect more aritifacts to be found. It was very exciting. Police were called as standard procedure when human remains are found,

[Nick]

If anyone's interested there are pics of the brooch over on the ukdetectornet site.

[1morecoin]

If the Brooch is found to be associated to the rest of the finds which it most likely will be, and the finder has permission to be detecting there which he has, then the finder is entitled to 50% of the final valuation of the complete group of coins or artefacts.
As was stated earlier by Rob the only problem that could arise would be if there is a different agreement with the landowner on the split.
I do remember a quarrel between a landowner and a finder over money for a group of finds which were going through the Treasure process and because the landowner caused a few problems  he ended up with a third of the value and the finder had two thirds. at the end of the day the treasure valuation commitee have the last say in who gets the money, and I was told this by Trevor Austin (NCMD).

[mickycoin "mick"]

hi all not sure what the fuss is about, every one who attended the rally was given a map of the area, with field locations, also a pink letter with usfull information written on it.   UNDER LAND OWNER AGREMENT IT SAYS   "" FINDS THAT ARE SUBJECT TO TREASURE TROVE LAWS, ARE TO BE EQUALLY SHARED BETWEEN THE LANDOWNER AND FINDER/S AND ANY OTHER ITEMS FOUND THAT ARE NOT TREASURE TROVE BECOMES THE PROPERTY OF THE FINDER/S"""  AS ITS WRITTEN ON THE LETTER   

[zorro]

it clearly stated on the information sheets that came with the tickets that any find deemed to be treasure would be split evenly between finder and landowner and by paying to attend you agreed with this. as for the farmer declaring the rest of the stuff to be his , frankly i find that rubbish. i was no more than 30 yards from the find spot, the 2 guys had asked people to keep a reasonable distance back which people did. after the discovery of the brooch the jaw bone was found and police called as would be expected. at no point did i hear either of the 2 guys who made the find say that the farmer was being awkward. i too believe the law is clearly on the side of the finders here, any further finds are whats called asociate finds and if they can be "linked" would be part of the original find would be split 50/50.
i believe this is just a story made up to scandalise.
incidently i heard thee  were 4 gold staters found and a hoard of roman coins.
i believe there were in total over 800 finds recorded by the FLO's at the rally and this, i believe, is  powerful case NOT to ban detecting.
British history has been better served and is now more informed BECAUSE of the Wantage rally.

[rjm]

The below is a link to the local newspapers reporting of the find:


www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/headlines/4641140.Does_brooch_dug_up_in_Oxfordshire_field_belong_to_6th_century_Saxon_princess_/

[rjm]

The below is a link to the local newspapers reporting of the find:


www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/headlines/4641140.Does_brooch_dug_up_in_Oxfordshire_field_belong_to_6th_century_Saxon_princess_/

[Malcolm.mtts]

Nice to see the article said a metal detector found it and not the archies with a JCB.