A days detetecting with Rob, Ray and Geoff 3Oth May 2O1O

[Neil]

Out today for a glorious days detecting just over the border in Bandit Country, with Rob, Roman Ray and Chef. We were in the fields bright and early to find that we had company in every one of the pastures thanks to the farmer allocating cows and bulls to ever field! We took a "If they don't bother us we won't bother them approach" and that worked fine although there were a few minor stand offs!

The first find of the day fell immediately to Chef a few feet from our cars in the form of a button with a Knights Templar symbol on it. As Rob had previously found a Knight templar silver ring here (its winding its way slowly through the Treasure Process as we speak} it only added more validity to his ring and it was a cracking start - well done Chef.

My first find of the day was a late Medieval buckle which I quickly followed with a tiny Roman fibula - at least thats what I am pretty sure it is. T shaped with a spring on the end - one to show the FLO I think.

Rob then turned up with a silver joey in his hand and a gold inlayed brooch. He was well happy as it was his first bit of gold to date - well done that man!

Into other fields, dodging the flying steaks as we went with the usual pewter buttons, Georgian & Vicky coppers, a spindal whorl, musket balls, copper spoon and others turning up all over the place, when I get a decidedly iffy signal and end up digging about 12 inches down to find a lovely what I think is a Tudor period clog fastner. Well pleased with it although I had to drag a knackered Rob all the way up the hill to use his pin pointer.

I let Rob disappear again, and straight away I had another faint signal and I dug and dug and then dug some more. Grabbed Robs pinpointer again and found what looked like a pot which felt like ceramic on the outside - yet was buzzing like crazy in the middle. We have visions of a Roman denari hoard at this point and so we slowly excavated it at an astonishing depth to discover that it was in fact a  ............................................................................................... galvanised Milk Jug! What the Hell is that doing that deep - gutted, but pleased with the depth of the Explorer. The photos don't lie - we were getting on for 2O inches and it must have been purely due to the size of it and the wet ground from the night before.

The day was slipping away, and I soon realised it was close to 4pm. Rob and I headed back towards the cars as we hadn't see Ray and Geoff for about 3 hours. Just as we were swinging our way to the brow of the hill rob gets a signal digs and shouts over to me with a smile on his face as wide as the Severn "Zoomorphic mate!"

He was spot on and it was the find of the day! A little bronze animal of sorts with two holes between the feet where presumably a pin would go. We got to the cars and all debated it for a while, concluding it could be any period from Celtic - Roman - Anglo Saxon! The jury is out for the time being. More news to follow on that I think. A great find to end the day - well done mate.

Thats it - I was off home to a roast Duck dinner - which I am about to devour in an hour or so and smells quacking!

Cheers for now
Neil

[Neil]

More

[Neil]

More again

[Neil]

The Roman Hoard!

[Neil]

Find of the day.

Opinions on it please?

[nomad]

great write up neil, and pictures, rob that is a super brooch mate ,glad you all had a fab day..

[TheLoveDoc]

well done all...sounds like you had a good laugh with some good finds too ...... good for you 

[coinhunter]

Nice finds looks like you all had a great day

[Techony]

Great write-up Neil, looks like you all had a great day-out. What a heart-stopper with the jug... Shame, man.

Well done Rob on the Zoomorph, it looks votive is it? That'll keep the vet busy for a while

[The Doc]

Great report and some nice finds. I think I would have been exactly the same about that jug - still it gave you all a bit of excitement for a while 

Sorry to pour cold water (or should that be milk!) on your IDs Neil, but your buckle and the clasp both look Georgian to me.

The bronze animal does look interesting, but items like it are very difficult to ID from pictures and probably will need to go to the FLO for an opinion.

[badboy]

you did have a great day boys but i do think that the find that tafflaff made is roman in the form of a brooch 1st century 

[Tafflaff (Rob)]

I'll put a few more pics up of it now.

[geordiefred]

Looks like you boys had a great day & some good laughs nice finds everyone well done

[Roman (Ray)]

HI ALL.
great write up again neil.a great day..a great laugh.and great company apart from tafflaff.lol.
yes neil the jug was a bit of a bummer.enough to stop anyones heart at that depth.
welldone rob on your finds butty great stuff..welldone neil on your roman fubula.
welldone geoff on your templer button if so.
great day out with the 55 crew.
cheers.

[nfl]

you got some nice finds there guys ,well done