Night hawking

[roger g]

We had a rally cancelled on sun due to night hawking just wondered if anyone knows of anyone that is active in the bewdley Worcestershire area can U please pm names so that I can forward them on your name won't go any further. As u know its our hobby at risk if this isn't stopped

[handyman [Alan}]

Pm Roger

[Spooyt Vane]

Pm Roger

The police have car numbers of quiet few well known hawkers up and down the country ........It seems to be working in some areas as the police monitor these people.......I would like to see the confiscation of vechile and detectors after prosecution of these law breakers....Night hawking is the biggest danger to the well being of our hobby 

[roger g]

Nice one I think that if we all stick together we could stop this problem all together coz its still a big problem for the farmers

[Chef Geoff]

And unfortunately it always will be.

[dances with badgers]

it will never be stopped 

[the-BANGOR-citizan]

And I still think that if anyone is caught we should all be made aware of who they are Picture and name.

[galoshers]

i wonder if they find much in their night raids?must be hard in the pitch black darkness to see anything usefull. they could find 1 coin but miss a hoard as they wouldnt know where it was on a later visit..
what a bleak passtime 

[Neil]

I know of two Ex-Members of DW who have both been seperately caught in the past year Night Hawking. Thankfully neither of them are members here anymore and have not been for some time. They would certainly not be welcome back.

What they are doing is basically theft and completely detremental to the Detecting/Archaeology community and the relationships we struggle hard to build.

Before anyone asks - I will not be naming either of them. I dare say you'll get to read about it in the local press in the new year.

Beyond me how they can do it in the dark. The only time I tried (with permission) while camping I kept falling over, much to Marks amusement. Although the wine may have played a part!

[avalon]

No amount of licencing will stop illegal detecting, and if you ban the hobby it will still go on, all that does is remove the law abiding ones from the system, and leave even more treasure for the nighthawkers to find, . To pay the Government even more money through a licencing scheme would not go to the P.A.S but would be used to house even more economic migrants who flow to our shores to use our generous benefit system.

I believe some of the blaim for the increase in nighthawking can be linked to English Heritage and the C.B.A for there anti detecting stance they have taken over the years by poisoning landowners with leaflets and sneeking no metal detecting clauses into every document they hand out.

There are many detectorists out there, who read about fantastic  hoards being found, then go out and buy a machine for  £1000 , only to find every farmer says no, so in frustration they turn to nighthawking. If they had land of their own they may not feel the need to nighthawk.

[Spooyt Vane]

We are changing our ancient laws of Treasure Trove in the Isle Of Man ....Second consultation paper will be out in a few months time ...The N.C.M.D. and F.I.D. have inputted into this  process and hopefully we will have a law similar to England and Wales to suit the Hobby ...But the thorny Question of Licensing has raised its head with a possible provision left for a later date by the museum to reexamine this ...Licensing in my book would finish this as a bonafide hobby ...Limits would be set on the numbers of licenses issued and a drop in sales of machines with the big companies going to the wall ..There would be no investment in new detector technology ....But iam confident that the night hawker problem will be solved in due course and this hobby will continue without license...

[Val Beechey]

Thats a dismal outlook Rob. Almost as bad as another I heard a few days ago.
quote :  They're only encouraging us to get free beach licences to see how many of us there are. As soon as they think it's worth the expense they'll slap a charge on it, like Charlie boy.

How many Wardens will it need to police this I wonder. It would never be worth it. Would it ??

Val

[Chef Geoff]

No Val it wouldn't, this paranoia has been going  for as long as I've been detecting and is continually regurgitated by people on a regular basis, but there are doom merchants in walks of life

As I said, I see no problem with licencing and would quite welcome it if it lead to more informed and better read participants of the hobby. But it's too late for that as there are far far too many machines out there. So to any newbies out there "don't worry" and please don't start Chinese whispers as some of us older hands get sick to death with people's posts about "bans" and licences as if it was news. Yawn

[audiolab]

nighthawkers are just too lazy to go and knock on a farmers  door and ask politely .ive asked 5 farmers round here and got 4 permissions ,the one that knocked me back wasnt because he didnt like detectorists it was because he lets another local lad detect there ..fair comment and i respect that

[Val Beechey]

It amazes me how some people view 'Night Hawkers'  They are neither stupid (only in as much as they break the law) or lazy. In fact it could be said, in some respects, they are quite clever.
I don't say this because I admire them in any way. But just think about it seriously.
They do their homework, they suss out the lay of the land, every lump and bump, every point from which they can see and be seen. Just like burglars, they know exactly where they are going and exactly where they are going to dig and exactly what they are digging for. This is what makes them so dangerous. They treat it as a business. No score, no cash.
If most of us did as much home work and then got permission for what we consider to be interesting sites, as do the DW Rally organisers, we might find more.
Dangerous thoughts, on a dangerous subject. Sermon over.

Val