DetectingWales.com

This was our fifth visit to Gileston and every rally we’ve held there has been highly productive. This rally was no exception.

The day started off a bit drizzly but after we’d managed to squeeze all the arriving cars into the allotted parking areas the rain petered out a bit only to start pouring again when we were about to hold the usual get together to tell everyone which fields they could detect in. Luckily there was an open barn nearby so everyone huddled in there whilst we explained which fields were available and by the time we were finished the clouds had parted and the rain stopped. Aside from a few spots here and there the rain stayed away for the rest of the day and we were treated to some blazing sunshine later on.

Unfortunately, due to the bad weather we’d had over the last couple of weeks, the most productive field on previous rallies was not available to us this time but there was still plenty of land to detect on and the fields we did have provided plenty of top quality finds.

In some ways Gileston is almost a kind of historical theme park for detectorists, with identifiable Roman areas, medieval and post-medieval areas. If you fancy a Roman you head for the Roman hot spot, if you hanker after a hammered you head for the medieval areas, although to be fair, a fair few hammered turned up in the Roman areas today.

A new field was added to the land available to detect today. It had never been part of our previous rallies but we knew from a brief test by Rob that there was a suspected Roman hot spot on it. The Roman coins and brooches that came off it proved that without a doubt.

Once the formalities were over the members spread out over the fields and the first find fell to Bristolminelab with a silver walking cane end. Then the first Roman hot spot started producing, with two Romans from DB4 and one from Mike, who followed it up shortly after with a long cross hammered from the same field.

Further Romans came from Giddens and GJH and Bleepinbeeps widened the spectrum of Roman finds with the first fibula of the day. DB4 added to the hammered haul with a Scottish cut half and then Mrs Wizard came up with what many people consider the find of the day (although there are some other contenders) – A beautiful milled George IV half crown.

Jtalbot0001 upped the ante in the competition for find of the day with a lovely Viccy gold half sovereign. He then managed a superb eyes-only find – a flint arrow head. Some people would also consider this the find of the day. Dryland added a bit of variety to the finds list with a nice little casket key and Bymatt had a nice medieval pendant.

Monkey Mad and friends had made the long journey down from North Wales especially to attend the rally and he was rewarded with two hammered and a nice thimble for his trouble.

The hammered started coming thick and fast from then on, with contributions from Ozzyhead Jo, Antiqueboy, DB4, Jenks, Dryland, Ifindnothing, Linesman, Stinkytoad, Nobby, Terry Davies and GiJan.

Not to be outdone, whilst the hammered crowd were making their finds the Roman mob were adding to the total of Roman coins and brooches from both the original Roman hot spot and the new field.

The award for best hole must go to Keepmateethinajar who found both a Viccy gold half sovereign (yes another one) and a Lizzy shilling in the same hole. That’s some going.

Gileston once again lived up to its reputation as our most productive site, even with our favourite field out of action. Thanks once more to Rob for finding the land and the farmer for his permission to hold the rally on his land and his help on the day.

Geoff


http://youtu.be/oJu-_WEUyQg (http://youtu.be/oJu-_WEUyQg)

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Pic 66 is mine  :) thanks for a great day

Any I.d. On the coins welcome  :)

Sharkey

Great finds, i have found exactly the same as picture 12, love to know what it is, looks like you all had a great day and great right up proconsul  :)

looks too be a fastener off some sort  and thanks for the rallie rob and everyone else!! ;)

What a cracking day, with so many finds and great company. Thanks again to everybody who organised this rally.

Well done all cracking finds

Great write up Geoff also many thanks to Rob for a great day out, hope to return to this great site :D

Found this tiny bronze button with seated horse rider with sword not sure as to age or era
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd96/joebristow/digs/th_7b3dc8a2-abc4-4620-ad97-cd3f37c59ee7_zps3243a662.jpg) (http://s222.photobucket.com/user/joebristow/media/digs/7b3dc8a2-abc4-4620-ad97-cd3f37c59ee7_zps3243a662.jpg.html)

Great to read about the rally and see all the finds.

Well done to all involved in making this DW rally another succesful one.

Also, a very well done to all the finders as well.

Fantastic Rally Report - well done Geoff - I felt like I was there!

Well done all the finders on what once again proved to be an outstanding location.

Cheers
Neil

Great day well done lads  :D

Well done to all the finders some nice bits was found ;)

Has anyone got any ideas on the item with the three loops?

Great report write up - and I do think Mike did a great impression of Geo IV.

Myself I had a quiet day mostly - still haven't managed a roman on rally, but then I never made it to that field nearest the power station....

I did find an odd Welsh lead token - I think it has something to do with the war, but I haven't managed to clean it up enough yet, And I found a huge fork, all lovely and shiny, but sadly stainless steel.

As I was leaving, I thought I'd have a look at the far field - I heard of a few coins coming from it and had a great chat with Ifindnothing - after doing a sweep of the field on the way back to the car I had a banging signal (47 on the Deus) and I laughingly said to myself that it would be the hammered the rally owed me, and it was - nicely rolled up - I've found recently that if one of two hammered appear I don't get one, but if say more than 10 are found I'm probably going to find one.

it's a Henry VII sovereign penny, Durham mint, under Bishop Fox, although it has been wildly misstruck (with a 45 degree flan rotation between strikes) - I note that there is al least one other sovereign penny that came up.

Anyway, I'm amazed at what came up - especially given the previous 4 rallies that have been held there.

Thank you for a cracking rally. Very much enjoyed and had a good chat with a few of you.

For me it was a first ever with my James 1 half groat so well made up with that.

Thanks again everyone.

Thanks Rob for another good rally, the Roman I found which I thought was Magnentius turned out to be his brother Decentius.
Geoff

Great report and pics and thanks for a great day.

Adding to the hammered count, I know Steve King had a cut half late on and I had this with almost my last signal of the day. Edward I class 9 penny, but sadly 'chipped'!

(http://i865.photobucket.com/albums/ab217/egbert6212/Detecting/EdwardI_zps75ade9a4.jpg)

thanks again all for a great day, here are my finds, its only take me 5 rallies to get some of the good stuff  :D

if anyone can i.d any of the objects / fragments of stuff / the romans it would be much appreciated.

the dark roman is 17mm across, the green roman is 19mm across  :)

Sharkey

Looks like I missed a gud rally welldone all

Well done Sharkey you had quite a rally there, the fragment is a catch plate from a Roman brooch, the larger coin is a follis of Helena mother of Constantine the Great, your pics are a bit out of focus on the smaller one ???

thanks very much for the info Geoff, much appreciated.

i have taken 2 more pics of the smaller one, damn iphone !

Sharkey

It looks as if it says Vespasianus so Vespasian but that size it would have to be silver......have you tested it with foil?

Once again Mrs Turner & I would like to thank the organisers and the members of the rally for the warm welcome we had.

It was also nice to put faces to names from off the forum.

What did I find, not a lot but by heck did I sleep well last night from all of the walking (+ talking) I did on the day...............Doug

well ive just wrapped it in foil , and low and behold it warmed up a little and could hear a quiet bubbling noise!  monkeymad had a hunch that it was silver yesterday, but the fact it gave such a shocking signal i thought otherwise  :-\

thanks very much Geoff, i cant believe my luck with the Romans!

Sharkey

Well done Andy, you and Danny had a good day. What did the other boys get ?

i had a hunch it was silver andy, it had the deni look to it well Winkled

amazing finds everyone well done  ;D

Thanks Chris , thanks Jason . From memory, Keith had a roman brooch fragment and roman coin, Derek had a Tudor furniture fitting

Sharkey

I had a few very badly corroded coins with these items.

Top right looks like shrapnel from an anti-aircraft shell. (WW2 pill box down on the shingle bank)

(http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii166/2000amy/IMGP9092_phixr.jpg)

What a brilliant rally. It was great to be out with Detecting Wales again. I had a fantastic day with some nice finds, these were two belt fittings ( found within a few feet of each other ), a George penny, a 1838 Victoria six pence, a buckle, buttons and quite a bit of lead. I want to thank rob and all involved for providing us with another brilliant rally. Also a great write up. Thanks again Detecting Wales.

Belt fitting from rally

Many thanks to all for organising the rally and for making the day really special for me. Still can't quite believe I found something gold, my first gold anything ever, the coin is lovely. And then managed a little while later to find an intact arrowhead, never found a whole one before. It is a textbook example as you can see by the illustraion. This type of flint arrowhead is called a HOLLOW BASE ARROW and dates to 2500-1500 BC. Apparently these are harder to find than the earlier leaf shape types and later barbed and tanged types, so I am very pleased. Thanks again, Jon.

In my opinion, these are circa 17th century and not Roman sorry - still nice finds though!

Thanks for the identification

Jon that arrowhead is a bit special and well done on spotting it ;)


Oh yes...and the Gold's not too shabby either 8)

That is a fantastic arrowhead. I kept my eyes out for flint all day, but didn't see anything worth bothering with.

Would love to have found one :) (as I've only ever found a leaf shaped one, and a half sovereign - both in the same field, but 20 years apart :) )

fab dig guys....all sorts of finds 4me.....spindle whorl,buckle.buttons..half hammy,,quarter hammy..part of a bell....catch u soon jxc.x

Fantastic rally I had a great day out  and I was especially happy with my silver George 1V half crown and then to round the day off I found a hammered coin what a nice end to the day.

Thank you Rob it was a really good rally cant wait to go back there. :) :)

Well in addition to my Sovereign Penny, I also found a large lead token / medal. It took me a day or two to get around to looking at it, but (quite aptly) it is a Welsh Peace Medal from 1919.

I've attached an image of a replica one I found on eBay, though I'm guessing the one I have is probably an original.

looks like i missed out on a great rally some great finds well done all
 ;)