Detecting Wales 2 Day Rallies 36 & 37 - The Locked Car Rally!

[Neil]

The third Annual Detectingwales.com Two Day Rally was held over the weekend in the glorious Vale of Glamorgan. Members old and new attend both days en-mass, with about 30 or so camping over night on a high class camp site with all mod cons.

Early on the Saturday the farmers field became a tented village with numerous types and sizes of tents, mobile homes, mattresses in the back of vans, and home made van conversions. Along with this we had the generous loan of BigHoni's pavillion for want of a better word. A big thanks to you John for bringing it along and your expertise in erecting it. Thanks also go to Tom Tom as well for helping us raise the temporary building.

After the normal DW welcome we were into the fields and following a few pot legs, 2 Bristol tokens dated 1600's, buckles and buttons. A beaming Melonhead aka Mark was striding towards me with intent. In his hand was a stunning Half Crown of Charles II in outstanding condition and dated 1679 - a rare and valuable coin. Well done Mark!

Next up came news of a hammered fathing coin, but for the life of me I can't recall who found the first one. After that the hammered started trickling in at a steady rate with a total of 10 being made by the time the BBQ was cooking away.

A couple of lovely georgian and late Medieval buckles arrived courtesy of two different members - the one was particularly ornate and would grace any buckle collection!

It wasn't just about hammered's though as a denari turned up found by John who later went on to win a GPS kindly donated by Nomad in the raffle. He was having a good day.

Not to be out done Mark turned up at the end with Roman Denari of his own - that looks Neroish to my untrained eye and will need a bit of TLC to return it to its former glory.

Steven King kept the Roman theme going with a lovely trumpet Brooch and this was soon joined by a Roman coin found by Willowtree. Another 4 or so Roman grots surfaced apart from the Denari - we were certainly in a Roman area - although we knew that before we arrived!

Another Steven had the stem of what would have been a lovely silver spoon - the engraving on it looks pretty early. Paul was also into the silver area with two silver cufflinks that both need a bit of a clean.

Willowtree found a silver Baby brooch with a silver chain and silver ended pacifier attached. The coral the teething bit was made out of though has sadly rotted away - but it was certainly an unusual find. Nobby was also in a finding mood and turned out a short cross that has a perfect profile, but is sadly torn, along with another hammered particoin.

At 4pm we had the annual raffle prizes for those who had found tokens during the day. Some had found more than others, and a big thank you goes to all the members who donated gifts. There was a wide selection with the star prize a GPS system donated by Nomad being won by John. A great prize to win!

This rally we also had a SCRAP bucket organised by Mike The Fob for a Cancer charity and it was good to see it filling up throughout the day. A few of the coins from the bucket were given to the three young men who had attened and they were over the moon with them.

One young lad in particular made a beauty of a find during the few minutes his dad was showing him how to use it in the shape of a silver bodkin dating to the 1700's! It was a lovely find and really nice to see three generations of Bobs family detecting together. I don't think he'll forget that moment in a hurry!

Back at base camp I FIND NOTHING was having an interesting day of his own, as thanks to his cars central locking system he managed to lock his car keys in the boot! The next half an hour witnessed 10 or more expert DW car crackers attempting to break into Mark's car with everything from tent poles to coat hanges to tennis balls, but to no avail - I can safely say that Renault make a DW proof car! At the end we gained access due to the artful Treorchy Boy himself - Rob - who having fashioned a metal implement manged to wind down the window which was by now prised open by numerous pieces of wood. A huge cheer went up and we all returned to the plan of eating barbecued food and sipping the odd sherry or two!

We had enough food to feed about 200 people and a big thanks goes to everyone who brought some food. Next time I think we need to curb Kev's Aunty Annes enthusiasm who made 40 lamb burgers - all of which were delicious - I know I had 3 of them! Thanks Aunty anne - they were lovely.

As the night wore on and the sherry flowed - 3 intrepid DW members ventured into the dusk to try a bit of authorised night detecting. This was at about 8.30pm. We could see their lights in the distance and expected a quick return. they finally strolled into the tent shattered at 12.30am!

I headed to my luxurious 1 man tent with attached outdoor privy shortly after, but I am assured by those camping nearby that the partying went on till about 4am!

Day Two
I awoke at 7am to find that every Snail In The Vale had decided to cling to my tent over night and bleary eyed surveyed the minor carnage from the previous nights and listened to the sound of a pack of Walruses sleeping like babies! Loud snoring babies that is!

The next rally site was only a short distance up the road and following a decamp - we all headed to the new location.

Lots of Day 2 faces arrived and swelled the numbers. The first field I went into looked promising as it was littered with pottery and it turned out to be predominantly RAF china.

The first find of note was once again Willowtree who had not only a Denari (number 3 for the weekend) but also a great condition toy cannon in his hand.

As with the other site, buttons, coppers and thimbles became the order of the day until we had a glut of military cap badges - a Royal Artillary one to Tom, A ATS one to Richard and another that slips my mind!

The hammered started popping up once again with a cracking short cross, an Edward III, a few others and then a star find on the hammered front - a Norman Period coin! I never got to find the chap who discovered it. Photo please anyone.

Zorro found an unusaul item that has two heads facing either way - which reminded us of the Roman God Janus. Speculation was rife as to its purpose ranging from a roman artefact to a poker handle to a cork screw. I personally think "Its got an age to it". Its one for the FLo's to decide.

Tyna added to the milled silver over the two days with a George III sixpence, only for Nobby to find an earlier sixpence from the rign of William III. I also managed to find a piece of hallmarked silver from the corner of a book or purse.

At 3.30pm I was done in from two days detecting, organising and eating  headed home to eat some more

A huge thanks to all the members and particularly Mike the Fob(bucket collecting and cooker), Bob(Barbecue), Big Honi (Marquee), Fay, Janet, Bobs wife and others for the cooking. Also anyone else I have forgotten it was memorable weekend for all involved.

A major thanks also to the Day 1 farmer who couldn't do more to help and was a lovely guy to boot - thank you all for the whip round for the camping - he appreciated it. We'd like to go back to this venue and he seems more than happy to facilitate this, so well done everyone on the cleaning up and leaving the site as we found it.

Finally the last Thank You goes to TaffLaff for arranging all of this - its a lot of work and he did us proud.

Cheers everyone - I am off to bed in an hour

Neil

[Neil]

More

[Neil]

Again

[Neil]

More again

[Neil]

still more

[Neil]

More

[Neil]

Again

[Neil]

Again

[Neil]

More

[Neil]

Again - get comfy!

[Neil]

More

[Neil]

Few more

[Neil]

More

[handyman [Alan}]

great report Neil and well done everyone on making it a huge success.

denarii number 3 looks like that of emperor nerva 94 to 96AD

[Neil]

Almost there!