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Author Topic: Detecting is fun  (Read 5160 times)
ysbytymike
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« on: December 02, 2011, 09:30:01 PM »

Spent the whole today on one of my farms and found nothing but ring pulls and silver paper. Was detecting a field that's been used for horse shows
and various farming activities over the years. I Moved to another field after lunch but again just a few rivet heads and a copper penny that had virtually
degraded into a thin copper disk with no identification whatsoever.

This farm has only ever produced one good find and that was my first ever silver Lizzy hammered found close to an old footpath that crosses the field.
I'm beginning to think the area has very little in the way of buried history, despite the fact that there's documented roman activity just a few miles away.

Apart from that Lizzy, all coins found have been badly eroded 'copper' and of little use as there's virtually no means of identifying them.  I'm coming to the conclusion that this land historically, was poor farming land as such, was only ever been populated by people scratching a living on what land they could cultivate. The area today is well used for farming and looks like any other farming community with well organized field structures and enclosures but I again suspect that that's down to the use of modern equipment, farming tools and modern techniques, transforming the area into a more productive and easier to maintain landscape.

This might explain why there doesn't  appear to be any historical artifacts uncovered to date. Historically it was difficult land and the people must have been very poor with very little in the way of luxuries or non-essentials, and a possible reason there only ever seem to be copper coming out, is silver, gold or high denomination coins were never used in the area. Just trying to rationalize why despite extensive detecting, nothing (apart from a few pieces of lead) demonstrates historical usage of the land.

The reason for the post is to show that detecting is not all about 'look what I've found'.. It makes you think. You use your experiences and thoughts to try to piece together parts of an overall jigsaw and in doing so, perhaps with relevant research, come up with a rational explanation of the place we live in and how it developed into the modern version we see around us.
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Napoleon
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« Reply #1 on: December 02, 2011, 09:57:08 PM »

very good post Mike , if everyone was thinking the same that will make this hobby more easy and enjoyable so people don't be greedy and appreciate what you got . Happy hunting .
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Chef Geoff
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« Reply #2 on: December 02, 2011, 10:24:24 PM »

LOL Mike, now there are the words of someone fairly new to the hobby, it is either "this machine is rubbish" or "there isn't anything there" Cheesy
You have got to remember Mike that, "the absence of evidence is NOT evidence of absence." The supposition that copper coinage was used due to the low standard of living is also I'm afraid flawed as copper coinage has only been with us (save for the Romans) just over 300 years and so silver would have been the norm, but of course these may be more of the Penny and it's fractions so these would be harder to find.
A few other things you have to factor in, are, the fields may have been detected before, not that this ever worries me but the larger coppers and silver will probably be gone. In this circumstance you Just have to slow right down and listen for those "only just" tones that may be cut hammereds and remember that your silver paper is the same as a cut quarter, so don't be tempted to leave it.
The other possibility is that the finds are just too deep. One of the first things I do on a new pasture site is to dig a hole, this is to discover two things, 1. the depth of the top soil (if not too deep) and 2. the make up of that top soil ie. stones. There are no stones in Britain that are newer than man and they don't fall out of the sky, so if you have stones in the topsoil then it has to have been tilled and could contain finds.
Now if you find that you have very deep topsoil and no stones, then I'm afraid the dreaded "worm action" may have done it's work. Darwin proved that an item left on the surface will in normal conditions be covered by soil (worm casts) at the rate of 2" every 10 years, luckily actions such as cattle and sheep treading the ground, slows this process down, but I think you will see that if you have deep rich soil that hasn't been turned over for 100 years, then the finds will have gone for good as far as Todays metal detectors go.
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ysbytymike
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« Reply #3 on: December 02, 2011, 11:13:43 PM »

Leave me be to my ramblings..  Cheesy Cheesy

Good points Geoff.

I can rule out being detected before because the family have been there for more time than detectors have been around.

I'll plod on as I still have another six fields I haven't touched yet. And we all know that the fields I have covered will still contain
finds. The topsoil is around 5 inches deep on the upper fields then you hit a sort of stony surface. The bottom fields seem to have a greater layer of topsoil
although I haven't deliberately dug a test hole to evaluate.
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Val Beechey
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« Reply #4 on: December 03, 2011, 10:16:11 AM »

Sounds like my kind of farm Mike. I've had the same experience on the 3 farms I covered in the last 18 months. I have come to the conclusion that they are animal farms and have been for generations into the distant past. This, of course, rules out regular ploughing. It seems to be a fairly new idea to plough pasture approx. every seven years and re-seed. Have had one or two nice finds off these fields. Also where fields have been trenched for drainage and water supply for the animals.
One thing I have noticed with all the farms I've been on is that the nearer to the dwelling you are the more finds come up.
It can be soul destroying, I know. But I keep thinking to myself, You Never Know. The nicest finds come up in the most unexpected places.

Val
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ysbytymike
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« Reply #5 on: December 03, 2011, 10:33:46 AM »

It can be a bit testing sometimes Val when you know before you dig the hole that its just going to be a bit of junk or even if copper,
well degraded so as not to be identifiable.. Still, when something of interest does pop up its a real buzz. Sortta recharges the batteries so to speak (no pun).

I like your thinking about farms only being animal orientated. that would make sense and explain why whatever is there (with Geoff's worm comments in mind) is probably very deep.
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Val Beechey
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« Reply #6 on: December 03, 2011, 11:03:13 PM »

That much I know for certain Mike. It reminds me of the buried slabs I found under the lawn. I'd been cutting over them for a couple of years and didn't know they were there till I started cutting a new border.
I was asked to detect around a 12th cent.Church by the local History Group not so long ago. There is confirmed evidence of Med. and Iron age settlement around the church which stands on a hill in it's own little field.(Not ploughed since Jesus was born) I was even given a copy of the Archi. report.
What did I find. 6d, a battery for a digi camera, a button, and what I thought at the time was a WW11 shell that turned out to be a very old air filter off a tractor.
If there was anything there, and I'm sure there was, then it was too deep for my humble detector. To say we were disappointed was an understatement. Taught me a valuable lesson though. Nothing is certain in detecting.

Val
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« Reply #7 on: December 03, 2011, 11:29:58 PM »

nice thread ysbyty buttie.looks like a learning curve,my own personal preference would be to consentrate on where you found the coin and expand on the footpaths,where are they going to and from.
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ysbytymike
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« Reply #8 on: December 04, 2011, 07:52:22 AM »

Well established footpaths across this land as it was the main route to a church for all the local villages and farms at one time.
I've found a few modern coins but not really interested so gave to farmer.

Thinking about it, I have found part of a buckle on this land and I posted the image up but got no idea of age. Will re-post in the hope someone can
give me an idea of when it was likely to have been lost.

Off detecting for day now, so hopefully will have something else to challenge the old gray cells by the end of the day.
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ysbytymike
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« Reply #9 on: December 04, 2011, 07:57:32 AM »

This is the buckle I was talking about. Anybody got an idea?
Cheers


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romano-brit
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« Reply #10 on: December 04, 2011, 08:18:16 AM »

my only farm is all pasture and has never been ploughed, its still really big rigde and farrow, all the finds ive had off it, from roman to 19th cent have only come off that 1 field, which is about half a mile from the farmhouse, the rest of the fields have nout in them at all
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waltonbasinman
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« Reply #11 on: December 04, 2011, 09:53:12 AM »

Attached is a picture of one of my new farms Mike. A good post this and perhaps a little bit of whats happening on your land as well. My first visit was to the area marked X after two hours I had One Georgian button at three/four inches and the soil was like sand, so dry. I chose this corner first as three footpaths converge here. As the finds were pretty non existant I thought I would head down the hedge where the footpath hits the old road and looking at a copy of the first edition OS map although the road predates it I realised three other footpaths converge at this road and after a couple of hours I had a couple of coppers, a buckle and a George III sixpence but all from three four inches. My next visit was a week later after some serious heavy rain and though the normally three foot stream is still a two inch trickle the soil was now a wet clay and not dust. Although I had wandered the area before I had another go at the same area and Finds were suddenly coming out from eight nine inches and from all periods as you will have seen from my posts. So i decided to concentrate on the area where the road and footpath meet in the field which is the shaded area and though I have had a few couple of hour sessions I am going to make sure it is after the rain as this seems to make a lot of difference with Herefordshire Clay. The finds are there but sometimes you got to work at them


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waltonbasinman
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« Reply #12 on: December 04, 2011, 09:57:42 AM »

Here is the old road visible as a earthwork in the field. and the footpaths are on a land transfer map in the record office dated 1760.


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dances with badgers
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« Reply #13 on: December 04, 2011, 11:00:05 AM »

the finds will be there mike but out of range mate Shocked
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« Reply #14 on: December 04, 2011, 03:14:10 PM »

i'll add my twopenneth into why its a fun hobby. You get to come across some superb scenery. In this case a local reservoir thats less than half full. The field itself produced the one and only find of a 1930 penny. So, on the return  home via the local nursery, for a coffee. we came across this little cherub!

now thas what i call a good day out.


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