Detectingwales Rally 53 - What have the Romans ever done for us?

[Neil]

An early start for Mark and I today as we were called on by TaffLaff and Nobby in Rob’s mystery machine. The mystery being how its still on the road! The white knuckle ride that followed to Bridgewater was full of entertainment, detecting chat, pastie stops and minor cases of road rage.

We arrived to find we were the first at the site and that remained the same for a good 20 minutes, as panic started to set in regarding whether we had sent the right post code. Shortly after the mild panic, we learnt that around 10 cars full of members had parked up in a nearby field. They were fetched and pretty soon we had a full compliment of detectorists.

The fields today consisted of 60+ acres of stubble spread over 4 fields – plenty of land for us all to comfortably play on without bumping into each other. The first find from the stubble fell to myself and on first inspection I thought it was an unusual looking Medieval pendent dangler. I wandered over to the nearby Chef, who looked at it, listened to my initial thought, looked at it again, then started chuckling and then went into a full on belly laugh! He said “Have a look at it again Neil!”  To say I was a tad embarrassed with my ID was an understatement, as my Medieval Pendent dangler when turned the other way round miraculously became . . . . a broken fork!  

My next find though was of a bit more of a ding, donger following my previous clanger! A complete croatal bell that has since been cleaned out, and is now ringing again for the first time in a few hundred years. I love finding these and have been fortunate enough to find them regularly in the last few years.

Following a bit of a wandering I happened upon several Roman finders, the most happy of which was “the ever shouting”, Rambo who was now the new trustee of an unusual 1st Century Roman brooch, that had just been ID’d by Laura, our FLO for the day.

Rambo’s find seemed to be the signal for us all to start finding Roman all over the place, with Proconsul, myself, Silverfox, Ben Watergent, Charles, Leighton and a few others turning up Roman coins ranging from Sestertius and Dupondius through to tiny nummus. Some of which were in better condition than others, but all were definitely Roman. Chef added to the Roman theme finding a fibula with a X pattern near the top of the bar.

Whilst walking and talking to Geoff his eagle eyes managed to spot a George III sixpence on the floor. Bizzarely it turned out to be a forgery, but I think it was a s close as we got to any old milled silver all day.


Back at the FLO, members were regularly appearing and recording finds – I believe it was around 30 by the end of the day.  I recall Deadlock producing one of the few medieval finds of the day in the shape of a pair of buckles. Other finds including a 15th Century bronze pot lid by TaffLaff who also had a commemorative medal for the day.

The FLO, Laura gave around six of us a quick tutorial on “How to easily ID worked flints, not just by knapping - Class 101” which was fascinating. At the end of it I was the proud owner of a substantial Mesolithic worked core end that will sit happily in my collection as the oldest man made item I possess at approximately 8500 BC! I have always picked these up and now feel comfortable to ID them, as long as they are not fork shaped!

I was shattered by about 3pm and members started to drift home. That is except for my car lift buddies who decided they were staying in the fields till gone six!
When Mark finally arrived, he did in fairness have the only Medieval coinage of the day that he had worked hard for. It was speculatively ID’d as a Edward 1st groat. Mark can be rightfully quite protective of his finds, and his face was a picture as Cheffy spat on it to give it a quick in the field clean up! I think in future he’ll be showing people them at a distance!

The journey home consisted of much joviality mainly at each others expense, as we discussed finds, fellow detectorists, Mark’s curious range of impressions and oddly our family name lineage. Culminating in the conclusion that the car consisted of a Sheep farmer, a Bow maker, a Froggy and a Sausage eater! The mind boggles. A big thanks to the “Removal Men” who helped get some furniture out of the house – thanks guys – the foot wouldn’t take the weight.

We have several more rallies lined up for October, that as yet we haven’t announced, including one cracker of a location! I am having a few technical issues at the moment so excuse the delay and Cheffy will add the photos at a later date.

Keep the faith
Neil

[Neil]

[Neil]

[Neil]

[DEADLOCK]

Thank guys for a good hard days detecting these are my finds from rally

[beachboy (viv)]

thanks again boys for another great rally and as usual meeting new members had a great day and my first roman on a d/w rally,looking forward to meeting everybody on the next one.Viv

[Chef Geoff]

And I can highly recommend Viv for any tree felling work you may need doing.....amazing what he can do with a Draper shovel.

[Villan (Neil)]

Another great report Neil,thanks 
A nice selection of finds there.
Hope the leg is on the mend buddy,keep taking it steady

[markymark123]

nice finds guys gutted we couldn't make it 

[jaydogg]

Well done ladz with the finds, nice report Neil, sounds like a fun day was had by all, such is the DW way.

[charles price]

fab dig once again,,great company,,,fab place...great finds and brill roman 4me....thanx guys cu all again charles x jan....

[JRD]

Great report Neil  - it was my first day out detecting since about February so I was itching to get out there.

 I was rewarded with a little roman (Nummus of house of Constantine 324 - 330 AD) only my second ever roman! Also had a pot leg and an old penny.

Great to be back  

[Radnor Bandit (Ian)]

My selections of the day, no coins for me but a lovely little buckle, 2 pistolette balls and a pot leg as well. My arm is just about recovering from the armour plated stuble.
All in all a great day out with good company
                         

[Zeus (Joel)]

Very good write up as Usual and what a nice day it was. Thanks again for another great day out. Here are my few finds from the day and one i completly forgot about until today when i sorted out my finds, It was my thinble, my 1st complete one at that.

does any one have any ideas on what pics 3\4,  5\6,   9\10  are ?

                                 

[proconsul]

Hi Joel,

The object in pics 5/6 from the top is a Victorian stair rod holder. We've seen a fair few of those on DW rallies.

Geoff