weekend wanderers festival of buttons

[Mike]

following a very early start and an ilicate meeting with a dodgy geezer in a dark layby   off we went to the fabled weekend wanderers big dig  

9am the hooter sounded and myself, nobby and leighton set off along with another 1000 eager detectorists a grot soon appeared along with the nice pin part and a few bits and bobs , oh did i mention the 41 buttons as well  

spoke to  afew people and the theme seemed to be buttons and bullets all over , there were hammered and roman found along with talk of a noble and several celtic  

off to the digs and a nice hot shower and a very good meal in front of a lovely log fire ( b#'@*&ks to the camping ) and off too a nice warm bed after a bevvy or 2 .

sunday morning and yet more buttons then thankfully it poured with rain so we headed home , never to return  

we did have a laugh and all in all a fun weekend with good company , im just a bit worried that the cctv on the layby dont recognise me and track me down  

[Dyson]

What a waste of time and money never again stick with dw lol 

[herbie]

£50 an i would have found more in my back yard!! i must have dug 20-30 butttons!! what a joke never again will i go to a ww rally every body i spoke to had just found buttons!!

[herbie]

Shaun will be on in a minute telling you how many buttons he found!!

[relichunting]

The talk of the noble that was found Saturday i would take with a pinch of salt,as the bloke who found it also found one on Friday  

Only decent find that i seen was a quarter gold stater

I found around 100 buttons over 3 days

I gave up today as soon as the rain came

Expensive weekend and very dissapointing,the only good thing about it was my B&B and having a cooked breakfast

[stubble hunter]

I put the following report up on another known forum but I am pasting it here for those interested.
Will I attend another WW event ? well my report suggests I will but.... -  
on this occasion field conditions were the poorest I have experienced and finds were few considering the number there.
The area had history - King Alfred, The Ridgeway, ancient sites nearby - but this is never a guarantee the finds will be thick on the ground. Unfortunately for those attending and for the organisers it just 'didnt happen' and no good people moaning after the event. Many of us go on 'club digs' and virgin land not knowing what will be found - rallies should be seen as no different. However many go for social reasons and, as the Irish say - 'for the craic' - and many will take away fond memories of making new acquaintances and many will return for this reason alone. I thought the WW team were organisationally brilliant and ever friendly !
And my er... report..(I should add that I only attended on the Saturday).
I have no idea what was found Sunday o.k. ... so hopefully for those braving the rain...more came up today....

Just a short report and a few pics via link below
Could only attend today so a very early start saw me arriving bang on 8. Excellent signposting and postcode spot on for satnav.
As I entered the camp I was greeted by several peeps in medieval gear. Nice touch WW.
The guy with the axe in his head also looked like he'd been on the beer the night before ::g
The ladies gave me a information sheet and a couple of tags to wear (one for detector and one for the wrist) and I was in and parked up within minutes. Very efficient organising all round WW ! Its what we have come to expect from you over the years ! ::g
A quick gander around the marquees/traders/cawfee wagon to renew acquaintances and before I knew it ... 9 am was looming.
I jumped on one of the waiting taxis (converted cattle waggon?) and off a load of us went to a drop off point. Wasnt sure where we were heading in truth but I figured it had to beat a long walk.
As it turned out we were dropped off next to 'field 9'. Many lined up waiting for the hooter but a few of us decided to yomp it over to field 8 in the distance. Hell these fields were big and field 8 was the furthest away !
As we arrived the hooter went and detecting began in earnest.
I started off well with a "His halfpenny' token and a couple of nice buckles - I should have stayed there because, apart from a reasonable Roman bronze in the middle of field 9, it was downhill after that
However news of finds started to filter through and I was 'told' that a Henry VIII groat had turned up on the only field I failed to go on (field 7) and a few other hammies had also surfaced.
Also a gold 'knight' (?) from a ring (?) turned up - but I never saw this
The fields were in various states of stubble or just scuffed up - but I found it very demanding and perhaps, unfairly, I was expecting one or some of the fields to have been rolled/pressed. Maybe the late removal of crops due to the wet summer was a big factor or maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe I shouldnt have done that 10 mile sponsored charity walk the day before !
Either way I was cream crackered by 3 pm and so I sloped back to the marquee area to see what had turned up on the FLO tables. Pics of these on link below - but always difficult to take a good pic of items under glass (my excuse and I'm sticking with it )
In my eyes the best find appeared to be a cracking little Vale of Pewsey quarter stater (ticket no 46). I take my hat off to whoever found this because this really is a very small target. ! Excellent detecting sir/madam ! I'm sure many other good finds will have trickled in later so I am sure we would all love to hear of them here.
Apologies for quality of some pics but I hope they convey the atmosphere - see if you can spot yourself !
I loved every minute of it ! Great weather, stunning scenery and great company as always.
And.. I hope those staying on are not interruped by a dodgy weather forecast tomorrow ! All being well the morning will stay dry
Heres to next year and doing a 3 dayer ! ::g

And the pics...
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zb6oo00unrxkqld/R17vTVYuMx/Weekend%20Wanderers%202012%20Letcombe%20Bassett%20pics
(this replaces link that did not work earlier...)
Cheers !
John
 

[avalon]

I did the Weekend Wanderers for the 3 days and survived the -2 temperature on Friday night, although my ears fell off during the night with frost bite, but I wear headphones most the time so no one will notice. I Met a few old friends in the bar during the evening and I must say the  band was excellent on  Saturday night, although on Friday night the legs were better.
We had the usual morons, who thought it was great laugh to push all the loos over on their sides, late Saturday night, Oh well these rallies like to trawl the dregs of society, one wonders why they can’t find any land to detect.
I now pride myself in having one of the largest collection of fly buttons in the country and if  Levi’s would like to contact me, I’m sure we could come to some arrangement. The bullets weren’t bad either,  so I estimate out of the 700 people camping and day trippers which took the figure closer to 1200 per day, we now have enough buttons to  supply to a third world nation for the next 20 years. I do enjoy detecting firing ranges, 303 are such a joy to find, they give a cracking signal.

Can’t wait for next year!

[jayhay69]

i went to our MLO bedford dig that was a bit poor for finds compared to last years find i found one of 3 saxon pennies (the best one) also had 2 roman brooches and a few roman coins,buckles,thimbles other coins and other stuff did see 2 Q staters,3 saxon pennies,lots of hammered lots of brooches a beautiful silver seal,then headed to WW found a roman brooch,couple of coins,buckles and on the big field sunday found a full Vassica seal, but i agree the noble was a fake one and even the stater was bought in to get valued but roumors spread it was found at the rally and we also heard there was saxon pannies found which turned out was mine from bedford, i got it valued and the dealer told people they were found at Wonderers.i wont be going back for sure

[relichunting]

Talked to the chap that found the quarter stater as i was leaving today,he has only had his Deus 3 months

It was a genuine find he found it just a few hundred yards away from were he had camped.

But apart from that it was a poor rally for finds,unless you collect buttons of course

[avalon]

I'm contemplating doing a big rally myself, when I heard how much they made after expenses. At least I have productive sites.

[handyman [Alan}]

good report stubble hunter -- looks like over 550 finds were recorded by the time you took the picture on Saturday.
i would say that was pretty good going.

[Chef Geoff]

good report stubble hunter -- looks like over 550 finds were recorded by the time you took the picture on Saturday.
i would say that was pretty good going.

You'll never make a detective Alan lol
That's the old two raffle ticket book shuffle  we have numbers 1-119 with the ref number below the main number and then numbers 502-552 from another book with the reference numbers above. so 170 ish, not quite so go for 1200 and a 1000 acres, in fact that's only 3 more than I recorded last year of a lot less land

[JBM]

All was not lost as I met a lot of old friends and made a few new ones.

The Sun came out for our day which was the Saturday and being walking wounded, I stuck to a very small area about 50 yards square having used the tractor and trailer transport to field number 6.

In that small area I saw 3 roman coins, a thimble,tudor cloak clasp buttons and buckles etc come out.

Having done some homework before the trip I was fully aware that we were going into a hit and miss area as any recorded sites fell outside the fields open to us.

It was a fun day, but unlikely to be a serious one for our group of friends.

The chips and Guinness went down well but as mentioned some toilets were a bit of a problem or perhaps I should have said a small few who used them were born with their Arse holes in the back of their necks.

We will go again given the chance.   Jerry.

[mickycoin "mick"]

llanelli club members also done the 3 days, between us we managed  buttons, 15 roman coins poor condition few more buttons  pin head, 2 verynice lead tokens, buttons decorated pin head, couple of buckles, horse hame?? seal, buttons and a few georges 11, no hammered, 2 trips to local pub in wantage what more could you ask for, great weekend  mickycoin

[The Ferret]

Looks Like a mixed bag of reports some good some bad. I'd put it down to personal expectations of not just only rallies but Metal detecting in general. It's a hobby and past time or is it a glory hunt   .
I love to go out and enjoy the day. If I find something that's a bonus if not oh well happy to enjoy the country side views and all its nature.  

I'd  loved to have gone but was busy the weekend


Enjoy
TF