Almost Impossible Site To Detect On, But Worth It..

[Spooyt Vane]

I have field that not many detectors can work because of the mineralised soil...We have a ancient nonactive volcano in the bay and we think this the reason for most dettectors not to be able to discrimate or be able tto go more than 2inches,but  the top minelab machine is pulling the goodiies out,,,,,,Viking and medieval...

[colin]

some pics would be nice

[Val Beechey]

I have several like that Rob. I posted about them earlier this year. The Farmer that rents them took on one hell of a task. They'd stood unused for generations, just rough old ground. He'd tried to grow wheat in a couple of them but the crop was very patchy and poor. He ploughed most of them for silage last year and one in particular I noticed had enormous rust red patches.
Detecting is a nightmare, just a constant stream of iron signals to the point of over-load. But I have found evidence of settlement and iron production and a Jetton in one small field. So effort is rewarded but hard work and demoralising at times.

Val

[Spooyt Vane]

I have several like that Rob. I posted about them earlier this year. The Farmer that rents them took on one hell of a task. They'd stood unused for generations, just rough old ground. He'd tried to grow wheat in a couple of them but the crop was very patchy and poor. He ploughed most of them for silage last year and one in particular I noticed had enormous rust red patches.
Detecting is a nightmare, just a constant stream of iron signals to the point of over-load. But I have found evidence of settlement and iron production and a Jetton in one small field. So effort is rewarded but hard work and demoralising at times.

Val

Red patches indicate burning Val and are you getting iron slag from this field?..Its a good chance that it might be a medieval smelting site ,with furnaces....My site is different ,as i  have never encountered such a lack of depth and registering non ferrous as ferrous in nearly 4o years of detecing....

[Val Beechey]

Hi Rob,  yes I've found lumps of slag and some really nice early 14th cent local pottery. When the Farmer ploughed last year I walked two of the fields and could see what I thought was charcoal. Seemed very old and crumbled when you touched it but no sign of pottery in those two.
What I've done, as best as I can, is a rough search of each field, to see what came up. I figured it would give me an idea of where to do a more thorough search in the winter.
So far there only seem to be a couple of fields worth re-visiting and the evidence is sketchy at best. One coin does not a hoard make, and all that jazz.

Val

[Spooyt Vane]

The lord,bishop and abbot seem to have conttrol over the mines and iron production in medieval period on my island...You might not thinlk jettons are that important,but the economy of medieval Britain counted on them...EXCUSE THE PUN..LOL..We here find hammered and jettons on wealthy sites and close to your site i guess will be the temporary huts of the metal workers....The skilled workers after the great plague of europe in 1350 became very well paid because of the decimation of population........Keep researching and looking VAL........ROB

[Val Beechey]

That Jetton, was to me, one of the most important finds. I was almost sure there was settlement somewhere and was drawn to a smallish enclosed field. That's where I found it. Knowing coins aren't in abundance down here I was over the Moon. Finds have been very hard to come by with the mineralisation and Iron workings. I will definitely give this little field a lot more attention through the winter.
I'm convinced there is Iron Age or even Bronze Age settlement as well. The old, old name for the area is Tumped Park and I think I know where the Tumps were. They aren't mentioned by RCAHMW but the Moated Enclosure in the next field is listed.
This is one of sites I preach about. Just because you know there was something there doesn't mean you'll find anything.

VAL