Year seven in the life of Detectingwales.com 2015
Neil:
Year seven in the life of Detectingwales.com - 2015
There goes seven years at Detecting Wales without an itch, a war, or a stay in Tibet in sight. It the time of year again when I trawl through the stats, reports and notations to try and present something that is passable as a review of the year that was. I always forget someone or something of importance so I present my heartfelt apologies early doors.
Statistically, you have made Detectingwales one of the largest detecting forums not just in the UK but Worldwide with a staggering 31.5 million page views. This is the equivalent to the entire population of Peru looking at DW once. Thank God it wasn’t all at the same time!
Over the past year we burst through the 3000 members target and popped out the other side with 3094 members who have helped post on average 80 posts a day, which in turn is viewed 12,000 a day.
The shade dwellers have increased with DW receiving more visits than ever from those who choose to view as guests. Come on in from the cold and dark guys, it’s a lot warmer and friendlier in here once you sign up. Its free to join and you get the option to attend DW rallies, as well as access to a wealth of knowledge.
After seven years I was itching to see who of the original ten that signed up to DW way back in October 2008 were still active. It was the same week that saw the world financial markets lose 30% of their value. Some conspiracists believe that the birth of DW was to blame, I personally think it was more likely to be TaffLaff starting his first diet! Back to the point in hand and those who are still active members from that date include Proconsol (unsurprisingly its his baby), Myself, Byron, Ancient Pat and Dragons Breath. Well done chaps – Keep The Faith.
Some members post regularly, others once in a blue moon, but it all helps keep the site ticking over . The Top Ten posters of all time in order are: Chef, Kev, TaffLaff, Handyman, Val, Myself, Dryland, The Doc, Deadlock and Celtic Spikey.
Lots of new faces have joined us this year, although we are just a tad down on the average annual new member sign up. Membership and interest in detecting is going to fluctuate from time to time and it only takes one major hoard to make the interest spike. We will probably go through the roof in the New Year!
Our Facebook page has seen an increasing amount of traffic and is quite a quick and useful place to post whilst in the field as you don’t need to resize the images. Its easy to find just pop onto Facebook and tap in Detecting Wales and I can authorise your request.
Those newbies who have come on board and become regular posters this year include Cymro, Walsamra, Wittsy1, Hound Dog and Raistlain. As you know the more you put in the more you will get out of DW.
The Mods have worked their magic throughout the year and a festive jingle of the bells is directed at Nobby, Mike, Deadlock, Da Monkey, Handyman and Hotmill. Along with a warm handshake towards Chef, The Doc and Probono for their skills in identifying the items from the earth. Thanks for your help and vigilance chaps – its all been appreciated.
Some of you have made particularly interesting finds over the past 12 months and those that immediately spring to mind include:
Celtic Spikey who has continued to enthral and bring out the green eyed monster in all of us with the quality of finds emanating from his sites. Well done Paul and keep them coming.
The Sarn Poet and Ace on their early Bronze Age Axe heads.
Val on finding her first hammered coin and then to top it a 1859 young head sovereign
Deadlock on an unusual Hadrian denarius.
Stampy with a zoomorphic Saxon strap end.
DragonsBreath with 1790’s 22ct gold morning ring.
Da Monkey on joining the gold club with his first stater.
Colin on an incredibly rare Roman frog brooch. That I believe has no recorded comparison.
ShunGav with his ‘Toe Nail’ silver clippings hoard
b.buoy with a George II half guinea dated 1756
Last year we only held five rallies which is largely due to a ‘perfect storm of not hosting rallies’ coming together at the same time amongst the Admin Staff – namely a new arrival from the stork for myself and Taff working as a driving instructor. Unlike a few of the other local forums, DW was never formed as a Rally only institution. The rallys have always been an added bonus for the web sites members. Speaking of other forums, this past year has seen another two of the local ‘Detecting rally web groups’ fall by the wayside to join the ranks of others that have come and gone. From Detectingwales point of view, we are here for the long haul and appreciate the loyal support that many of you give us.
Rally #85 – Sponsored by IKEA
Later than normal, the first rally of the year saw us head to Cheddar and an Easter Egg hunt where only 20 of the 100 tokens were found. This farm promised so much but thanks to the increasingly present ‘green waste’ was virtually undetectable in places. The finds of note fell to Tom Tom with a 9ct inscribed gold ring and a scarce Roman Republican denarii from 83-82BC. I wonder what else could have been uncovered but for the waste.
Rally #86 – Kings, Queens and Tokens
The DW clan headed to Leominster for an eclectic day of finds and a healthy smattering of hammered coinage. Some of the more notable finds included Win with a Lizzie Sixpence from a gateway we must have all walked through. Wet Feet Again with a silver Georgian spoon that needs a little straightening. Find of the day though fell with the Trout Master Funk who pulled out a groat of Henry VI from the Calais mint.
Rally #87 – The Heat Is On
A scorcher of a day and a sixth return to one of our most productive sites. We were rewarded in the Roman hot spot on this farm with a smattering of coinage including for The Doc a coin with the Chi Rho symbol on. The stubble was a bit challenging this year, but it failed to stop Morrows finding the coin of the day with an unclipped Shilling of the Virgin Queen.
Rally #88 – Get Off My Drive Rally
After a frosty start to the day from a nearby farmer the day improved for some quite dramatically. Dom is particular who unearthed one off the wish list in the shape of a gold posy ring that was a tiny size. On our previous visit here a silver and gilt Tudor hair pin had been found and recently disclaimed and was donated by the finder to the farmers wife.
Rally #89 – The Lavender Wearing Santas
The tradition that is the Santa Hats Rally continued this year with a farm kindly donated by The Chef. It was a bit of a cross section of finds from hammered coinage to Roman grots, with the stand out find being a Roman Follis in good condition. The rally culminated with the annual raffle with an eclectic range of prizes.
For the coming year we have welcomed Mike on board and he is proving to be a land finding genius with two rallies already booked in for the New Year in the promising locations of Abergavenny and Chepstow. There is a further mouth watering location that he has been working on for a year now, but unfortunately we missed the harvest date by a week last season. Lets hope we can get on it this year. If we do, I think the sign up list will be full within a day.
A huge thanks to Proconsol for his tireless work on the DW technical side, which apart from the ‘403 Forbidden’ message normally works without a hitch. Not forgetting thanks to Taff Laff who is now half the man he once was and may prove hard to recognise when he comes out of rally retirement this year.
That’s about it for this year. May Christmas be fun filled and 2016 a healthy year spent staring into little holes in the ground with gold and silver twinkling back at you.
Keep the Faith
Neil
Neil:
For Photos
troutmasterfunk:
Great write up Neil...👍
handyman [Alan}:
Well done Neil and a huge thank you to all who have helped make this forum a very enjoyable one.
Best wwishes to you all in 2016
raistlain:
Most informative...friendly...easy to use detecting forum around ...keep it up as i for one would of been lost without it...Thanks everyone ;)
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