Year eight in the life of Detectingwales.com 2016

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Neil:
Year eight in the life of Detectingwales.com 2016

The last year has flown by and was a quiet one on the detecting front for myself and as far as holding DW Rallies was concerned. Our members though seem to have been getting out as regularly as ever with some remarkable finds arising from the earthly depths.

How we use the web and forums has changed dramatically since DW was launched. In those days many of the social media sites were in their infancy or simply did not exist. I recently had a few different requests from new members asking how they either ‘liked’ images or why they had to resize photos.  Thinking about it apart from DW I rarely go on forums these days, so the idea of a forum is probably becoming alien to the next detecting generation. As you probably know a number of the local South wales detecting forums and rally organisers have once again fallen by the way side this year.  I think forums have a place though, and as long as possible DW will continue to be at the forefront of the world’s Detecting forum scene. That said we have witnessed a minor reduction in traffic, but it is still astounding when you look at the statistics which are as follows:

3,318 members with 255 new members in 2016
38.5 Million page views since we launched with 12,873 page views a day
170 users online July 31st 2016

Its not all been ‘beer and skittles’ though. In February long standing member and all round nice guy, Rod Holt sadly passed away. Rod was a true gentleman and I fondly remember our numerous chats in the field. He will be sadly missed by all who knew him. Rest in Peace Rod.

There was also a serious bike accident involving Jeff The Wizard, but he’s been back on line since to assure us he is on the mend despite several broken bones.

Our own Chef Geoff has been missing for a little while, but his last message assured us he was also on the mend, so hopefully we will see him in a field soon.

Onto happier news and as I mentioned earlier – you lot have been busy swinging the coil with some of the stand out finds including:

Deadlocks two Victorian half sovereigns in two weeks.
Wagis with a Bronze Age spear head and 1872 sovereign
Celtic Spikey – Where do you start? A truly dedicated detectorist who uncovers the most stunning range of Celtic, Roman and Medieval finds on DW. If I was wearing a hat I would take it off to you sir. Please keep posting the finds!
Colin and a stunning Celtic bronze belt mount
GJH and a scarce and highly collectable silver Bristol sixpence token.
Wondering with a Celtic coin from 10-30AD
Relicron and a George 1st 1716 guinea in July
The legendry Rambo with a gold hammered quarter noble of Edward III
Charles Price with a guinea in May
The Ferret with a rare Hippocampus Brooch and a silver unit all in one day
Reg and an inscribed posy ring


The overseas brigade, namely LeJag from Portugal and Bill from Lachine drop by frequently to show us finds from their respective homelands. Be great to see some more posts from other countries.

Those who like to get sand between their toes have been somewhat in awe of Dances With Badgers and his uncovering of some silver Dutch Stuivers from the 1600’s and  then again when he pulled out  stunning 16 grams worth of 22ct gold bands on the same day.

Other ‘beachies have done just as well with the aptly named Val Beechey recovering a gold ring lost by a member of the public and DB4 un-sanding a hefty platinum wedding ring from the beach.

Review of the Rallies
Rally #91 For One Night Only – Ozzy Osbourne supported by Saxon!
March 2016 witnessed the first ever Saxon coin found on a DW Rally. Unfortunately the finder without his glasses initially presumed it was a hammered coin until he was corrected by the sharper eyed amongst us. A great find for Ozzy that stood out amongst the smattering of hammered and military finds that also turned up.

Rally #92 The Eighteen Pence Rally
Abergavenny in May on a mixture of stubble and pasture that saw six hammered including a Charles 1st sixpence for the aptly named Detectingly turn up along with a couple of Roman fibulas. I even got in on the action unearthing three sixpences myself from George VI, William III and the Virgin Queen herself.

Rally #93 The inaugural meeting of the DW Rambling Society
This day out started fine with directions off the farmers somewhat erratic brother but ended in chaos as I managed to send all and sundry onto the wrong fields. In my defence I pointed at the field and repeated asked the chap “to the left” to which he replied "yes". He meant however the right! At least it wasn’t 27 degrees in the shade! When we finally got to the correct fields the finds started to appear including Wayno with a 22ct gold band, Win with a Lizzy half-crown, a Roman Denarii and Taffee 1919 with a stunning and valuable 1644 Civil War Issue Half Crown of Charles 1st. The stand out find of the day though fell to Medieval Man in the form of a Bronze Age socketed axe – something dreams are made of.

Rally #94 To The Manor Born
Back to a farm in the VofG for Augusts annual visit to the farm that keeps giving. This time we had access to the Manor Field and it didn’t disappoint with 12 hammered in total, two Roman fibulas, a personal lead seal, and two silver thimbles, the best of which Ancient Pat unearthed and had the inscription Love and Choyce.

Rally #95 The Lost and Found Rally
The final rally of the year was the annual Santa Hats Rally and it produced three gold rings and a smattering of silver hammered and milled, including six three pence pieces in one hole! The story of the day though was all about Trefor who had travelled down from North Wales for his first ever rally. He managed to find a gold ring in the morning that transpired had been lost by the farmer 13 years previously. Both the farmer and his wife were over the moon when Trefor returned it to them.

The personal finds and rally finds throughout the year just goes to show that it is still out there and it is just waiting to be discovered. I read somewhere recently that a respected archaeologist (no not that one – he’s not respected!) was quoted saying that detectorists had uncovered about 50% of the treasures hidden in the earth. He is miles out! We haven’t even tapped into 1% of the finds on this Treasured Isle of ours. Don’t believe me?  Well here’s a challenge. Walk into your garden and swing the coil for ten minutes and I can guarantee that as long as its not a patio you will find something! Several times a year we hear about stunning hoards and discoveries that rewrite history. Look at the 2015 annual PAS report where it states in black and white that 82,272 finds were recorded last year and 90% of these finds are down to people like you and I, in other words detectorists. If it wasn’t for our ilk these items would be lost forever or remain to rot in the ground.

I digressed a tad there, back to The Mods, who as always when they are not rucking with The Rockers in Brighton have kept this site running professionally and without issue. Huge thanks to Handyman, Nobby, Deadlock, Da Monkey and Hotmill for your help at rallies and generally being all round good eggs (rather than egg shaped good eggs)!

We also cannot forget Mike who has done a wonderful job on securing the rallies we have had to date and acting as my personal chauffer. I know it can be a real let down when things fail to come together and a couple of times this year we were close to announcing a rally date only to have the land pulled out from under our feet due to weather, harvests, cattle, etc. Keep at it Mike. Your hard work has given us some great days out and great finds.

Lastly a warm handshake to Proconsol who from his hidden lair keeps DW ticking over in the manner we have become accustomed to.

What of the New Year. Well it will pretty much be business as usual with hopefully a smattering of rallies throughout the year and a concerted effort to try and take us to new lands in promising locations.

Until next year, keep the coil to the soil or the welly to the sand and may I wish one and all a Happy Christmas and a Treasure filled New Year

Keep The Faith

Neil

colin:
Dont forget my gold tudor dress hook from Shepton Mallet Neil and good news just had it back after two and half years ;D

hotmill:
Cracking write up as usual! Thanks for the kind mention.
Happy Christmas to you all out there and good luck for next year.

Dungbeetle:
Nice write up Neil, I'd like to thank you , Taff and all the mods etc for helping us set up NWDD  without that help it wouldn't have taken off. Hope you all have a good Xmas and new year.

handyman [Alan}:
Excellent write up Neil. Thoroughly enjoyed reading that.

A huge thanks to all involved in running the site, organising the rallies and above all, posting their finds throughout the year.

Looking forward to catching up with you all in the New Year. In the meantime, i wish you all a superb festive season.

Cheers

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