Detecting Wales Rally 96 - The whose land is it anyway rally?

[Neil]

Detectingwales.com Rally 96 -  The whose land is it anyway rally?

The journey over the bridge was made bright and early in a packed four wheel drive consisting of Mike, Jaydogg, Ken and I. Following the ritual stop for pulled pork sandwiches, coffees and various supplies we were on the road full of detecting talk and hopes for a fine day ahead.

As we passed through ’Bandit Country’ the talk turned to Jaydogg’s other hobby of paranormal investigations and his impending book on the subject. The back seat conversation was full of tales of the unexpected, with talk of apparitions and headless horseman, whilst the front seat saw in comparison saw Mike and I bemusedly whistling the tune to Ghost busters and generally taking the piddle at every opportunity, much to the scorn of the believers in the back!

The journey flew past and it wasn’t long until we approached the farm and found Alun in the middle of the road directing traffic into the farm. We had a brief chat regarding which fields we could use and best locations to park. Alun had kindly met the farmer this morning and together had agreed which fields to use. Should be straight forward. Well you would think it would be.

The clans arrived from far and wide for today, including a healthy delegation from the NWDD, The Hereford boys and even a couple of Cornish Wanderers who had joined us. It looked to be a promising day and once the overview was finished we were off and into the fields. As usual I don’t get to join you lot digging straight away as there are normally a few stragglers, broken spades, flat batteries and various queries that I deal with. I eventually got into the field about 20 minutes after the start to see detectorists scattered far and wide over 120 acres of pasture, and thankfully many were in digging mode, which implied there were plenty of signals.

We were all up with the larks and swinging nice and early, whilst nearby a local man awoke from his slumber into a 'Trumpesque' like reality! As he yawned, stretched and looked out his window he witnessed an invasion taking place from the heavily camouflaged, spade carrying,  Peoples Front of Detecting Wales! “Whats all this happening on my farm – no one told me!”

The first I heard of the confusion was when a concerned looking Proconsol popped up next to a hole I was digging telling me that we were on the wrong farm. My response was your wrong mate, and that we knew it was the right farm as the farmer had been here this morning with Alun pointing out where to park and the fields to go into.

Proconsol was adamant (not the guy with the white strip across his nose I hasten to add) that there was a blue overall wearing farmer at the car park saying this was his farm, we had no permission to be here and to get off immediately! Um, that could be a problem!

A number of thoughts raced through my mind: Who actually owns this land? Who is aware we are here? How the Hell do we get everyone back to the cars? Who was Alun speaking to this morning? Who did kill JR? and Would the farmer like a sandwich to calm him down?

I got the easy job of speaking to the irate new farmer and assuring him that we would resolve this and that we are not in the habit of turning up on land uninvited. While I was pacifying him,  Proconsol started rounding up detectorists who were spread as far as the eye could see. Alun in the meantime zipped off in his motor to go and fetch the original farmer.

When the original farmer got there, we kind of got to the bottom of the confusion, but I am still not entirely sure it was right. To cut a very long story short, my understanding is that Farmer A who had hosted a DW rally previously, has a Daughter D who is getting married to Farmer C in a few weeks time. Farmer B is the father of Farmer C and runs the farm for Farmer C who lives in London. Farmer A text Daughter D on the Wednesday before to confirm that DW were okay to go on Farmer C’s land, but to inform Farmer B of the matter, who in turn would let Farmer C know. Daughter D for whatever reason never received the text, so failed to inform Farmer C who as he was not aware could not inform Farmer B. Daughter D and Farmer C were due to get married in a few weeks at which point Farmer A and Farmer B would become in-laws.   It was all very confusing and took a while to sort out. So, a deal was struck with Farmer C that met the approval of Farmer B with sincere apologies from Farmer A. We never got to talk to Daughter D! Now where are those four candles?

The one thing that this did all help with is that I got to have a talk to a good few detectorists and see their finds. I got to see two fibulas, a Roman coin, spindle whorl, crotal bell, some milled silver and a couple of hammered. Back to the fields we all went again and that’s where the vast majority of us remained until about 4pm when we all started drifting home.

There was no particular find of the day in my eyes, just a decent cross section of finds. One odd occurance though was the quantity of George I and George II coins that turned  up. We never seem to find many of these but they were in abundance on this farm. There was also an interesting ‘Asylum’ button found that is quite a collectable societal piece these days. A huge silver hallmarked Dandy button was also a lovely find along with an unbroken pair of Georgian nut crackers.

I think its safe to say we won’t be coming back, but like everyone else I enjoyed the day our and we owe both Farmer B and Farmer C a debt of thanks for letting us detect on the farm. I hope the wedding went well!

Until we meet in a field again.

Keep The Faith

Neil

[Neil]

More finds

[Neil]

Few more

[scara]

Nice write up Neil, very confusing with A,B,C and D 

Thoroughly enjoyable day, with glorious weather to go with it, I know I had the sunburnt neck to prove it.

Look forward to the next one.

Mark  (NWDD) 

[Mrs Steptoe]

 An unforgettable rally in more ways than one for me.
 I have a new pair of wellies now.

[Val Beechey]

What a great report Neil. Loved reading it. Very confusing and embarrassing to say the least.
No wonder it took you so long to finish it.

[handyman [Alan}]

An excellent read Neil, thank you.

It was a very interesting day out, with some great finds.

I place on record my thanks to deadlock for his efforts, to get the problem sorted.

i wonder if we will get to a DW rally number 100, this year !!!  I hope so!  ...... it would be good if we could!

[celticspikey]

Hi Neil

Your reports are always informative, well written. Great read thanks...Spikey

[dingdong]

Hi Neil,ya know,! It never ceases to amaze me how you put together such a vivid and accurate account of events.
As each and every time you put down  with such clarity the course of events that happened..
On a bit more of a personal note,I unfortunately can't physically get "out there "any more so when you put together such an avid account of the happenings of the day I  actually feel that I was there... THANKYOU...for that...you made an old "decrepit  detectorist  very ,very happy...100%...and ya can't get better than than that...👍

[jaydogg]

Very entertaining write - up  Neil. Had a great day as usual.

[Da Monkey]

I quite enjoyed it, and did OK

Particularly enjoyed the story of Mrs. Steptoe, the slurry pit and the lost welly LOL  

Saw some nice finds from Roman, Civil war and modern

Here's my entry for the best find of the rally then :

I showed the one unassuming find to the FLO and he got quite exited, said it was an "Iron age Seam Clip" off a drinking vessel or similar.

The best find for me was a Louis XIII silver 1/2 ECU that came out of the field behind the carpark, quite a rarity and who knows, maybe brought over by a mercenary soldier during the civil war...

Thanks go to the organisers, when's the next one ?

[probono]

Great write up - have been waiting for it, as it's always more coherent in terms of the day and adventure and an interesting mix of finds too.

[Resurgam]

            Ah ha, all very interesting and intriguing; perhaps someone could send the bride a fibula (something old) as an investment for a return invitation to detect a promising farm. Perhaps not even the same one!  

          Fate often works in strange ways! 

[Mrs Steptoe]

   Huge thanks to the boys who helped a damsel in distress and pulled me out.

[Welshtourist]

I've tried posting up pics of what i found on the day but keep getting told the images are too big