Year two in the life of Detectingwales.com 2010
Neil:
As our second year as a detecting web site quickly approaches I thought it would be apt to once again review the past years events and cover some of the highlights.
It has been a busy year at Detectingwales with numerous rallies taking us far and wide from Carmarthen to Cardiff to Ludlow. We try to keep the Rallies fresh and interesting by going to areas that a lot of us would never get access to otherwise. Over 100 new members have attended the rallies this year, with many of you repeatedly coming back and becoming an important part of Detectingwales. Big man hugs go to Napoleon, Nobby, Pipster, GeordieFred, Nomad, Trys, Stred, Techony, Val Beechey, Meatslicer, DKcrooby, Mike Miles and anyone else I have forgotten.
Far too many new members have joined the Detectingwales.com family this year for me to list you all, but I would like to think that you have each brought something with you that has enriched the website and the general Welsh Detecting community. Even if we do seem to attract loads of Wolves supporters – whats that about? New members have arrived from other countries as well and have joined us on rallies from places far and wide including the Isle of Man, Scotland, Greece, Poland, France and South Africa.
Behaviour at our rallies has been impeccable with no reports of anyone “hawking” the land after a rally, and to date no complaints from any of the farmers regarding the condition the land has been left in. This is highlighted by the fact that they want us to go back to their farms and long may it continue. The addition of Rally Stewards has been a great idea and was mentioned by the last farmer, as he felt he could easily identify someone to talk to if there was a problem.
We saw individual firsts this year for Ozzy Head Jo, Pipster, Mrs Handyman, NL08 Rob and Roman Ray as they all joined the “Hammered Club” thanks to unearthing their first piece of silver hammered coinage.
Another “Private members club” we all aspire to join was attended by Casa Dos, James, Stater Chaser, Melonhead, ParkiJohn, Roman Ray, and MC Hammered – who unearthed a range of gold coins between them, including staters, angels, guineas, third guineas and sovereigns! Well done to all of you – finding gold in a field is a special moment I am sure you will all remember.
The member’s find of the year though must surely fall to Davie B who is a moderator on our sister site, www.Detectingscotland.com, and a member of Detectingwales and a general all round nice guy. Davie managed to unearth several Iron Age gold torcs the likes of which had never been seen in Scotland, attracting international recognition for his find.
Big thanks go to all the Moderators, from Kev doing a sterling job in the Gallery to Paul on the Archaeological front and to Debbie, The Verminator, Charles and Handyman (Alan) for their continued assistance.
Further thanks for the regular inputs on the site from Chef (who did manage finally to find a crotal bell this year!), Al.Thepastfinder (great detecting TV feature earlier this year) and Roman Ray (for generally being Ray). Without your knowledge, help and happiness this place wouldn’t be the same.
Lets not forget The Doc who is achieving legendry status when it comes to identifying those bits of metal we all dig up. I am not sure how he does it sometimes. Sorry if I have missed any other regular contributors out – its not intentional and there are nearly a thousand of us!
Its been great to see far more involvement from West and North Wales members than ever before. If you think there is a particularly promising area near where you live, get in touch and we will see what we can arrange.
2010 started badly with the awful news of longstanding (no pun intended) member Casa Dos’s accident. Thankfully though Kev is on the mend and has recently been back in the field where he belongs. Well done mate good to see you pull through it. Several other DW members have also had their own personal battles with illnesses this year and its been great to see the support they have received from members.
Onto the rally highlights:
The first rally of the year was held between Caerwent and Chepstow. It started well with Benny from Hereford finding a Edward hammered coin within the first minute or so! The day produced a fine selection of Medieval and Roman coins and artefacts and even a hawking ring. It’s a farm we will certainly revisit in 2011.
February saw us head into Chepstow. This was the rally which when we met with the farmer prior to the event he laughed hysterically at me as he shook my hand. When I asked him what he was laughing at he replied “I have just had my arm up a cows bottom” – mad as a box of frogs he was! The things we have to go through to get Rally land!
The rally produced milled silver, Roman and a few hammered coins along with two silver brooches,but the stand out find fell to Beachboy in the form of a gold quarter noble. A cracking find!
Into March and we returned to Chepstow, but to a different fields that turned up a similar smattering of Roman coinage and artefacts, with fibulas’ falling to Rambo and Bluebell, Admin finding a nice George IV sixpence and the stand out find going to Phil Ynysboeth in the form of a bronze spearhead.
Yatton was next in line in April and it produced some high quality items. Namely an Anglo Saxon strap end for Mark which illustrated amazing craftsmanship. A find of equal beauty was made by Chef in the form of a gold posy ring which the farmer was delighted to see. Silver coinage arrived from George V, Victoria, William III, Charles II, Elizabeth 1st , Henry VIII and Henry III. Farmer Phil did particularly well on the William III front finding a stunning half crown, shilling and a sixpence! That’s just greedy!
Next came the Annual Two Day Rally – which unfortunately I was stuck in KL for due to a volcano erupting in Iceland! The day was a huge success with members from as far as Scotland joining us. The event saw Laura and Nick from Detectnicks have a sales and information stand. A Token Hunt with raffle prizes including a signed copy of Bill Wymans book donated by the rock star himself. Overnight camping with barbecue and the arrival of Chef’s world famous curry and general night time chatter and drinks.
Day two saw the arrival of what this year has become a frequent addition to DW rallies in the shape of two local Finds Liason Officers. The Saxon and Iron Age finds made by Paulywow that turned up on the Sunday were certainly a surprise for the FLO’s and it was great to work in unison with them.
The stand out finds over the weekend included: Saxonman’s Henry VI, a Bronze Age socketed Axe Head, Willowtree’s gold half sovereign, Paul’s hammered and numerous other milled coins, buckles, musket balls, thimbles, etc.
June saw DW spreading its wings to the West and heading to Carmarthen for several rolling fields of pasture. In attendance we had a local FLO, Marian Page who was kept busy most of the day. A couple of lovely silver spoons came up. Tom had the strangest find of the day in the form of a huge lead figurine displaying presumably George on horseback slaying the dragon.
Back to Chepstow for the next rally, where we joined by DW member Spooty Vane from the Isle of Man. Shungav had a great condition Charles copper, Richard 16.5DD had a Tudor fastner and other bits and bobs including several bits of Roman. The find of the day fell to Mark who had a lovely fibula and was awarded a cracking Art Nouveau style magnifying glass. A real nice gesture from Spooty Vane.
We stretched our fingers even further with the August Rally and headed to Ludlow, where we were joined by members from Bangor, St Davids, Bristol, Hereford, Swindon and Birmingham. A memorable day for many of us on the find front. I found my first silver thimble after many years trying. Pipster had a hammered sixpence that needed straightening. Casa Dos a James 1st and numerous other nice items turned up. The afternoon however took the rally into another dimension as Staterchaser lived up to his name and produced a gold stater. This was quickly followed by a silver unit falling to Ecopain. A bronze Age gouge and an Iron Age Terret Ring found by Jane also turned up for the on site FLO – Peter Revell and his colleague to inspect. To quote the FLO’s “Detectingwales has changed the way we perceive the Ludlow area and added an Iron Age context!”
Early September saw us return to Ludlow in search of more Celtic goodies and was attended once again by FLO’s and featured a token hunt with the main prize being a years free Rally Entry on DW rallies! A couple of Roman brooches and two potential Treasure items in the form of a Tudor button and dagger chape turned up, along with a broken Bronze Age Axe Head (Macsen Wledig) but alas the Celtic coinage avoided us this time.
The area of Wick in the Vale of Glamorgan was on our agenda in October at what became known as The Cutlery Rally! A smattering of the normal expected finds turned up including a Bronze Age Awl and a lovely gold ring for Roman Sue. What we couldn’t explain though was the copious amounts of cutlery that kept turning up all over the place much to the bemusement of the members. The biggest shock of the day was surely Tafflaff finding a hammered coin! He does so much for DW, but rarely finds any hammered coins on the rallies, as he tends to have the odd chat with people. Well done Rob – well deserved.
The end of September saw DW’s first Cardiff rally which produced a surprising amount of milled silver – most notable silver joeys (Chef!?!) The Doc was in an international mood and was turning up silvers from America and Canada as well as a couple of hammered. Romulus and Remus made an appearance on Roman coinage and Chinese cash coins kept popping up all over the place. A very strange site to detect on and the best find was to come towards the end in the shape of a bronze seal. A stunning personal find that I am sure we would have all been happy to have made.
We returned to Rooksbridge – the scene of the infamous “Hammeredfest 2009” in October. The only problem this time was that the farmer limited our fields on the day due to the crop coming through. Still not to be beaten we stuck at it and Davtec started the day well with a Lizzy, followed by Meatslicer and Bobkoi producing hammereds. In the distance an ecstatic Chef could be seen punching the air as he was testing a new machine for a manufacturer and had found a silver ring. Towards the end of the day had a deluge of hammered coins turning up, bringing the days total to 10. Why the Hell did they take so long!
The final rally so far this year marked a return to Cardiff and similar fields to last time with a few new additions. The first find of the day went to Mike who had literally taken a few steps and found a gold ring with stones. After a quiet few hours, the finds started coming thick and fast with Jeff Stock making an interesting medieval discovery that is still a mystery representing a woman shrouded with ring and dot motifs on the reverse.
An enamelled trumpet brooch next arrived to Nobby and then this was added to at the end of the day a stunning Julia Doma denarii to Wayno. This was the rally that proved no matter how often you walk over an area, there will still be more in it! All these finds came from the parking pasture which we had all spent time on just a month ago! I for one would go back there like a shot.
The future is bright and as we approach the end of the year and what will soon be our 1,000th member we have several ideas in place to take Detectingwales into our third calendar year.
One of which is potentially a Home Nations competition against our sister site Detectingscotland.com at a secret location half way between us both.
There is also the possibility that we may gain access to detecting a battlefield and help actually record the events of a historic battle, which will be a new detecting experience for most of us.
And don’t forget the annual two day event. If anyone has any ideas of areas they would like this to be in let us know via private message and we will see if we can oblige. Caerlon Roman barracks is definitely out by the way!
We continue to feature monthly in Treasure Hunting, and thanks go to them for a long established working relationship. This year the monthly Treasure Hunting articles have been supplemented by features on two of DW’s long standing members – Rob and Ray. Who were both rightfully recognised for their recent finds. If anyone else would like coverage of a particular find they have made or have a story in mind, please get in touch with us.
A huge debt of thanks goes to the tireless work of TaffLaff, without whom the site would be a lot poorer place.
Finally a big thanks to Admin who continues to steer this ship in the right direction and without whose initial vision and energy we would all be strangers to each other.
Keep the Faith.
Neil
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