detector has been summoned

Quite a few of developments have occurred in the last few days. I have ordered my detector which arrived promptly from Crawfords Metal Detecting shop (CMD). Excellent customer service and prices.

I am now the proud and slightly bemused owner of the C-Scope 3MXI-pro

There are a number of reasons I chose this machine. Firstly it is made in England, which is always nice and a refreshing change. It's well made but basic without any bells and whistles, and generally receives great reviews as a beginners machine. The price from Crawfords was £314 including headphones and batteries, as well as a camouflage baseball cap which I forebore to try on, but was eagerly adopted by my middle son. I will discuss camouflage clothing in a future post.

We have given it a test run in the garden, digging pits of varying depths and placing test metals therein. It seems to detect most metals to about 8 inches and some deeper. We did find a 20p piece which will defray the cost somewhat.

I have also gained 2 small permissions this week. One in South Gloucestershire, about 40 minutes from my house, and the other at the end of our road. The former is rumoured to be on the site of a skirmish in the 15c, the latter an area of pastureland belonging to a neighbour. We shall see what, if anything they yield.

the reason why

the family (sans teenager) went for a walk round the Avebury landscape today as the weather was stunning. We parked at the Sanctuary, walked along the Ridgeway towards Avebury and then back up past Fyfield Down. Here is your host and his two youngest taking a break overlooking Windmill Hill on the path out of Avebury village. The landscape is a heady brew of chalk, megaliths and barrows. Meat and drink to we happy few.

working in mysterious ways

No reply as yet from my first request (but as I only sent it the day before yesterday, that is not surprising). However, on rolling up to work today very early, I bumped into the chap who delivers bread to our garden centre farm shop. He is a charming fellow and when he is not delivering bread and buns, he is a non-stipendary vicar. If this chap was our vicar, I would be attending every service. He is affable, cheery and down to earth, everything that our own vicar isn't sadly.

In the course of our conversation I brought up the fact I was going to buy a metal detector, perhaps hoping that as a long term resident (12th generation or near enough) of a rural community, he may know someone who has some land. Sure enough he was very enthusiastic and told me his church organist was keen to have a detectorist on her land as it was rumoured their had been a skirmish there in the Wars of the Roses. He will be seeing her on Sunday (inevitably) and with luck I should have my first permission. About 45 minutes drive away, but in very pleasant surroundings.

I had better buy myself that detector now.

first contact sent to a farmer!

I have just sent my first missive to a farmer asking for permission. I am not holding my breath as it appears to be notoriously difficult to gain a farmers trust and get access to his or her land... perhaps this is not surprising really, as metal detectorists can open whole cans of worms if they find anything important, and I daresay some act in irresponsible ways.

The farm I have contacted has a disused roman road running through it which may prove fruitful, but equally may mean the farmer has already granted permission to other detectorists, or is being continually harrassed by people such as me.

Here is a copy of the mail I sent. I decided to use email as it is less hassle for the recipient, and saves paper. On the down side it can be deleted instantly and forgotten about.

Dear ................

 I do hope you don't mind me contacting you. My name is ............ and I am writing to you to ask for permission to come metal detecting on your land. I am contacting you by email as it is probably more convenient for you and saves paper!

I am fully insured with third party civil liability cover, no damage at all is done by my detecting and any holes are always small and well filled in.

I am a member of the National Council for Metal Detecting which is recognised by The National Farmers Union, and I am completely aware of the law of reporting items that could be classified as Treasure. Of course I would show you anything that I find that is interesting first.

If you are willing, I would like to come and see you to discuss this at your convenience.

I do hope you can consider my request. and if you need any more information from me, please do not hesitate to ask.

many thanks for your time.

kind regards

The wording is lifted almost word for word from Dave Crisp's book Metal Detecting, all you need to know to get started, which I thoroughly recommend.

searching the loamy earth

Hello, welcome to my new blog. It will be about reclaiming the scattered memories of those gone before us..... or metal detecting with whimsy and a soul.

This will be a very personal journal, written for my own benefit, but of course if you find my ramblings entertaining so much the better and thank you for reading. If you disagree with anything I say, please remember these are my points of view and I fully accept other folk may have different ideas and agendas.

I am entirely new to metal detecting. So far I have neither a detector or any permissions (that is permission from a landowner to detect on their land). I hope to record my successes and failures, acquisitions and finds on my journey.

Initially I intend to stay afar from the mainline detecting community and go it alone, with the help of my sons. Mainly because I do not have the time to commit to a club (most of which are oversubscribed as it happens), but also I am something of a dreamer and don't want to inflict my flights of fancy on anyone face to face (you dear reader, are another matter). If things change and I need advice or fellow detectorists to talk to, then I will no doubt go seeking them.

I have too many hobbies already, but with this new one, I hope to encapsulate my love of lore and landscape. I also want to champion a breed of underdog which I feel I belong to. Neither scholar nor sensationalist, well educated but poorly qualified, neither one thing nor the other. I have met similar persons and always liked them, and this small post is dedicated to an inspiration of mine, Albany F Major OBE FSA who although certainly erudite and scholarly has been ridiculed and pilloried in the archaeological world since his death in 1926, and the posthumous publication of his book The Mystery of Wansdyke . 

I will discuss A F (the F stands for Featherstonhaugh rather splendidly) Major anon. but I'll leave you with his words that introduce his volume, from which I detect a healthy disregard for his fellow scholars.

the land of england lieth like a mighty palimpset,

deep scored with a record graven from the east to the farthest west,

but the tale that it tells is written in runes that are hard to read,

blurred by the wind and weather and overgrown with weed,

burrowed by mole and rabbit, furrowed by spade and share,

trodden by men and cattle scorched by the summer glare,

fretted by all the breezes, scarred by the winters frost,

drenched by the driving rainstorms when the trees are tempest tossed,

till the learned deem in their wisdom that the tale of those years is lost.

for they hold by their musty parchments and the written word in their pages,

scorning the record that dimly keeps the tale of long vanished ages,

writ on the land in a script unknown to the scholars and sages.