Whilst times are quiet I thought I'd write a short story of a day out I had last year.
It was 5.00am in the morning when the alarm clock went off. My wife gave a 'grunt' - the kind you give when your sleep is disturbed and quickly put her head back on her pillow. For me my day had just started. I quickly jumped out of bed and put my tshirt and jeans. I went downstairs and grabbed a cup of coffee. I couldn't wait - a days metal detecting was in store for me. I went outside and defrosted the car window. It was a typical Novembers day in England. It was cold but the forecast was for a dry day. I couldn't ask for much more.
In my part of England there is history going back before Roman times but not in abundance. In order to give myself a chance of finding anything I needed to travel. I had a good two hours drive to the area I wanted to go looking for some 'goodies'. I got on the motorway by 6.30am and was at the village by 8.30am. That was the easy bit. Now I needed permission to metal detect. I had farms that I had permission to detect on - but not in this area. I needed to get permission. I drove around the lanes looking for a farmer to ask permission. After about 20 minutes I saw an elderly man locking the gate leading onto a nearby field, and guessed that he must be a farmer or local landowner. I pulled up and got out of my car and went over and politely asked for permission. The farmer refused bluntly saying he had previously allowed metal detectorists and it wasn't a good experience. There are bad apples in every bunch and some detectorists do nothing to help others when they act in a bad manner. After travelling for 3 hours and approaching lunch time - I had no land to detect on. I only had 4 hours left of day light. This is the part of metal detecting I disliked most. I was determined to get some detecting done.
I had an idea. It meant travelling but at least I could get some detecting done. I drove out the village and back to the motorway and travelled 30 minutes to a farm I'd detected on many times before. I saw the farmer in his tractor and he was pleased to see me. We had a quick chat and he showed me some fields I could detect on. I was on the field for 10 minutes and I found a nice William 111 Halfpenny. I was happy but I felt after all the effort I had put in I deserved something better. After about another 1/2 hour I got quite a large signal. After digging down about 6" I saw a nice Roman Brooch staring at me. I was exstatic. The pin was missing but it was worth finding. I also found a few nice poison bottles. It wasn't long before it started to go dark. A day to remember - and forget - had come to an end.
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