The Weekend Wanderers Metal Detecting Club What`s New Page

Due to work commitments I haven't been able to get to our digs lately so please forgive the lack of dig reports. If you fancy putting finger to keyboard I'd love to add your reports below.

Finds seemed to be very deep on the pasture on this farm which more than likely has not been ploughed for many years. Crotal bells were coming up from over 12 inches but the finds nearer the surface were mainly Victorian and Georgian. There were a few hammered coins dating back to one long cross penny, a Charles 1 shilling and one other Charles coin, a sixpence of Elizabeth1 were amongst the few other hammereds. A nice Roman denarius of (Trajan?) was another deep find. Two or three nice medieval artefacts came up one of them and excellent piece from in front of the Tudor house. Nice one!

You had the feeling that if this land was ever ploughed then this would make a very good site. The crop fields at the end of where we parked are regularly ploughed and but we will have to wait until harvest to search the 120- aces here.

The best artefact on the day was a lovely gold octagonal Roman ring which was recorded by the finder with Rob, the county FLO. It is difficult to say which was coin of the day as I heard of several terrific finds. I saw a photo of a rare gold Ľ stater depicting three men in a boat. I heard of other finds on the grapevine all of which were exceptional. From up on the slope by the old barn came an almost perfect silver penny of King Athelstan with crosslets on both sides.

Reports that a second coin quite similar to this was found. Maybe you were one of the lucky ones who got to see the two Saxon sceats. Perhaps if you ask around you will probably find out more than me? Did anyone get to see the gold half-noble? It may have been foreign but the finder didn’t have a Seaby’s book with him so will have to let me know later. There were rumours of a solid silver Roman axe shaped fibula which would make this the best find of the day. I would like to have seen such good finds as this site always seems to produce quality finds. I have no doubt that more will come up on future digs. Great!

At the start of the day, I quite often get an uneasy apprehensive feeling that nothing will be found when I put the club on new untested land. Usually I find myself looking around to see how many (if any) people are digging. I am glad to say that this feeling did not last long as a hammered coin of Elizabeth came up in the first 15 minutes. It was quite a while before a handful of searchers returned and I was put at ease by stories of other hammered finds from other fields.

I liked the silver heart shaped double sided locket; the photographs of King Edward V11 and Princess Alexandra were in very good condition. Several more hammered coins came up, mainly Tudor coinage of all denominations. Just before lunch, Frank showed me his silver denarius that he found in the car park field and I heard of one other silver Roman, a rare coin of Carausius!

Ros seemed to be busy all day as a steady stream of people queued to record or have finds identified. Rumours were true about the Saxon stirrup mount. This was a beautiful large mount with dragon head with an intricate silver inlay. It was only a few minutes later that I was lucky to have been shown (and hold) a terrific unclipped silver coin of King Canute. Whispers through the grapevine of a Roman statue found in the right hand field were going round and turned out true! The 4-inch high statue had a good even green patina and was almost intact. The feet missing, it seemed to be a male deity, helmeted and holding objects in both hands. These great finds were probably the best of the day at that point but I also heard that a King Offa penny had just come up!

The Henry V111 groat, young head was one of over thirty hammered silver. It was nice to see one of our new members find his first ever hammered too. Well done! Even at the very end of the day, excellent finds were still coming up one of which I would like to have seen was a second Saxon stirrup mount. A Saxon zoomorphic strap end and a strap junction were amongst the other Dark Ages finds.

The first dig at Cow Roast in Hertfordshire was the day after the big bang at the Buncefield oil depot. The explosion, just two miles from where Sarah and I live sent a plume of black smoke high into the sky but thankfully for us it was carried far away. The strange feeling of standing below this huge black column gave us an insight of what the inhabitants at Pompeii would have experienced standing under an erupting volcano, weird! I had plenty of phone calls from club members to see if the dig was still on as the venue was just 5 miles away. The panic buying of fuel at the nearby petrol station caused a bit of a queue but after such a great day, most were glad to have battled through it. Take a look at the WW website and the link on Gary's Detecting for pics and the extraordinary dialog of a local newsgroup who wondered what we were doing!

I will eventually get around to posting the finds photos on the pictures page of the WW web site. The most notable finds were the Roman denarii dating republican to Imperial. These seemed to be randomly spread across the huge field through a long period of Roman occupation and not from a scattered hoard. Once I have sent the details to the FLO I should have the coins identified correctly.

We had many Roman bronze coins and some nice Roman artefacts too amongst which was a double ended ear scoop, a knife handle in the form of a deity, a superb oval brooch complete with pin and enamel centre. The Iron Age coins got peoples attention though with a gorgeous silver unit depicting a boar. Three Ľ staters and 3 full staters were amongst the 53 items that I recorded.

Our second dig on the last day of the year saw another good turnout. We were parked between the two fields, the first producing four denarii, a small Bronze Age axe, a huge crotal bell, a fibula and a few hammered coins. A short walk led to the second field nearer the Roman occupation site and still more denarii came up including one of Romulus and Remus suckling a wolf. A fantastic Ľ stater has tentatively been identified as coin of the Atrebates and seems to be quite rare. I recorded 52 items on the day. A lead head was of interest as was a very nice example of a bronze and enamelled? Iron Age toggle. Other nice finds listed were a gold coin of Ferdinand V11 1817, an heraldic shield, a flint arrow head and another worked flint, a lead pilgrim's badge, the tip of a Bronze Age socketed palstave and a bronze spur. An Edward 1 long cross penny and cut half, two coins of Elizabeth 1 and one of Charles 1 name some of the hammered coins.

What a hot day! The weather was great but we do need rain. The cracked and dry ground suppresses signals that in wet soil would be more numerous. Tiny hammered coins just don’t seem to register in parched soil but large bronze targets seem to.

Last Thursday at Dunton in Buckinghamshire was our first Thursday for what seemed like ages and the amount of crotal bells seemed to verify this.

The best artefact was also a large bronze item but no less than a Roman statuette, a bit corroded and minus hands and feet but nonetheless a great find! It was a statuette about 5 inches high, of a bearded Roman god wearing a helmet and diagonal belt. The same detectorist was having a great day finding a lead pilgrim’s ampulla and a heraldic badge. Just four coins from the Roman era turned up including a nice sestertius of Faustina. Three hammered coins was all; a Commonwealth penny, an Elizabeth 1 and a cut half short cross.

On Sunday the dry, hard ground failed to give its best yield on what I think would be is a site of great potential in the wet. As it turned out, the fields were not full of trash, which was a blessing with such hard digging. In spite of an exceptionally high turn out, the finds rate was very disappointing and Ros recorded only nine hammered coins. Two nice pieces of Roman pottery were discovered on the car field but the day never really took off. We waited for the tell tale signs of a huddle of detectorists indicating that they had found a hot area but this never happened today. But most annoying to those who had to suffer digging in the rock hard ground in vain was the stupid joke of someone dropping chocolate money in the deep cracks in the soil. It seems to be every year that someone thinks it funny to bury repro coins or chocolate money. Not funny, so please stop! It’s not fair to the novice who thinks his reproduction cold hammered is real nor to those hacking away in hard ground at what they think is a great signal to find it is junk.

The dig started off slowly but once the first hammered came up things went quite well. Hammered coins ranged from short cross right through to James 11. The final tally of recorded hammered was 24! Sarah found a broken Stephen penny but we are not sure which one yet.

There were just two Roman coins. The best coin was a lovely George 111 gold third sovereign. Best artefact was a nice pilgrim's ampula.

James found a really nice find in the form of a bronze arrowhead. Two more were later dug up, joined together, were clearly not arrowheads but maybe a broken spur. James is now known as James the Arrowless.

We only expected a low turnout today with the early morning high winds and rain. The rain soon gave way to sunshine but the wind stayed strong all day. Many people were caught up in the hold up on the M3 as this was temporarily closed as a lorry carrying cardboard had shed its load. The dig at Crawley was eventually well attended and club members had the run of the whole farm. The members who had made good finds here on previous digs headed for their favourite hotspots. With such a large farm to search, driving to the out lying fields was a must although some chose to detect their way across.

Those who drove to the manor house started the day by seeing a brilliant rainbow, the end of which could be seen entering the corner of the field just across the road. This was not our field sadly! The Manor house was and was in winter wheat and dead flat. I don’t know how you all got on in this field (any news?) as I was detecting in the next field down. This was also in winter wheat and digging conditions were great. I even found a ˝ groat and my first hammered this year!

Sarah was digging here too and was soon on the phone telling me that she had just made a really good find. This turned out to be part of a medieval pennanular brooch with very large turrets, one still complete with a garnet. The brooch was silver gilt and heavily gilded with cross hatch design. Five minutes later and she called again to let me know she had just found a cut ˝ hammered and shortly after that she added a Roman bronze coin and Georgian fob complete with glass added to her haul! Pretty good going for her so far.

I heard of a Saxon (or Viking?) stirrup mount, the type with an animal standing from the ploughed field below the manor house field. It was a shame this field wasn’t rolled like last year, as this was a great field for hammered and Roman! The going was heavy here but we will return to this field in a few weeks once rolled and seeded. Any other finds from this field? As you came off the road and drove up to the barn, the field on the left was in stubble. It was just inside the gate that a superb silver denarius of Emperor Trajan came to light. I saw one other Roman coin from this side of the farm, a lovely bronze coin in excellent condition poking half out of the ground.

Not far from the barns was a hallmarked solid silver spoon. I know many of you hadn’t seen me that day but I would really appreciate news of your finds to add to those that we know of. We actually saw 32 silver hammered coins which include a Scottish and an Irish hammered, cut 1/4s and cut 1/2s, a coin weight, medieval bronze leather mounts and spectacle buckles to name just a few. The fields as always, seem on the quiet side (My favourite type of field!) but do turn up some quality stuff. Thirty-one hammered out of 107 detectorists is a high score and takes some beating. Then I’m sure we will easily increase the final count by quite a bit, as we still want to hear from all you others who we didn’t see. Its funny how the busiest field for hammered was one of the quiet ones on previous digs! I’m looking forward to a return as soon as the ploughed fields are in crop. Photos of your finds for the picture pages on the Wanderers site much needed!

It was a lovely day with the sun shining down on us righteous all day, the ground at the field entrance was a little muddy but I don't think it caused any real problems.

Mind you that easy for me to say as I arrived on site late and left early .......... who needs a spade any way !!! Yes I forgot mine, which was great news as I had my 2 boys with me, they were ever so pleased !!

Not being able to do any digging we did a little Geocaching but drew a blank there as well.

As to finds the only thing I saw was what we thought was a torn and squashed stator, we did try to brush the mud off it but not enough to be able to ID the coin properly, more on that later if there is any good news to bring.

Luckily the rain that was promised the day before held off. I was dreading a waterlogged field on Sunday morning as the first arrivals could have got stuck, blocking the entrance would have meant a tail back of arriving vehicles down the single-track lane leading to chaos.

We had five fields of stubble but perhaps too much land to cover properly.
Still, a good spread of detectorists over this site gave good indications that this was not going to be a 'busy' site.
I would have expected more than just seven hammered coins. No Bronze Age, Iron Age or Roman stuff too.
All in all a quiet dig.

Getting out at the end of the day was fun as the rain did in fact catch up with us and I had to tow out a few cars.
Our Bucks FLO would like to thank the kind chaps who got her car started and helped her get out of the mud!

Quite a good turnout despite the terrible weather forecast, there really was loads of land available and on more than one occasion I found I was the only one in a field, probably as there was no finds there !!!.

The weather stayed dry till after lunch time and even then then wasn't to bad.

Ros one of our friendly FLo's was on site ID ing and recording finds for us.

I had to leave at lunch time but even by then some very good finds had appeared on the table.

I saw a Gold half sovereign of Henry VIII, a really well preserved Roman brooch and a medieval brooch reported as treasure, one of our members was tickled pink to have found a stamped metal feather which is still being identified. I also heqard of a few hammered silver and around half a dozen Roman coins showed as well.

The Tuesday dig and Thursday digs this week were as usual productive. Tuesday saw a second ‘Roman’ figurine. This later turned out to be a pipe tamper but still a great find. The day got off to a quick start with three hammered in the 1^st ten minutes! In all nine hammies came up with a medieval ring too.

Today's ( Thursday ) dig saw a good turnout and five hammered coins, one heraldic shield, a medieval bronze arrow head, an early patterned silver thimble and a few Roman coins.

What a great day ! Many people found nice Roman coins most of which were republican silver denarii. David Williams says that the eight recorded are to be declared treasure. Well done to the finders and to the finders of the other stuff too! Hammereds came up, about a dozen, a heraldic device with three lions, a Viking stirrup mount, fibulas, a gold ring, a medieval saddle pommel and too many other super finds to mention. Shame about the dross masking it from us!

I was quite excited prior to this dig being so close to St Albans and all that Roman activity.

There was quite a good turn out on what started as a lovely sunny day if a bit blustery from the wind.

The ground was really hard as predicted in the newsletter and those with a fork fared better than the others ( including me ) the soil was hardest round the edges of the fields and it did soften a little away from the edges but it was still very hard and stoney, Peter was offering money back to anyone that just couldnt manage the digging but I didnt see anyone take the offer.

Peter opened another field at lunchtime but I stayed in the first field so cant tell you about the second field other than 2 Romans were found there ...coins that is not people, there were loads and loads of non ferrous signals but mostly junk.

Lots of people were looking for the rest of the Celtic gold that was found gere last time but I persevered with my hunt for buttons, thankfully my perseverance was rewarded with a scattered hoard of 2 identical black buttons, made the day worthwhile for me any ways !!!!!!

My lad found what he describes as a Roman finger ring, some might describe it as a tractor part but what the hell !!!

I didn't hear of to many other finds although I saw lots of digging going on, I did see Sarah find a lovely small what looked like a Celtic ornament of either a fish or a whale it was difficult to tell un cleaned, a nice find though either way.

The weather turned a little nasty at around 16:30 so I abandoned the dig then and headed for home, I will update this report when I hear what else was found.

I could only attend this dig for an hour as family duties interfered, like they do !

Parking was great as were the bacon rolls from the on-site cafe ... so Im told.

There was loads of room and a nice venue with a day ticket fishing water iof you got bored detecting.

Sorry I cant tell you what was found as I had to leave as I arrived, I will update this report as and when I hear of finds.

Did you do well last week or were you well sick that you didn’t go? Things were quiet from the start with little to comment on save for the usual tekking finds. It was later in the day, in fact Alan and I was about to head home when our intrepid and regular Thursday goer, Gerry ambled over with a big smile on his face and put in my hand a gold Ľ stater! This tiny coin was inscribed Commius and had a horse on the other side. Well done Gerry! This seemed to get things going and as Jeremy predicted, some great finds would start coming out. Next out was a cast Bronze Roman spread eagle about three inches long, plumage in fine detail. This was the second outing for a new WW member who last week found a full stater! A hard act to follow but then a silver Ľ unit (I think) of Epatticus quickly followed. Two cut Ľ hammereds ended the day or so we thought.

As we were about to leave the field, Kiwi John and his wife ~~OxO~~ Alison were busy digging in the gateway on the spot where Big Al had been standing all morning. Asked if they had found anything, Alison said ‘just an interesting OxO token. I took one look at this odd token, showed it to some others who all agreed that this was indeed an OxO token. Congratulations were in order as such a great find is the envy of many, but John who dug it up at a depth of just two inches in hard ground failed to see what the fuss was about. We all knew though what the OxO token was, and as it turned out, was something a touch rarer. This silver coin has yet to get it’s proper id but the sword and funny writing and crosses meant that this was no less than a St Peter penny or St Martin of Lincoln penny of the Viking invasion issue! So far it looks like Seaby’s no.963 but with differences. Could even be Eric Bloodaxe, Seaby’s no.1030! And we all drove over it !

The Rally took place on 2000 Acres at Creslow Manor, Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire

The rally was very well attended with the majority of attendees spending the weekend with us camping and caravanning and there were lots using local B&B's.

I would like to thank all those that sent me e-mails of thanks and praise for the rally, I passed them all on to Peter. Special thanks to Ros Tyrrell ( Bucks FLO), Colin Maggs, Robin & Heather Fifield, Nick Carter and Kai Elliott for the pictures shown on this page of the event and finds.

We had a total of 2000 Acres available to us over the weekend and Peter capped attendance at 500 per day.

We did have a few complaints that the ground was too hard but unfortunately that was out of our control, most seemed to manage though.

This was our first event with a bar and evening entertainment in the shape of a DJ and a live band and it seemed to go quite well. The usual trade stands were also on site and seemed to do quite well as did the burger van and Ice cream man.

Finds from the weekend were to numerous to mention but included Roman brooches, Saxon coins, loads of hammered silver and lots of Roman bronzes.

The picture below shows a lovely selection of finds from the weekend by Nick Carter

A group of silver coins were found during the Weekend Wanderers August Bank Holiday Rally at Creslow, Buckinghamshire. Towards the end of the weekend 56 were handed in to Ros Tyrrell the Bucks FLO as needing to be reported to the Coroner. A couple of days later another individual got into contact with 3 more coins they thought came from the hoard.

Dr Barrie Cook of Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum has written the following report for the Coroner.

58 of the coins submitted form a coherent group, and can be said to represent material from English currency of the early to mid 14th century. The remaining coin (one of the three submitted separately) is a silver penny of Henry VI, issued in the 1450s, a century or so after the latest coin in the rest of the group. It is clear that this is a separate item, that would not have either circulated with, or been deposited with, the rest of the coins viewed, and it is therefore not treated as part of the main group in the rest of this report. All but two of these others are silver coins of the English kings Edward I (1272-1307), Edward II (1307-27) and Edward III (1327-77). They consist of two denominations, 29 pennies and 27 halfpennies. Accompanying these was a silver penny of Alexander III of Scots, which circulated freely alongside contemporary English coins, and a counterfeit penny of ‘Edwardian’ style. The official English and Scottish coins were all of fine metal, for the most part of the sterling standard, i.e. 92.5% fine silver. The halfpennies of Edward III’s Second Coinage were struck at a slightly debased level of 83.3% fine silver.

It is clear that the 58 coins form a group deposited on a single occasion, at about the time of issue of the latest coins present: 1352-3. The types of coins in the group would all have been in currency together in the mid-14^th century, and in the condition that can be seen on these specimens: the older issues of Edward I and II being significantly worn, and the newer ones of Edward III much less so. The coins also represent selected material, since they do not include the smallest denomination, the farthing, nor do they include the new high-value silver groats and half-groats added to the currency in 1351. (It might be worth noting that separate storage of farthings from other lesser silver coins is attested for the period. The excavation of the body of a victim of the Black Death in London produced two batches of coins with the bones: pennies and halfpennies by an armpit, and farthings by the waist, apparently demonstrating an individual carrying two purses.) The total value of the 58 coins (allowing the counterfeit and the Scottish coin to pass as full pennies) was 3s.8˝d. which was a sum equivalent to something like Ł50-Ł100 in modern terms.

The Creslow find consists of good silver coins. Excluding the penny of Henry VI as a separate, individually lost item, it appears to represent a single deposit of material made in the 1350s. The coins could well represent the contents of a purse perhaps containing a reserve of useable money.

Thanks to honeymoon couple Robin & Heather Fifield for the hoard pictures below.

An excellent day was had by all on this new site. A Saxon silver penny of Cnut was found early in the day. This was the finder's first signal but he soon added to his collection with a lovely Elizabeth half-groat! This set the pace for the day and plenty more hammered coins came up.

Tudor coinage and dress accessories came from one corner indicating that a Tudor house may have once stood there and has long since vanished.

Most of the hammered were Tudor but a few clipped Edward pennies came up but from the left-hand field. This field was not really searched as hard as other fields. Not surprising as why move when Roman coins start coming up in reasonable numbers!

Roman coins of Constantine, Gratian, Tacitus, Crispus and Valens were among many found today.

The silver denarius of Trajan and a siliqua were nice finds but what about the Ľ gold stater of the dobunni pictured on this site! This is an unusual loss as coins such as these do not usually appear in Buckinghamshire.

The Roman area seemed to spread beyond our boundary into another field.

A Commonwealth penny accompanied a Commonwealth ˝ crown which would have been quite valuable had it not been rolled into a cylinder by the plough!

People were still digging at the end of the day and once the cars had been moved, yet more Roman coins popped out.

This dig was planned as a 3 day dig and as quite a few members had asked Peter if they could stay on site over the weekend Peter managed to persuade the farmer to allow Camping on the site.

There was about 30 souls camped on site in accommodation ranging from very nice caravans and campervans to
barely big enough tents. Sound proofing wasn't all it could be with yours truly setting his car alarm off at just after midnight on Friday.

I spent a couple of happy hours on Saturday night lying in bed trying to match the snoring sounds coming from the other tents to people, and Saturday evening was rounded off nicely with a talent show in the field, Sarah won this hands down and would be only too happy to show you her turn if you should ask.

The near by club house kindly opened up for us at 07:30 for breakfast and stayed open all day every day till 11pm, many thanks to Kelly for that as the food was excellent and they were so hospitable to us all.

We had a total of 260 Acres available to us over the weekend and on request of a few members the dig was extended to Monday.

Our FLO was in attendance and did record quite a few finds and DG coins was there with some wares on Sunday, quite a few finds were made by our younger members at his stall.

I don't have a full list of finds at present but I will update this report with finds when I have them.

A return to last Saturdays site but with slightly better weather, it couldn't have been worse .... could it ? .

Thank you to all those that turned out to help find more pieces of the Iron age mirror, the search proved very successful indeed, only 1 further piece of the mirror was found but it was a very large piece indeed, Julian our FLO was in attendance at this dig and was very happy to receive this further piece of mirror, we must have found most of it by now save for some small pieces. Thank You.

I only had a half day pass so had to leave by 1pm but even so by then I had seen some nice finds including a lovely but bent Henry 7th Groat, a late medieval snake type buckle, a few Roman grots and a nice crotal bell. I even managed to increase my treasured button collection by 2.

This field was huge and as I left there were still many people out in the field digging so I think there will probably be allot more finds by the end of the day.

We had a pretty exciting day Today . The wind blew so hard that standing was difficult! Sitting in the car out of the wind, Alan and I were enjoying a coffee when Club member Pete came up with a large portion of decorated bronze.

I did a double take as this was a fragment of a late Iron Age mirror and was extremely rare! Luckily the Bedfordshire finds liaison officer was in attendance and was just as excited about such a rare find. We drove over to the find spot on this huge 170-acre field and marked the find spot. There had to be more fragments of this bronze mirror of which only 11 are known.

It was only a short time before someone had found a fragment and we bagged and tagged it carefully pinning the spot with a marker flag. Even the finds liaison officer borrowed a detector and found four more pieces. With the marker flags growing in number, it became obvious where the mirror originated from which may well be an Iron Age grave.

Then Richard found a significant part of the mirror-the handle! Only a short while before, slightly up the slope, Richard unearthed a Republican denarius of Tatius circa 89BC, (well before the Invasion by Julius Caesar!) inscribed with Sabin. In all fourteen pieces were recovered and it is hoped that there will be enough bits to reconstruct the mirror. Did anyone on Saturday find and dark bronze engraved fragments? We really need those bits to get the thing back the way it was so please check out your finds bags and all of the junk! Please phone or email me if you have anything unusual from this dig.

Other interesting finds was a bronze swivelling strap junction (educated guess), likely to be Iron Age. I heard of but didn't see two staters, one a 1/4 stater. Several roman coins came up but you had to be in the right area. One was a Constantinoplis 330AD. I have just had a phone call from one of our lady detectorists who found a lovely Iron Age brooch and am waiting for a photo.

There were two short cross and one broken James hammered and I heard of but didn't see a Saxon sceat. I did see the intaglio from a Georgian seal. At first this venue seems to be very quiet regarding non-ferrous stuff. A real advantage as this obviously speeded up getting onto the decent finds. So, with a field that has finds such as were made on Saturday I think it worthwhile having another crack at it next Sunday March 28. After all, the known Iron Age burials that I saw on the internet containing mirrors seem to have included two ladies fibulae and other high status jewellery. To my knowledge these have not been recovered.

As I said before, It would be great to piece back this mirror and the conservator at St. Albans museum does a great job in restoring finds that have been plough damaged so please find look at your trash and fins us more bits!

The rain lasted most of the day but everyone's good mood lasted all day. It wasn't as productive as last week but nonetheless several hammered coins came up.

I heard of another Saxon sceat this time from the grass field. A Roman seal box lid, large Roman coins, an intact Georgian fob seal, lovely ornate 17th and 18th c buckles gave us a good day out.

Not a bad turnout to this lovely site for a mid week dig, there is another great looking field at this site which we can detect on in the summer, roll on the summer.

The finds I saw and heard about today included a Gold Queen Victoria 1/2 Sovereign and a cut half short cross penny, ( both on pictures page ) another short cross penny, a James 1st 1/2 Groat, a Victoria sixpence, a crotal bell, lots of Georgian coinage and bronze age waste and of course Peters bell ( on pictures page ). I was happy as I found my usual pocket full of buttons but this time a silver one !!!

Shortly after the start, the heavens opened with heavy rain mixed with snow. As luck would have it the rest of the day saw good weather and the day went well. I saw over 20 hammered coins that came up mainly from the slope up from the farm buildings. Although many failed to find a hammy, one chap had three and 3 others managed two each! Most of the coins were various denominations of Elizabeth ranging from two pence pieces to groats. Others were a Henry 11 double long cross, an Edward 1 penny, Charles 1 and James 1 silver and cut 1/2 hammered coins.

The best coin find was a silver Saxon porcupine sceat. Roman finds were not as many as I expected with a lovely early fibula and a sandal brooch with traces of red enamelling. One skilled detectorist had a great day finding five Roman bronze coins by the stream. Three silver republican denarii were among the other Roman coins. Generally though the signals were sparse so I opened up two more fields and would appreciate feed back of finds here.

Ground excellent & rolled dead flat. Loads of hammered; one guy had 5! Three seals, a Saxon brooch and three bronze Saxon strap ends, a few Roman coins, Med. clothes hook & book clasp, sword chape, cut 1/4ers and loads of finds!

It was a lovely sunny day today if a little chilly but it did warm up as the day wore on. I do like these mid-week digs as there are usually only a few there and these digs seem so friendly.

I'm not sure what was found throughout the day as most people were still hard at it when I had to leave at 2:30. I did see a very nice Roman in excellent condition found by Jamie. Another nice find shown to me today was a small hammered Lizzie also in quite good condition, all I had to show for my day was an unidentifiable Roman and a few musket balls.

I have never seen so any musket balls found in 1 day from 1 site before, I must have seen about 60 or so by lunch time !
A quick search on the WWW revealed that Oxford was the chief stronghold of the Royalists during the Civil War (1642-46), and this area was the scene of many battles which explains so many musket balls.

The ground was a joy to dig at this site being quite soft and by the canal was really sandy which produced some finds in very good condition.

A good turnout today at this new venue for the club and it was nice to meet Norman Collins who came over from Riverside, California just for this dig oh and for a course for his work.

The promised dry fine weather did show but unfortunately only for about an hour, it was very overcast and chilly most of the day and we did have a spot of rain round lunch time, it was nice to see that the cold and rain didn't deter fearless Phil and it wasn't near cold enough for him to have to cover up that yellow shirt he was wearing.
I must thank our Jim from down South for giving me his best find of the day to add to my extensive button collection.

There were some nice finds made today and some went away very happy, I saw a nice inscribed Silver bracelet, 2 gold rings and a silver ring, I heard lots of reports of some nice Roman coinage being found and I saw several nice hammered silver coin finds, I saw a very nice and rare James II 5 shilling piece ( Gun Money ) dated 1690 and a lovely miniature Cannon. I hear that quite allot of current coinage was found in the bottom field.

Dave Rayment was at this dig and it was good to see him looking so well after being poorly, Dave identified quite a few finds for members whilst chatting at the field gate.

Sunday 21^st December Christmas Dig.

Well done to Peter and those helpers that attended the token field on Saturday in that biting cold and torrential rain to plant the tokens for today’s token hunt.

After the Orrible weather on Saturday we were expecting more of the same today but thankfully the rain stayed away and the sun shone on us today, but that biting wind did make us all suffer today !

A few did have trouble getting in to the field but once passed the boggy gate posts they seemed to get up the field and park OK.

The planned site for the Christmas dig had a barn where we could all have sheltered from the wind and cold but alas this venue cancelled on us at the last minute hence today’s site. Peter had to do a lot of very last minute running a round to get this site for the Christmas dig …… Well done Pete I thought we may have had to cancel, you dun good !!

Some of us spent an hour or so wrestling with the gazebo in the wind but once put up it did give us a little bit of shelter for the warming of the mulled wine and somewhere out of the wind for the prize tables and mince pies.

Out of the 500 or so tokens placed in the field we had 435 returned and well done to all that’s quite a good return, the average token find was around 5 although more than a few didn’t manage to find any at all while one member found 53 tokens and another found 30 of them.

It was good to see that all 4 of the special prize tokens were found so some don’t have any meat to buy this Christmas.

I didn’t count all the token hunt prizes but there must have been around 40 or so prizes on 3 tables I reckon and that’s on top of the 4 special prizes of huge joints of meat and a Turkey, among the many prizes there were sweets, loads of bottles of wine, cases of beer, coin sets, books, a huge XLT coil, and an electric razor to name but a few. We did have trouble getting rid of the full body exercise sets and the barbeques for some reason!!

As always Dave ran the kids token hunt which seemed to go down very well and I think most of the kids went away with at least a selection box for their trouble.

Unfortunately I was called away to work at about 1pm but I heard of some very nice finds by then, I saw a couple of very nice hammered silvers, I heard of a Saxon penny being found and some nice Romans as well as the usual Crotal bells and other odds and ends.

Unfortunately work keeps me away from our digs these days but it was good to see everyone again and hopefully I’ll be back with you all on a regular basis soon.

All in all a very successful day and I’m sure your with me in thanking Peter for the extra time and trouble taken to put the Christmas dig on.