Polly's Parlour — A Brace of Silver and a Blue Coat Button

There are three arable fields on the new patch and two have been searched enough to give a sense of how productive they might be in the future. Field 1 I think to be no good for much, but of course, you must never write a field off too early because any field may produce something special given time. Field 2 looks more promising and has produced already an item that dates probably to the sixteenth-century, which is by far the earliest find yet made.

Today I visited field 3 expecting to be just like field 2 because they abutt each, and in many ways it was. I encountered the very same spread of aluminium trash wherever I went together with the occasional chunk of anti-aircraft shrapnel — and this is clearly something that we will have to endure for so long as we search this patch of land.

I recieved a soft wide signal that just kept growing in size and scale and loudness as I continued to dig down and down in ever-widening circles. You have to keep going — such a thing might well be a hoard or a bronze helmet or a sword, or just about anything truly fabulous! 

I finally found the object on the top of the subsoil at about fourteen inches and it looked like bronze so I was very careful about extracting it. Unfortunately, as with most signals that go so very deep, it was disappointing. What it was I had absolutely no idea ... apart from the fact that it was certainly rubbish!

Later the ground gave up something better in the form of a silver buckle ring. It was broken but is repairable and it probably dates to the latter part of the nineteenth century. When I get the time I'll research the hallmarks and the maker's mark and give it a firm date and origin.

I'm always pleased to find finger rings and anything made of silver is always a bonus. The next find was very interesting indeed, and again of silver. An oval plaque that when wiped with a finger showed a hand-engraved scene and at the top —an inscription. More food for thought! And more research work for my busy digits!

There were a few more finds of interest to come. A lead loom weight, three shirt buttons, a crusty penny, a brooch that has seen better days but is something that originated from a Victorian church in our village - Salem Baptist. And then a small button that I reckon dates to the early nineteenth-century and is of the 'Birmingham Blue Coat School'.

My aim for any day's detecting is to come home with one decent artefact and one nice inscribed object be it coin, button or whatever. So, all in all, these two short hours were very well spent in my opinion.