End of Month Round Up — October 2019

October has been an exciting but frustrating month for me. Finds wise, it has not been anywhere near so productive as September was, and I guess that is only because I have not been out so very much.

Other concerns have taken over!

However, let's look at what finds I have made this month and try to make some sort of sense out of them.

The toy production of Polly's Parlour has slowed down somewhat. Actually, it's not that the finds of toys have slowed down, but rather that the size of them has diminished. I am still finding them but except for a brass teetotum (shown above alongside a very early example in ivory), all the rest have been small fragments of hollow-cast Victorian pewter equestrian examples. 

I have found another horses' arse since the picture below was taken...

I have to say that the production of shirt buttons from Polly's Parlour has fallen hugely as has the production of silver items. This is cause for concern. I have used the XP ADX130 there throughout the month but not once the Laser B1. What this might mean is that the XP is just not such a good machine when it comes to sites that are laced with iron debris. 

The two examples at the bottom were found elsewhere. 

I cannot blame the machine for not finding silver — except for the find of a Sterling silver watch casing, maybe I just failed to walk over other items made from it? However, when using the Laser B1 during September I was finding shirt buttons each and every visit and in number. By the end of September, I had amassed an 'accidental' collection of thirteen examples and saw no reason why the trend should peter out. The XP, by comparison, has only given me another on every other visit throughout the month and so I have added only another three to what I once thought would be an ever-growing collection.

These buttons are about the same size as Medieval pennies are ... 

I once had a site that over time produced eleven short cross pennies in total and a few cut coins also.  I had to work hard for them but was always completely confident that if one of these coins was in range then the B1 would find it even if it was on edge. It's so very important to trust your detector to do this for you ...

This is not a good sign! 

I think, therefore, that the Laser B1 lives up to its reputation as a formidable machine. It is one that excels with very small items and is also one that is still capable of beating modern detectors on busy and trashy sites. 

No fool would ever sell one, and I am not one of those! 

I did find a number of odd artefacts. Above is a fragment of something that I cannot quite imagine. It's in bronze or brass or latten or bell metal, or something. It is too clean to be ancient — however it looks to be so, does it not?

Length - 37mm.

It can keep. The truth will out!

Two items found within a few feet of each other (with the B1) would prove to be the most interesting things that I would discover on an organised dig down in Berkshire. One is a small base-silver mount (about the same size as a Saxon sceat) that could be Medieval — or anything really! It has no means of attachment on the reverse, which is simply hollow, and therefore it must have been inset into a recess in wood, maybe leather or even another metal and attached by a mastic.

The other item is an equally confusing thing. It is decorated with the same design on both sides, therefore it is almost certainly part of a handle that would be viewed from both sides.

But it is the handle from what? A mirror, a spoon, a ladle, a frying pan. Who knows?

I have no idea ...

Lastly was an inscrutable object that looked all the world like a Medieval folding mirror case when discovered covered in wet and sloppy mud on a rainy October day out and about in the deer park of a moated house. The XP proved itself capable on this old pasture field and I had no doubt that it would pull up items at great depths. 

It was very quiet and signals few and far between, however, almost all were from worthwhile finds and only a few were from trash items. Most of these finds were coins once lost along an old footpath. Dating from the 18th till the early 20th century, they were all pretty deep down in the topsoil at between six and ten inches. The subsoil itself was found only twelve inches below the surface and so I doubt that it has ever been ploughed. 

When I moved away from the footpath then signals became very thin on the ground indeed. But then I came to an area — a low but noticeable hump — when iron chatter began and here and there I got signals from larger iron objects. Clearly, I'd found a place where something had gone on in the past. That is where the mystery object came from. I went back to see if I could find the other half of it but failed to. It will be a shame if I never do because I think that it will provide a solution to the problem of identification. 

What the hell it really is,  I just don't know.

It's the right size and is in the form of a mirror case. However, it is not one of those, I think.

But it's a folding thingy of some kind ...

I reckon!

End of Month Round Up — September 2019

Stepping back onto a ploughed field for the first time in well over a decade was a special moment. All the memories that I'd accumulated during the many thousands of hours spent upon them in the past came flooding back. Those special finds that had kept me awake at night. Those thoughts that had accompanied the moments of their discoveries. And those journeys into the ancient history of England that they'd taken me on.

When I followed along in the footsteps of my wife as she crisscrossed the first field that she had ever stepped out upon metal-detector in hand, I realised that I was already following along in the footsteps of my own long-established routines. As her finds came along I was already constructing a framework to slot them into, was already establishing patterns of sense for them and was already predicting what might come soon — or even next.

If Polly's Parlour keeps throwing a couple of these my way on every single trip, then I will fill this tray one day!

When I ventured out alone I discovered that one particular field (now known as Polly's Parlour) was really promising. There wasn't a lot to go on at first but soon a pattern began to emerge. Shirt buttons were found but at a rate that I had never encountered before. I know that shirt buttons are not exactly the most exciting find in the world but the point is that they were there in some quantity. To my way of thinking, when anything turns up in an arable field 'in series' and in discreet areas or along certain lines of direction then it means that they were probably deposited there not through the rather uniform mechanics of muck spreading, but were lost or discarded on-site.

And if one of these turns up on every other trip then I will amass a serious collection!

When I began to find lead and pewter toys in addition to the shirt buttons, I thought this rather interesting.  Shirt buttons alone would not have had the power to pull me back, let me tell you! These toys must be clear evidence of children at play within the field. I have never encountered any field that has ever produced so very many. In point of fact, I had found a few lead toys before and thinking back, these were all from a demolished 19th Century cottage site and its gardens, but I could not remember a single one that had come from any of my open fields.  

There are two deer, a Native American warrior on horseback, the head of the Victorian jockey, 'Fred Archer' and Judy's first proper find — the wheel from a toy train. That they have absolutely zero monetary value in such states as they exist now, well that's really not the point to me — for they do possess a certain aesthetic value that I find really satisfying. They remind me of a collection of Roman figurines and votive objects in many ways. The missing limbs. The uniform colour of their cream-coloured patinas. All this binds them together really nicely as a collection and I do hope that I find more and more of them. 

But how about any older finds? Those kinds of finds that metal detectorists are supposed to obsess over when they step out onto the arable and the pasture? Well, I'm afraid that I found very few items to obsess about at any great length ...

There was the top of a trefoil spoon — 17th Century. A very corroded gilt-brass belt mount used as a suspension point for something — Medieval. The lead cloth seal carrying the Arms of Ausburg, Germany — 1500 or later.

I really don't think that this particular field is going to produce much in the way of truly ancient objects and I do not care overmuch about that, to be honest. Just being out and about in the fresh air, with my dogs frolicking about in the river whilst I occupy myself with the pleasant task of digging up lead toys and brass shirt buttons — well, that's quite enough ...

For now!

Polly's Parlour — XP ADX150 & Garret Pro-Pointer AT Field Test (Part 1)

Not so straight-out-of-the-box, slick, pristine and modern-looking now, eh?

Either I had miscalculated or the weatherman had. The rain predicted to arrive in Coventry at around five in the afternoon came early and of course, I got caught out in the field. I had about half an hour of dry weather beforehand but then it started to spit continuously and carried on drizzling for the next fifty minutes after which I packed up and headed home.

And so my field test, which was to be two hours in length, was just 1 hour and 20 minutes in duration. No matter; it was enough time in which to get a feel for the field performances of both the XP ADX150 & Garret Pro-Pointer AT.

On the previous day, I had set the 150 up for Judy on full sensitivity and minimum discrimination but thought that that might have caused her a few problems. And so, today I set it up at the default sensitivity, which is marked with a red arrow on the dial, and notch 2 for discrimination.

The ADX150 had 5 targets to achieve.

1. It must get me to dig at least thirty signals per-hour that will result in non-ferrous objects.
2. It will find large pieces of coke, though not small fragments unless on the surface.
3. It must find small items in the top six-inches and very small items in the top three.
4. It will knock out small ferrous scrap but should allow me to find and remove larger pieces.
5. It will prove itself for good depth if a very faint non-ferrous signal would be encountered.

These requirements are only what I generally ask of the Laser B1 everywhere and more specifically, what it has proven itself capable of doing on this particular field — in essence, the two machines were going head-to-head upon a known environment where the XP ADX150 had to match up to to the Laser B1 on five scores already established there as desirable ones...

Or else!

Initially, I'd set out with the 150 on loud-speaker but within ten minutes I'd fished out the supplied headphones and plugged them in, because, competing against the background noise from the nearby busy road, I could hardly hear enough audio information to be certain of anything but the very sharpest, cleanest signal. The difference was remarkable. All of a sudden the machine was intelligible and signals were easy to read. The tone was a bit squelchy sounding to my B1 ears, but I could deal with that. The finds rate soared and it was clear that the target of 30 recoveries per-hour would be achieved and perhaps even surpassed. And yes, it did respond to large pieces of coke but ignored fragments, and so it hit target number 2 also.

Unfortunately, not a Lizzie I shilling... But for just a sweet moment - it might have been!

I began using the AT probe. Because the soil was fast becoming soppy it was a boon not having to divide it all by hand. It was fast and accurate but it seemed that I had to have the tip very close to the object before it would register. I thought that this may well be down to sensitivity settings and so I decided to experiment with those later. The way it was set up would just have to do for now because it was covered in mud and I needed to re-read the manual!

The bright orange colour is good, though. If it were dropped somewhere you could see it a mile off! The continual beeping alert should you stow the device back in its holster without turning it off first was great too and will avoid running batteries down needlessly.

Because it was performing well, I wondered if the 150 would uphold not only the overall recovery rate per-hour for this site, but also achieve the expected outcome of at least one shirt button, at least one coin, perhaps a toy and a surprise item too?

That's a big ask in a shortened session!

Well, the shirt button was duly located (unbranded...) and so it can find small items in the upper levels of the soil. However, I must say that it did not seem to be locating quite as many very small targets as the B1 would have — in fact, the shirt button was one of the smallest finds made during the session and though there were other finds as small as the button, nothing was found as diminutive as a cut half or quarter-penny. However, this is not yet alarming. I simply may not have passed over anything so very tiny as that.

So, target 3 was partially achieved.

Target 4 was hit when I dug a positive signal that I could not easily find in the hole until the probe located it in the side-wall. It was a piece of iron the size and shape of a Havana cigar. Top marks for the probe!

And as for target number 5?

Would I even come across a very faint, non-ferrous signal?

The answer was yes, I did. It was a soft sweet signal and good in every direction but just a whisper really. I expected iron as I dug down 4, 6 and 8 inches. The signal became a little louder as the soil was removed, but not by much. The probe could not find the object at 4 or 6 inches but at 8 inches it finally located the item which proved to be a large brass harness buckle laying on its side, plumb in the centre of the hole and at about 9 1/2 inches in depth.

Two 'coins' were also found, but one proved to be just a thin disc of brass and not a coin at all. No matter, it was coin-shaped. And then, with the 150 having hit almost all performance targets and having achieved some of the expected outcomes too, I was satisfied and so I began to wind my way back to the gate.



Along the way, I stopped and dug a loud positive signal and flipped up something that was felt by its weight alone to be just a lump of old lead...

But it was not just any old lump of lead. It was deer number two and yet another toy added to our growing collection from this interesting site.

As I said in the previous post — the numbers never lie!

Polly's Parlour — A Boy's Toy and The Most Peculiar Enamelified Thingy

Our first outing with the new gadgets was planned for Sunday morning. We expected our son, Ben, and his girlfriend, Sophie, to arrive at ours at some time in the afternoon. Plans change. Nothing came of the arranged arrival due to late at night partying activities on Ben's part — or something like that. I don't really know for sure what happened because I heard the news second-hand whilst earwigging Judy's phone conversations.

All that I knew was this; that Judy would use these new gadgets this very day, and I was determined for that to happen!

In the end, despite endless delays and dallyings, we finally got out to Polly's Parlour in the late afternoon and left the dogs at home at my request because I wanted to monitor the performance of both new gadgets and also my wife's progress in the field.

You may ask why go to Polly's Parlour and not to another of our fields?

That's because it now has an established track record that suggests no longer what is only possible on any given session, but what is actually probable. I have a set of firm statistics already and can measure unknown quantities such as Judy's current finds rate and the new machine's efficacy against them. Calculate odds, if you like.

OK. In advance, I had calculated that I would dig around 30 targets per hour over our allotted two hours and would certainly find at the very least, 1 shirt button — and this button had better than a half chance of being a branded example. I would also have a very good chance of finding a child's toy, would certainly find at least one coin and that coin might well be silver but most likely bronze, and that there might also be a surprise find in the offing. Something intriguing...

All of this almost came true for me. And that is why I love numbers, so.

The shirt button was secured within ten minutes of the off, was in very good condition for the site, and was branded  — Richardson of Hockley, Birmingham. Later came a crumpled 'badge' inscribed with text that at the moment I cannot fully decipher but it contains the clear word 'LODGE'. Two coins were found also but alas, both were bronze. And then the surprise find duly turned up...

I hadn't any kind of a clue what it might be at the time of discovery and still have not. It's most peculiar and does not easily fit any categories that I am familiar with. A large irregular cabochon of variegated white, blue and purple enamel held captive within a circular copper-alloy 'mount'. A copper-alloy 'mount', I might add, that shows no sign whatsoever of having once been gilded. The reverse of the object is odd. It possesses six irregularly spaced drilled perforations around a larger central perforation which appears to have been tapped with a screw thread ...

At first glance, I thought it might well be a late Saxon enamelled brooch. However, with the presence of a screw thread as a means of affixment to its host object then it must be fairly modern, surely?

A little later Judy shouted across to me that she'd found something similar nearby. She had. Only it wasn't...

She had secured the one item missing from my list — a wheel from a boy's toy train!

That's four toys dug from this site now and more will surely come because the numbers say that they will. Mark my words — numbers never lie!

Polly's Parlour — Emerging Patterns and Encouraging Ratios

By spending a couple of two-hour sessions on one particular field I had begun to establish an idea about what activities had taken place there in the past and what could be expected of it in the future. The finds made thus far indicated that the land had not seen much activity prior to the end of the 19th Century. There was a conical lead loom-weight which could date to pretty much any period from Roman to Post Medieval, the top of a tinned brass trefoil spoon dating to the 17th Century and some kind of belt attachment which was once gilded which probably dates to the Medieval period. That's not a lot to draw conclusions from...

The material from late Victorian through Edwardian times till perhaps the 1950's — seems to be telling me that the land was then grassland, that sometimes people came there to relax by the river and that they also brought their children along. Many lost shirt buttons, two general service buttons, a few coins, a silver finger ring, a seaside souvenir and two toys. Just the kinds of things that people tend to lose when they're picnicking.

I thought that a third session might prove my theory — and I was not to be proven wrong!

If you look closely then you will see that this coin has been struck with a decorative motif identical to that impressed upon the Tudor period lead cloth seal found just a few days before. Now there's a coincidence!

The first find proper was a coin — a silver 'Gothic' florin of Victoria in very worn condition — and this would have been lost during exactly the period that I had imagined. It's a real shame about the condition of this coin because it is one of the most attractive ever minted, in my opinion. It's only the second example I have found in my career. Not at all common, and I was very pleased with finding the fourth silver item from the group of fields to date, because there's a very good ratio emerging (one silver item every two hours!) and if it keeps up then gold will surely follow.

Amazingly, the next good find was another toy! A little deer sitting on its haunches. More evidence of the presence of children and another addition to my now burgeoning lead toy collection. Also, there's another good pattern and ratio emerging here. Finding toys is one of the real joys of detecting in my book and finding fields that will provide them is not at all easy, is it?  

The dogs really do enjoy detecting. They just love it! There's a field to explore, a river to swim about in and best of all —a pond to get really filthy dirty in. What more could a springer spaniel ask for?

The rest of the session's find were remarkably similar to those found before. The same mix of coins, shirt buttons and another general service button, along with a broken gilt wreath with red enamel inlay that probably once surrounded maybe a badge and lastly a very corroded wristwatch. 

There's another small object that at first, I had down as a drawer handle. It is not — because, there are no signs of a screw hole. Maybe it's a collar stud and a cheap one at that? I do not know. 

Polly's Parlour — Two Equestrian Keepers in the Same Day!

Another couple of hours out and about on the field that produced a brace of silver items last time around and within minutes of switching on and swinging about - up popped something which was clearly figural and in the round. These are the very best kinds of find in my book and I really do not care about which period they may hail from. If it's 'in the round' ...

Then give me these any day of the week. Sculpture is always the best! 

It was a toy and an equestrian figure, clearly. Maybe a Native American, but covered in soil and somewhat distorted it was quite hard to be absolutely sure. With such a white patina and so very heavy for its size then it was obviously made of lead. It was also quite substantial at two-inches in length. I have never found a lead toy quite so large in my detecting career — those few that I have discovered have been half the size or less.

Pocketing the find and moving on, I found the field to be what I had come to expect - lots of aluminium trash but then the occasional find worth considering. That's enough, should the finds,  prove interesting when and if they come. A field can be very sparse, as you know. Some fields can appear almost barren of worthwhile finds upon your first impression. What keeps me going through the lean times is 'finds rate'. Should that be high enough then the field is always worthwhile ...

But how to measure such a thing?

That's another article, for another time.

A little later, another article of 'sculpture' arose from the earth. Two in the one day! And again, an equestrian ...

What are the chances...?

Slim, and very!

Though I have always known about this particular find as a possibility — to this day I had never found an example for myself. It depicts the Victorian champion jockey, Fred Archer, "the greatest all-round jockey that the turf has ever seen". I cannot do full justice to this piece here — John Winter, Deputy Editor of 'The Searcher' magazine, has already covered the subject of the once very famous man who is depicted in this Victorian pewter pencil topper, and in detail.

Check it out here!

https://www.johnwinter.net/jw/2016/02/detectorists-jockeying-beyond-the-beep/