Keeping busy

I have been kept busy on the 'new' farm over the last two days. Now I just have to find the good stuff..



Seriously though I have been enjoying doing land that has not been detected on before. I have need able to mark off areas and do them as thoroughly as I can. The results have been much the same as the first field, a variety of buttons and coins mainly, with a mixture of odds and ends.

I did find my largest lead seal or rather 2 one large and flat the other large and very thick approx 1 cm.



I also recovered my second scabbard hook or 'Frog' a nicer copy than the first.

Small is Beautiful

When I returned to the first field for the second time, it was raining quite heavily so whatever signal I got I was determined to make sure I recovered the item.
There was one small signal that kept eluding me, everytime I moved the sticky soil I lost the signal but I stuck at it here it is.



Very small but never the less as it dried out I noticed it was decorated so I cleaned it a little and then scanned it to enlarge it to this.



It may not be old but I like it non the less.

I have had another piece of luck on this field, again something small.




A silver cut quarter of King John (24 December 1167 – 19 October 1216) was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death. So this coin dates from around 1199 to 1216 and is in what I would call very good condition.

Another fine day.

This Sunday gone, I met up with a new detecting partner or rather someone who had always wanted to have a go at detecting. I went to a different field and detected alone for the whole morning, not alot compared to the other field but I did find my best livery button to date and I was still kept quite busy with signals.
This is the button,



I hope you find it as interesting as I do and with so much of the silver plating remaining it gives us a chance to image what it must have been like when it was new!
The button was made by C.PITT & Co., 50 St. Martin, London, so this dates it to pre 1895.

Always interesting, if you can identify them? Are lead seals used to seal bags of grains, rolls of cloth etc.



Here is one I found on this field that I hope to idetify with help of this great reference site. Bag Seals

This is the small mixture of the other bits that I found.






I did manage to find a small silver coin which is too badly worn to identify, but I would make a guess at a Victorian sixpence.

And this crotal bell with the pea intact but the handle broken. I always like finding these.

Return

I went back to the field yesterday afternoon, but despite my trying hard I could not beat the rain. At one stage there was thunder and lightning directly overhead, so I took shelter. I did find a few bits, including a button back marked Compton and Son, London. Although it is nothing to look at, it does help piece the jigsaw together.




and a more interesting smaller tunic or jacket button. with an image of Brittania standing with a Lion stood with it's paw on a globe, behind her. The initials around the edge are B.I.S.N.Co which with research I have identified as British India Steam Navigation Company which was formed in 1856.



I can only assume that this was also lost in the streets of London and transported up here mixed in with the street fertilizer. This seems the most likely answer to all the London connections and it has been confirmed by the land owner that this did indeed happen. They used to transport Straw to London and the barge would return with the fertilizer. The other items were a few pieces of lead and oddments of non ferrous.

Images of finds for sorting

Here are the finds that came of the field in question.
The weight of the scrap lead, by scrap, I mean bits I cannot identify or spillages etc. is 530 grams.



This all goes toward out teams charity of the year. Last year was Leukaemia, this years is yet to be decided. This will be done nearer Christmas when it is a time for sharing.

You cannot see much at the moment. but I will take more pictuers as I identify and sort the pieces out. Enjoy...

A new field

I arrived at the field and was pleased to see the rows still in place.
I went along the rows of stubble, which proved useful for marking where I had detected. Started getting signals quite soon into the field and recovered various different sized pieces of copper alloy and lead.
The shapes of the lead varied from flat cut pieces, to what I would call spillages, where lead has been heated and poured, with some spilling onto the ground or work surface.
A total of 12 hours, over two days, produced a mixed lot of 187 non ferrous items including the following. (Some items such as drinks cans, foil and occasional pieces of iron are not included and were disposed off.

Coins.. Where no date is found a period of reign is given. 7 coins and 1 fragment of a coin

Penny..
Queen Victoria 1860

Half Penny..
King George III (1760-1820) x2
Queen Victoria (1837-1901) x3
One fragment of a coin

Farthing..
Queen Victoria 1878

Not a coin, but of some monetary value at the time...



A market token for one shilling the trader's name is Coupe & Bowie, Covent Garden. The token was made by Randall of London. Larger than a penny in size and blank on one side.
This piece was interesting because it raised the questions, how and why did a Covent garden token end up in the middle of a cultivated field? The answer became apparent with the discovery of a couple of buttons.
One was a livery button with the maker's name Sherlock and Co.. 15 Kings Street, Covent Garden and the other a 'four hole' or 'fastening button', sometimes referred to as 'fly' buttons from the time before zippers on gentleman's trousers. This bore the name of a maker in Whitechapel.
So now we have three items that are all connected by London. The number of odd pieces of lead and other non ferrous metals again were not all in keeping with their location and, in my opinion were too many, in quantity to be casual losses from farm labourers.
I have come to the conclusion that this field had been used between the years of 1847 to 1887 for the disposal and spreading of 'street sweepings' from the covent garden area of London.

Many people earned a living using barges back and forth to London. The barges took produce from the farms to London and other east coast cities, returning with the horse manure from the streets as fertilizer for the land. It was among this 'fertilizer' that many unrelated items ended up on the fields of Essex.

There are two other livery buttons, I have yet to identify, along with alot of other items. I shall be posting some images soon and updating this blog as and when I get more information.

Another piece of interest was this scabbard hook or 'Frog' which is dated to the 18/19th century.

Timeless Fields

Hello and thank you stopping by.

With my hobby of Metal Detecting every trip to a field, brings a new story or the next chapter of one already being written!

Here, I shall attempt to share with you, my experiences in the fields along with what I find and what I think about my finds.

I will not be showing the locations of the fields or the landowners details in any form. This is to protect his or her privacy. The land is PRIVATE and I have obtained permission to locate, recover, research and record all that I find. I carry with me a public liability insurance and I am fully responsible for my actions on the field.

Since returning from my experience of an archaeological dig in Italy, Gabii I have found that there has been a good bit of interest in what I did. So I hope that I can interest you in what I do when I am home detecting!

I recently got permission to do a field that had possibly not been done by another detectorist, so I was looking forward to it.
When I arrived at the field it was still covered with the remains of a crop that had recently been harvested. This was good because it gave me lines across the field that I could easily follow and keep a good record of where I had covered.
Here is an ongoing report of the finds from the field.