We were very fortunate to be able to visit a new permission that had just been drilled with Spring barley and wheat with further drilling for vining peas.
The 7-acre field was rolled and destined for peas so we decided to survey that one first. The conditions were extremely dry with well defined roller lines to follow.
The first artefact to come to light was a lovely Anglo Saxon sceat dating to AD 710 and minted in York.
There were several ferrous signals as well as lots of lead which is usually a good sign that there has been lots of human activity there.
Speaking of lead, one of the crew had a strong signal registering 99 on the Déus control box.
After digging down over 24" a sheet of lead became visible and it was clear that the object was far bigger than the original hole so we had to enlarge the excavation.
At last, the lead bucket, as it was identified, was extracted. The estimated weight was 25-kilo's.
Apart from a few sherds of Medieval pottery, we recovered a Roman fibula, Roman coinage as well as Medieval coinage and artefacts.
We decided to search the final headland and it was almost at the end of that search that we recovered a superb example of an Edward the Confessor penny. The coin was identified as a Sovereign/Eagle type penny and dates to AD 1056-1059.
HD images can be seen here.