An early start saw us arriving on-site at 7am. This was necessary due to the warning that inclement weather was on its way and would arrive in the afternoon.
We'd already had a slight hiccup in that one of the team had left behind his finds pouch..... but worse still.... his Pro-Pointer was attached to it!!!
Worse was still to come, one of the remaining two probes had decided to play dead, right at the very start of the survey! Even a battery change couldn't alter the fact that we were down to one probe between the three of us.
We didn't let that dampen our enthusiasm so we carried on from where we left off on the 28th March. On that visit, we recovered several artefacts and hammered coinaige that reflect a high probability of this being an English Civil War encampment. The coins dated from Elizabeth I to Charles I.
All three machines were set up identically; 13" x 11" coils, GMP standard, Tracking. The only alteration was using the frequency shift so that all three were operating at a slightly diferent frequency in the 18khz band.
Low and behold, on the first pass of the area, the first coin was a Roman coin, a follis of Constantine The Great at three inches. On the second pass, the next coin was a hammered coin of Elizabeth I, again three inches in depth. Another fifteen feet further along the transect a bronze core, gold plated stater was recovered at three inches. At the beginning of the third pass a half groat of Elizabeth I, 1562 AD was recovered form a depth of one inch. Three to four inches was the main depth for the smaller coins except for the James VI Scottish Merk (thirteen shillings and four pence) that came from a depth of six inches. The larger items came from depths of up to twelve inches.
Sure enough, as predicted, the weather closed in and by the time we'd changed back into our "civvies" it was extremely damp!
We called in at the landowners house and luckily enough he was in. He was surprised to learn of our suspicions of the Civil War camp and was even more suprised at the Celtic and Roman items recovered.
He said there was no problem coming back to complete the field whenever we we liked. The problem we have is that a field nearby, on another landholding, has Spring barley planted there and is now showing!
We'll have to assess the growth when we arrive there this coming weekend.
The images for the finds recovered on the day can be seen here.
We'd already had a slight hiccup in that one of the team had left behind his finds pouch..... but worse still.... his Pro-Pointer was attached to it!!!
Worse was still to come, one of the remaining two probes had decided to play dead, right at the very start of the survey! Even a battery change couldn't alter the fact that we were down to one probe between the three of us.
We didn't let that dampen our enthusiasm so we carried on from where we left off on the 28th March. On that visit, we recovered several artefacts and hammered coinaige that reflect a high probability of this being an English Civil War encampment. The coins dated from Elizabeth I to Charles I.
All three machines were set up identically; 13" x 11" coils, GMP standard, Tracking. The only alteration was using the frequency shift so that all three were operating at a slightly diferent frequency in the 18khz band.
Low and behold, on the first pass of the area, the first coin was a Roman coin, a follis of Constantine The Great at three inches. On the second pass, the next coin was a hammered coin of Elizabeth I, again three inches in depth. Another fifteen feet further along the transect a bronze core, gold plated stater was recovered at three inches. At the beginning of the third pass a half groat of Elizabeth I, 1562 AD was recovered form a depth of one inch. Three to four inches was the main depth for the smaller coins except for the James VI Scottish Merk (thirteen shillings and four pence) that came from a depth of six inches. The larger items came from depths of up to twelve inches.
Sure enough, as predicted, the weather closed in and by the time we'd changed back into our "civvies" it was extremely damp!
We called in at the landowners house and luckily enough he was in. He was surprised to learn of our suspicions of the Civil War camp and was even more suprised at the Celtic and Roman items recovered.
He said there was no problem coming back to complete the field whenever we we liked. The problem we have is that a field nearby, on another landholding, has Spring barley planted there and is now showing!
We'll have to assess the growth when we arrive there this coming weekend.
The images for the finds recovered on the day can be seen here.
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