Where did last year go?!
Here we were at a brand new permission that held the promise that there may be Roman evidence lurking just inches below the surface.
It was just coming light as we donned the gear and machinery.
On entering the field we saw that is was a very sandy mix and a very welcome situation compared to last week when we were plagued with the sticky mud! This type of soil is beautiful to dig as some of you may know.
After a couple of minutes a vehicle pulled up and a chap got out and shouted over "excuse me" so I went over to introduce myself.
He asked if we had permission to be on the field to which I said yes.
He then said "who did we ask?" so I informed him and he said that the lady in question should have refused as the field was rented out to another farmer, Mr X.
He added "Mr X wouldn't like the fact that you're digging up his crop" to which I replied that we have several landowners that thoroughly trust us and are happy that there is minimal damage to crops.
He also asked if we'd spoken to Mr X and I said no, he repeated the he wouldn't be happy and that he pays a lot of money to rent the field.
He drove off and we decided to continue but with a dark cloud hanging over us.
We managed to find two Roman trumpet brooches and nothing more so Rob launched his new toy to film the field from some great angles. The hexacopter climbed to a height of 70 metres.
Funnily enough, the damage to the crops from rabbits and pigeons was quite bad.
We had a bite to eat at noon and decided to call it a day and call in and see Mrs X that gave us permission. Unfortunately she was out so I rang her mobile and she said she was sorry for the misunderstanding. We had a laugh about it and I said I would ring her again regarding other fields they have.
Our next port of call was a stalwart permission that has produced some brilliant finds. Unfortunately the field was roughly ploughed so out-of-bounds. Plan C was called for so a quick 'WhatsApp' message to another landowner and we were on our way to a Roman field we hadn't been to since September 2017.
The field had been seeded with Winter Wheat and was quite short and the soil quite dry, so no claggy wellingtons!
After lots of buttons we managed to recover three denarii and a few grots.
The denarii appear to be Diva Faustina I with the other two being Vespasian and possibly Vitellius, Vespasian's' predecessor.
A coin we hadn't found before was a silver schilling dating to 1790.
Once again, Robs hexacopter took to the air to capture some shots that will be great to see when uploaded to the video channel.
This time, the drone maintained a height of 120 metres so that footage will be interesting too.
HD images of the finds recovered at both sites can be seen here and here.
Here we were at a brand new permission that held the promise that there may be Roman evidence lurking just inches below the surface.
It was just coming light as we donned the gear and machinery.
On entering the field we saw that is was a very sandy mix and a very welcome situation compared to last week when we were plagued with the sticky mud! This type of soil is beautiful to dig as some of you may know.
After a couple of minutes a vehicle pulled up and a chap got out and shouted over "excuse me" so I went over to introduce myself.
He asked if we had permission to be on the field to which I said yes.
He then said "who did we ask?" so I informed him and he said that the lady in question should have refused as the field was rented out to another farmer, Mr X.
He added "Mr X wouldn't like the fact that you're digging up his crop" to which I replied that we have several landowners that thoroughly trust us and are happy that there is minimal damage to crops.
He also asked if we'd spoken to Mr X and I said no, he repeated the he wouldn't be happy and that he pays a lot of money to rent the field.
He drove off and we decided to continue but with a dark cloud hanging over us.
We managed to find two Roman trumpet brooches and nothing more so Rob launched his new toy to film the field from some great angles. The hexacopter climbed to a height of 70 metres.
Funnily enough, the damage to the crops from rabbits and pigeons was quite bad.
We had a bite to eat at noon and decided to call it a day and call in and see Mrs X that gave us permission. Unfortunately she was out so I rang her mobile and she said she was sorry for the misunderstanding. We had a laugh about it and I said I would ring her again regarding other fields they have.
Our next port of call was a stalwart permission that has produced some brilliant finds. Unfortunately the field was roughly ploughed so out-of-bounds. Plan C was called for so a quick 'WhatsApp' message to another landowner and we were on our way to a Roman field we hadn't been to since September 2017.
The field had been seeded with Winter Wheat and was quite short and the soil quite dry, so no claggy wellingtons!
After lots of buttons we managed to recover three denarii and a few grots.
The denarii appear to be Diva Faustina I with the other two being Vespasian and possibly Vitellius, Vespasian's' predecessor.
A coin we hadn't found before was a silver schilling dating to 1790.
Once again, Robs hexacopter took to the air to capture some shots that will be great to see when uploaded to the video channel.
This time, the drone maintained a height of 120 metres so that footage will be interesting too.
HD images of the finds recovered at both sites can be seen here and here.
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