As mentioned in a previous post, we've not had the best of seasons with only 17 outings in 12 months!
However, the recovery rate was still fairly commendable with 244 Roman bronze coins, 25 denarii, 1 stater, 23 IA/RB artefacts, 12 Roman fibulae, 40 hammered coins and 80 Medieval artefacts. Of course, an abundance of Roman and Medieval pottery were collected from the field surfaces.
​Let's hope that we can get out more in the forthcoming new 2019/2020 season!

As always, the new season kicked off with a professional archaeological dig on one of our permissions, as well as a venture into the unknown.
The professional dig was on a new site we'd discovered that looked to be a Roman villa that may be slightly more upmarket than the other Roman buildings we've come across.
The unknown bit was a visit to two brand new permissions that we'd researched and, on paper, both looked to to be promising.

Back to "The Dig" .... and the "Big Yellow Trowel" arrived, and Derek, the JCB driver, expertly executed 4 precision-cut trenches under the very close scrutiny of the Archaeological Site Director whom constantly monitored the site to ensure  overall accuracy and control.
Three of the trenches were 20mtr x 1mtr and the fourth was 10mtr x 1mtr.

We called in to see a landowner who bought another farm a couple of years ago. His new farm has some great looking archaeology and is run by his son so we're hoping that it has a potential.
Of course, he was busy storing the grain from the procession of tractors and trailers but had time for a quick word and gave us his son's mobile number.
We rang his son and asked if it was okay to survey the field we were excited to search due to the research. It had just been drilled with OSR and was perfect for walking and detecting. We managed to recover 25 Roman coins, including a denarius, Roman pottery and the obligatory hammered coin.

Meanwhile, the Dig was going to plan with ditches, post-holes, tesserae, a wall and box-flue tiles being excavated. The flue tiles were exciting as they indicate that this Roman building is quite a high status. 
All we need to find is the mosaic floor!
 
On to new permission number 2, we arrived to find that only half of the straw had been collected. The landowner asked us to text him when we arrived and again when we leave. He did say that he may collect the rest of the straw that morning if possible. We started on the half that was clear and a Roman coin emerged after the first 20 minutes.
The progress was very slow indeed and not in the least what we expected as this field had been excavated with several Roman finds coming from 2 trenches. In all, we only recovered 6 Roman coins.
The star of the day was a hammered penny of Henry I that was in fantastic condition. A hammered halfpenny of Henry VI was also recovered.

The landowner arrived and we had a good chat and got on really well.
He said that the Roman stuff was very deep as the site was in the bottom of a shallow valley and with cultivation and soil creep, this had buried the Roman evidence to a minimum depth of over half a metre!
The temperature had soared to over 28C, so we gave up after 6 hours of hard graft.

Back in the excavation trenches, and lots more Roman pottery, nails, roof tile and a lovely intricately carved bone hairpin were uncovered.

The landowners daughter has been after us searching the lake-bed for the last 4 years, so we obliged and so she and her friend led us to the dried up water feature. The western end of the lake is fed by a spring that has probably been there since at least the Iron Age.
A sestertius of Titus was found along with a superb C1st terret ring.

The professional archaeologist opinion on the Roman villa is that it is in fact a building of high status, complete with a hypocaust heating system, mosaic floor and a tiled roof.
Next year, the Dig Team will have to decide whether to extend the trenches on this site or to perhaps excavate where they found neonatal graves last year. Hopefully, they may be able to excavate both sites, but, there are other sites we've found on the Estate that they may also want to explore?!

Hopefully, our two new permissions may prove to be helpful in our aim to boost the amount of PAS records we submit.

The images from the first new permission can be seen here.

​Images from the second new permission can be seen here.







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The 2018 - 2019 season has been quite tough regarding the volume of outings we've had compared to previous years.
All sorts of things have contributed to this, such as life, weather and our self-imposed rule of not surveying land that has been directly drilled.
The success of the 2018 harvest didn't help either as there wasn't as much spring planting going on upon our permissions resulting in far fewer early 2019 drilling operations. We have however now managed 18 outings resulting in some lovely finds.

Spring forward from March to today and we found ourselves fortunate to enjoy our latest outing thanks to a text from the landowner saying he'd ploughed and drilled a strip of land 10 metres wide and 800 metres long.
Between the 3 of us, we estimated that this should take about 5 hours to complete including a lunch break. This would mean an early finish compared to our usual 8 - 12 hour stints.

The ploughed and rolled strip runs alongside a field that we know has lots of Romano-British activity so it was with great anticipation that we looked forward to this challenge.
The conditions, both weather and field surface were perfect.
It wasn't long before the first of many Roman coins that were recovered, most being grots but some of them were in slightly better condition.
After the first bronze a denarius was unearthed a lovely denarius was found, as well as the beginnings of our Roman pottery collection for the day.

In all, we recovered 35 Roman bronze coins, 5 denarii, a Roman headstud brooch, 4 silver hammered coins, 2 artefacts, 53 pottery sherds, 3 oyster shells and 4 Devils Toenails!

The Lady of the Manor arrived with her two dogs and was surprised but pleased to see us and met us with a very warm greeting.
I'd texted her husband to say we were coming and that he said he'd be back from South Africa on Saturday. He'd obviously not mentioned it to her and I asked were he was, she said "in South Africa". He didn't specify which Saturday he meant in his text LOL!
We asked if there were any other "strips" of land that were accessible and she didn't know of any. She did however invite us to have a drive around the Estate and have a look to see if there were any "strips" to be seen.
We accepted the offer and after an hour we found three more areas that were rolled and drilled. 

Back at the farmhouse, we gave her a demonstration of the drone we have, after handing back their drone which was given to us to see if we could get it to work again.
The demo was well received and she was amazed that it was so stable and that the picture quality was so good. A few images of the drone were then sent to South Africa.

Last year, we mentioned to her husband that we thought that there was a bottle tip on their land and would it be possible to check it out? He said yes we could. She was unaware that we'd asked about the tip and we asked if it was okay to explore it with a mechanical digger in a couple of weeks time?
She confirmed that it would be fine!
We had another quick look at the tip area and we could see broken Victorian crockery, some bottles and a piece of late C18th - early C19th pottery! She did mention that her father had found bottles with glass marbles in them.
Hopefully we'll have more on this in a fortnights' time.

Technical Info
We used 3 Déus machines, all using the 9" HF coil implementing the standard GMP mode.
Most finds were within 5 inches of the field surface with quite a few actually on the surface. One of them being the cut-half hammered coin just to iterate that finds can be at any depth.
There were no "iffy" signals, just pure earphone blasters!

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For the first time in our short history we have come to a stumbling block!

Because of the superb harvesting conditions last year, we've run out of detectable arable land due to the complete and early drilling after the 2018 harvest.
There may be some pasture available at some point but the obstacles here are dry conditions and Stewardship coverage of permanent pasture.

We do however have a couple of arable options that we may be able to explore in the next couple of weeks or so.
There's also an option for us to check out a possible bottle dump.

Meanwhile, Adder hunting and a spot of carp fishing is on the cards as well as monitoring the nesting bird community.

Another distraction for me in particular is the acquisition of a Kamado oven.
These are known as "egg's" in America and are a large part of the outdoor cooking scene.
My wife and I were looking for a new BBQ and a pizza oven but didn't want two separate units if possible.
Our prayers were answered when we discovered the Kamado oven as this covers the wood fired pizza oven aspect as well as; Barbecue, Tandoor, Oven and Smoker! This oven is truly a beast that is so versatile and we look forward to taking it to it's limits.

I'll post separate posts to follow the progress of the Kamado trial trail. 

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It made a change to set off in daylight for once and was also a great chance to explore a new area. The areas we were going to check out were a mix of pasture and arable.

Field #1 was pasture that had been ploughed the year previously.
Today's mix of coils couldn't have been more varied; the 13" X35, the 9" HF and the original 9" coil.
It was the original 9" coil that accounted for two hammered coins and the 9" HF was responsible for the tiny fragment of a third hammered coin.
Two Roman coins were also recovered, one of them was in quite good condition being a numus of the House of Constantine. A large Medieval quatrefoil key was a lovely surprise recovery but unfortunately, part of the handle was missing. A lead palm guard, a coin weight, various Medieval partifacts and a skillet leg were amongst the finds of the day.

Field #2 was drilled with corn which was a new one for us, it's normally wheat, barley or OSR. This was the field that produced most of the memorable finds of the day and is a typical Medieval strip field.​

Although we were using totally different coils; we used the same standard GMP program. However, the X35 was very chattery to the point of distraction. Decreasing the sensitivity to 82 reduced the background chatter to a bare minimum which made it sweet to use. Oddly enough, it didn't appear to reduce the depth or performance of the Déus whatsoever.
After the dew had evaporated, the sensitivity was restored to 90 and the chatter had disappeared.

​The breeze, and the drop in temperature, persuaded us to call it a day, but this early curtailment would allow time for us to drop in on a couple of landowners to suss out what available land they had.

Hopefully, we can squeeze in a few more outing's between now and the seasons end.

​HD images of the day's finds can be seen here.

We took the advantage of getting out before the threatening Storm Freya hits on Sunday. The field has literally just been drilled with Spring Wheat and was flat as a pancake, just right for Shrove Tuesday.

The conditions were extremely dry and breezy which was much appreciated as this can be a very sticky field when wet!
We've visited this field 15 times since 2013 with some great results including at least 31 fibulae and fragments and lots of Roman coinage too.

Today's visit resulted in 42 Roman coins; mainly grots, 2 early fibulae, an assortment of bronze partifacts including a pair of tweezers and the obligatory hammered coin being recovered. Quite a few pieces of Roman pottery surfaced with one being a fragment of Samian Ware that had been drilled to be repaired with a bronze staple.

For a change, three combinations of machines and setting were used.
One machine had the 11" X35 coil powered by the GMP program and the other two machines had the 9" HF coils; one using GMP 15 KHz and the other using GMP 30 KHz. 
It's the first time that 30 KHz has been used for a full days session and it handled the conditions really well. The signals were extra-ordinarily loud, even on the smallest of the Roman coins and, of course, the larger items were "Earschplittenloudenboomer" signals!

HD images of the day's finds can be seen here.

Our 15th outing since August 2018 saw us revisit our latest new permission.
Although we haven't been out as much as we'd like, our recording is still on par.

Unfortunately, one of the team had serious man-flu and couldn't make it this weekend so we were down to a 66% team capacity.
Fortunately, we had a good mobile 'phone signal so that we could keep our missing team member in-the-loop thus preventing any kind of anxiety.

The weather was extremely kind and as you may have seen from our last posting, the sandy soil conditions were superb.
This time around, we were able to apply more time to the fields right next to the thirteenth century village church.

The field we chose was directly drilled OSR on wheat stubble but the OSR has been completely decimated leaving the field resembling a normal looking wheat stubble field. However, the stubble was completely flattened and didn't pose any kind of problem.

Oh WOW!, we've never seen so many musket balls and giant fragments of lead! 81 musket balls of various sizes were extracted weighing 726 grams in total. Some of the lead pieces were huge so the field can't have been seriously detected before. Images of these humongous lead fragments and musket balls can be seen along with all the other recoveries on our Flickr site as usual.
Lots of Medieval pottery came to light as well as Medieval artefacts in the form of coins and metallic objects.
The hammered coins are of John, his son; Henry III and a Queen Elizabeth I London penny. A lovely decorated spindle whorl (one of my fave finds) was recovered as well as other copper-alloy Medieval items.
Strange but true, one of the team had never found a Gothic styled florin but managed to find two! A love token in the form of a Queen Anne sixpence c.1705 was another unusual recovery.

The weather was so good that we committed the drone to the skies. Hopefully that footage will be available soon.

Whilst we were there, a chap approached us and asked if we'd found anything. He then proceeded to fill us in with the local history which was fascinating. What was even more fascinating was that he was friends with a major landowner there. He then hit the hot-spot for me.... he was an expert birdwatcher, this opened the floodgates for me to relate all things ornithologically. He mentioned that a juvenile peregrine falcon was picking off the resident wood pigeon population. Also, which is even rarer, a small flock of firecrest were flitting about the Estate grounds!

On our way out we met up again with the resident birdwatcher and he gave us the address of a local farmer that has some interesting land nearby.

Machine settings used were standard GMP mode using the 9" HF coils.
Some of the finds came up from over 12 inches due to the size of some of the lead objects. 

As always, the HD images of the days recoveries can be seen here.

Despite all sorts of weather warnings, we still decided to venture out onto this brand new permission with wheat stubble.
The research showed that there may be evidence of Roman or Medieval activity.

The weather was okay when we arrived at 11am.
The stubble was very soft and the soil was fantastic, being quite sandy.
What a change it was not to have spades, wellingtons and pin-pointers covered in sticky mud!
Only 4 Roman coins were recovered with only 2 of them identifiable.
We couldn't see any pottery as we only had about 5% visibility of the field surface.

Our challenge to identify who may have inhabited the field was partly solved and looks to have been a small Roman settlement with perhaps just one dwelling that was there for a short period of time.
Another survey when the field is drilled with wheat/barley may provide further evidence to either support this theory or otherwise.
We decided to ask the landowner if we could have a look at another field about 2 miles away so I sent him a quick text whilst he was out on a shoot.
The answer came back within 2 minutes and it was "Fine, go ahead".

This field was right next to a rebuilt Victorian church on top of a C12th building and the soil was just like the first field, lovely!
The first signal was a corroded Roman coin quickly followed by an Early Medieval buckle dating to C11th and was a "Beast Biting the Bar" type.
Other Medieval artefacts were recovered along with Medieval pottery.
Quite a few modern items were also found as there was quite a lot of Victorian night soil tippings evident.

​HD images of the finds can be seen here.

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.

The last survey of 2018 saw us return to a long-standing Roman favourite that has produced some wonderful coins and artefacts during 20 visits since March 2014.

The first field we had a look at was drilled with wheat and revealed a couple of fragments of Roman pottery and a few coins.
The field next to did have potatoes in it but it was too rough to search there so we looked at another field nearby.

This produced a very small hammered and one piece of Medieval pottery.
This was the opportunity that Rob was looking for to try out his new toy; a hexacopter drone fitted with a 4K camera!
Footage from this inaugural flight appears to be quite awesome considering it was carried out in a 25mph breeze! The footage can be seen here.

The last field we looked at was drilled with OSR but the crop had failed so it was re-drilled with wheat. This field has a Roman road running through it with a Romano-British settlement nearby. The search area had several fragments of Roman building material and pottery. As expected, a number of Roman coins and artefacts were recovered.

One artefact that was recovered stood out as being a rare fragment of a Roman glass bangle. This was the highlight of the day and one of the rarest artefacts we have ever recovered amongst some memorable finds over the past 8 years.

HD images of the finds can be seen here.

Today saw the team return to a site that we first surveyed three years ago to the day, almost.
The plan was to have a look at three different fields, all of them drilled with wheat and quite damp after the overnight drenching.
As anticipated, the soil was quite sticky, so some time was spent clearing the mud build-up on the spades and boots!

The first field has part of a deserted Medieval village in it and the first find was a cut-quarter of Stephen followed by two Edward I pennies.

The next field was mainly a Roman settlement that has been there for most of the Roman occupation. In all, 13 Roman coins and two fibulae, on was part of a trumpet fibula and the other was an early disc type brooch with a triskelle styled decoration that was inlaid with a red enamel.
​Lots of Roman pottery was on the surface made up of four main types.
Lunch beckoned so it was a long trek back to the vehicles for Christmas Dinner butties, crisps and chocolate.

The third field had the rest of the Medieval village and would you believe it, the first coin was a denarius of Septimius Severus dating to AD 193 - 211.
The next coin was a cut-quarter of King John along with a couple of Medieval buckles and typical green glazed Medieval pottery.

I know the days are now getting longer but not enough to stay out beyond 4pm without head-torches.​
With the light fading, we called in to see the landowners and spent an hour with the family catching up with a cup of tea and some festive stollen.

HD images can be seen here.
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