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Detecting English Style

By Nick Cox

I've been asked to write an article about detecting in England, although relatively new to hobby, I have in the few years I've been searching clocked up many hundreds of hours in the field and started to build the beginnings of a good collection. I now find myself forever buying a new book or approaching a museum when researching a new find, this is as a result of the diverse nature of the finds spanning thousands of years that can be made over here in England.

Metalwork was first introduced into this country about 4300 years ago by the early Bronze age settlers, who migrated north from other parts of Europe. With them they brought tools and weapons, such as axes and spears, which are an occasional and much prized find by detectorists. Throughout the Bronze age there was a gradual evolution of their weapons and tools and the introduction of other more ornamental items, some of which being made of gold, although these are extremely rare.

So, as people started to use metal items then so did they start to lose them which is good for the lucky detectorist who chances across such an artifact. Not only were single items lost but hoards of bronze artifacts were also buried, sometimes, as offerings to gain favor with their Gods which were never intended to be retrieved. More commonly hoards were made up of broken or damaged tools and weapons which were most likely being kept for recasting and for whatever reason never recovered. A few detectorists have already unearthed these first hoards but countless others must surely lay just waiting to be discovered. A period of great interest to the detectorist in England is the middle half of the second century BC as it heralded the first appearance in any quantity of recognizable coinage to be used and lost by our ancestors.

This picture shows how small hammered silver & Roman bronze coins can be.

The coins I am talking about are the much sort after gold staters which were brought to our shores by the Celtic tribes of northern France. These early coins are miniature works of art and the discovery of these and later Celtic coins by detectorist have all helped in the piecing together of our early history and in some cases even rewritten it. The Celtic people were very skilled metalworkers and along with their coins a whole host of artifacts were being made including brooches, mounts, horse trappings and religious items, all of which although a little scarce, are sometimes founds by the detectorist.

In 43 AD Claudius led an invasion of Britain and so started almost four centuries of Roman rule. The Romans brought with them a far more advanced way of life, one with structure and order with skilled engineers building roads, forts, and even whole towns. At first there were rebellions by some of the defeated Celtic tribes but slowly over time many adopted the Roman way of life and are now referred to as Romano British. The Celtic coinage was banned and only Roman coins were allowed to circulate which they did in far greater numbers than the Celtic coins ever achieved. Roman coins in some parts of the country are a very common find and after the Romans left it would take another thousand years until coins were being used and lost in anywhere near the same quantities. If a detectorist is lucky enough to have permission to search a villa site or even a Romano British farmstead occupied for any length of time, then huge numbers of coins may be found in a single day.

I recently gained permission for a Roman site and although it had seen much attention from other detectorists over the last twenty years, a fresh ploughing still brought up over seventy coins, some of which were silver. The Roman layer of soil certainly has a lot to offer the detectorist, for not only coins, but all manner of other artifacts may be found. Decorated brooches of all different shapes and sizes, clothes fasteners, horse trappings, tools, keys, rings, mounts, pendants and the list goes on and on. It is always a great feeling to dig up a Roman coin or artifact knowing you’re the first person to handle it in almost two thousand years!
In the beginning of the 5^th century the Roman army was withdrawn so bringing about the end of formal Roman rule and this resulted in the gradual decline of central administration. By 600 AD Romano Britain was a thing

Some Roman silver coins. Most of them found over the last few months.

of the past having been an easy target for a new wave of invaders and so started the Anglo Saxon period of our history, or, the so called 'Dark Ages'.

The intervening years between the Roman and Anglo Saxon period saw a deterioration in the money supply but slowly a new coinage was introduced. At first gold, then silver coins began to used and lost although never in the same quantities as in the Roman period. Anglo Saxon coins are eagerly sort after by detectorists, possibly as much as the earlier Celtic coins. There's not a great deal of evidence left above the ground from the early Anglo Saxon period and even less in the way of written records so again, metal detecting finds have assisted the archaeologist a great deal in understanding this part of our history. As from all periods artifacts can be unearthed, some with beautiful and distinctive Anglo Saxon designs. Buckles, strap ends, brooches , pins and rings were all well used items that may be found by detectorists.

In 1066 Harold the Anglo Saxon king was defeated and killed at the battle of Hastings by William of Normandy and so yet another invasion launched us into the period we know as the middle ages. The hammered silver penny remained as it did in late Saxon times almost the only unit of currency in circulation until Edward I (1272-1307) started to mint halfpennies and farthings. Prior to this, pennies would just be cut into halves and quarters when change was needed. Its important when searching in England to take things slowly, keeping the coil as close to the ground as possible, even the best detector would struggle to find these tiny coins at any great depth. The good stuff is so often the small stuff, so, always keep it slow and low and you will find what other miss.

During the middle ages the economy saw rapid growth, and ever increasing amounts of artifacts and hammered coins, some of which were now of larger denominations and even gold, were being lost. So there is an excellent chance of making finds from this and the later Tudor (16^th century) and Stuart (17^th century) periods. The distributions of these loses is very widespread and good sites can be found all over the country. More and more fields were going under the plough to feed the growing population and the highly labor intensive nature of agriculture led to many objects and coins be lost in the fields.

Some of the many finds that came from the 17th/18th Century housesite
(Click for bigger pic)

If your chances of making finds from the above periods are excellent then finds from the 18^th and 19^th century are almost guaranteed. This period saw an explosion in the production of metal objects. Some fields can be littered with metalwork from this time. Much of it, as in other periods, would have found its way into the field concealed amongst the midden that was brought from the towns and ploughed in to enrich the soil. This period also saw the withdrawal of the now worn out hammered coinage which was replaced by mass produced milled coinage. Copper started to be used to make the lower valued coins and I would expect to find at least a few copper pennies, halfpennies and farthings during a days detecting on any of my farms.

As crops have allowed over the last two years, I have had the good fortune to search the ploughed out remains of a row of houses that were well used in the 17th/18th centuries. Even though they were built to house the poorer families of the parish, I still managed to find plenty of artifacts including hundreds of buttons, thimbles, buckles, horses fittings etc. Along with these artifacts I also recovered over three hundred copper coins as well as few silver ones. The mass production of metal objects had drastically reduced its cost so now even the poorest people could afford many such artifacts. One thing about detecting on any site in England is its potential to throw up a few unexpected finds and this was certainly the case with this site, as in amongst the more recent finds were a couple of Henry II ( 1154-89 ) hammered silver pennies, two Roman bronze coins and a Roman brooch.

So there you have it, four thousands years of metal objects being used, two thousand years of coinage changing hands. You must be wondering how we manage to stagger off the fields weighed down under the weight of so many good finds that we must surly make each trip. To be honest, there are still a few blank days. Fields that promised so much. yielding nothing, fields that have produced in the past going quiet on you. There's also a little more involved, than just walking on to the nearest field and scooping up the goodies. You may get lucky with this approach from time to time, but to be consistently successful, time and effort needs to be spent researching where people might of once lived, worked and spent their spare time.

There are other factors as well, geography plays an important part in what you might find and in what condition it may come out of the ground in. The more ancient finds will often be made in places such as Suffolk and Norfolk in the south east of the country. The rich, light and easy to work soils of these regions would certainly have attracted the early settlers. Many detectorists visiting the country will often head for these parts as it does offer some of the best detecting land in the country, though plenty of other areas will still produce an abundance of good finds.

So if you do find yourself detecting on a field in England, there is every chance of you unearthing a real part of our history. Many good finds are made by people on trips to this country and even if you do have one of those quiet days, the English countryside is still a fantastic place for a days metal detecting---NC