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OUT
AND ABOUT IN SKIDMARK
Three
in a Day, Twice!
On
our first trip in Skidmark to Sunny Suffolk we had proved that the new van had
been a good purchase. It was fast, comfortable and all our detecting gear stowed
away out of view of prying eyes, a priority when the van can be parked in a
lonely lane whilst we are detecting several fields away.
Because
of shift work we were able to get away again, five days after arriving back from
Suffolk. On this occasion we decided to go to our favourite area i.e Humberside
and North Yorkshire. The crops were coming off and we wanted to find some new
land near to where we had been detecting for several years. We had already
phoned a friend who lives near to some of the fields we search. He told us that
the fields had been free for weeks and there had been no sign of the farmer
since the crop had been gathered.
We
had three days to search before we had to head back so left home late one
evening so that we would be in the area a couple of hours later and on site
early on the first day. We planned to search the fields that had been free for a
few weeks. We drove down the lane behind some houses where we had parked dozens
of times in the Red Rocket only to have a car drive alongside us no sooner had
we switched off the ignition and the lights. “This is a private lane, y’know.
Access is only allowed for householders. You can’t camp here, I’ll phone the
police and you’ll be physically removed.” In the dark light we could just
make out this irate old guy through his wound-down window.
His
verbal attack without any introduction or investigation immediately got our
hackles up, we met aggression with aggression. We asked him who he thought he
was, told him we didn’t like his attitude and that we would not be moving. It
was only when we told him that we’d been parking in that spot for years in our
little red van that is attitude changed completely. “Oh, are you the couple
who do the prospecting?, I didn’t recognise you in that new van” he replied.
He
apologised profusely and was off waving and shouting, “Good Night to you both,
I’ll see you tomorrow.”
We settled down laughing at the thought that if he had been the
farmer’s uncle or other relative, we would have really blown it with our
anger.
We
were awake early the next morning ready to have a full day on the stubble field
just yards away. However, whilst we were having breakfast a tractor arrived and
started ploughing up the stubble. “Oh, fiddlesticks!” we thought, “these
fields have been free for weeks but as soon as we arrive the farmer comes to
plough them up.”
We
started detecting; it was a glorious day. Slowly as the day progressed the
amount of land available diminished as the tractor worked up and down the
field. Then I got a
hammered farthing in an area where we’d found a couple of
hammered in the past. The coin is shown in Fig. 1. Now the panic was on;
we wanted to work the area but very quickly the tractor got nearer and
nearer.
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Fig 1
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In
the end we were forced off the field with nothing to show except a few Georgian
half-pennies, a couple of musket balls and that one farthing. We had our dinner
and thought we’d try the field when the farmer had finished, the newly
ploughed soil didn’t look too rough from where we were parked.
It
was late afternoon when we got back on the field. As detectorists will know
ploughed fields don’t look too bad when viewed from a distance. Newly ploughed
fields are notoriously difficult to detect upon and this one was no exception,
it was like walking on the ocean waves!
However, we didn’t have no-where else to detect at the time so we
persevered.
We
detected until it was almost dark and came off with nothing special, in fact we
hardly found a thing!
The only thing we got for our efforts were aching ankles and my back was
starting to play up.
The
next morning we decided to go to see the farmer and see if he had any fields
free even if they were out of the way and fields we had never searched before.
Luckily, he did and he gave us permission for a further fourteen we never knew
he had. Wow, we were on a high. One minute we just had a roughly ploughed field
to go at, the next we had all this new land. We didn’t know where to start and
decided on a bit of research.
We
studied the plan the farmer gave us and opted to search a couple of fields near
a small hamlet. One of the first signals Mo’ got was a copper coin of William
and Mary,
this was a good start. As so often happens a good start means nothing
special for the rest of the day and so it was. We ended up searching four of the
fields and found the usual stuff like musket balls and grotty half-pennies. Each
new field we tried was going to be the one but my back was slowly getting worse
and my enthusiasm was waning as the pain increased.
The
next day I was worse. Myself and Mo’ searched a couple more fields but these
were absolutely barren. It was as if no-one had ever walked over them. Walking
over these fields with a bad back didn’t exactly make me brim with enthusiasm
and in the early afternoon I gave up the ghost and chilled-out in Skidmark.
Mo’ plodded on and it was then that I wished we had our little portable
radios. We had bought these some years ago so that we could keep in touch when
we were a fair distance apart in the fields. When one saw the other digging it
was great fun to be able call them and ask, “What was that you’ve just dug
up.”
But
they had long been discarded, they kept falling out of our pockets, the
batteries would drain very quickly and they had a habit of switching themselves
off, so much so that one would get fed-up trying to call the other. As I sat in
the van watching Mo’ periodically bending down to retrieve a signal I was
consciously willing her on to make a nice find. She deserved it.
About
six o’clock we decided to head off home earlier than normal. As we drove past
some fields towards the motorway and home Mo’ shouted that the field we had
just passed was on the farmers plan. It didn’t look any different than the
others but she said that if I didn’t mind she’s suss it out for an hour or
so.
We
parked up and off she went, ever passionate about the hobby. Thirty minutes
later she was heading back to the van. She had found a medieval buckle along
with two jettons, a pile of buttons and other finds. She said that signals were
everywhere. “We can stay till it goes dark at 9.30 if you want,” she said.
| I
was raring to go but my body wasn’t. I got on the field and then
realised that most of the time I couldn’t bend down to dig!!
What a predicament. Still we pressed on, it was very enjoyable
after the last barren day or two. Then I got a loud signal, kicked away
the soil as best I could and glimpsed a large piece of lead. I got on my
haunches and picked up….. my first lead ampulla!
I shouted Mo’ and we both examined this lovely find. It is shown
in Fig. 2. |
Fig 2
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We
got very excited thinking about what could be on this field. We had searched it
for less than an hour and already had two medieval pieces in the bag. What a
pity we were on our last few hours of searching.
Buttons
were coming up everywhere. There didn’t seem to be any reason why this field
should be productive when it was surrounded by barren fields. The lane was
obviously quite old but lots of the other fields were at the side of the lane.
For some reason this field had seen more use. We vowed to do some research at
home to try to discover why.
I
was really struggling now having to stand stock still every now and then to let
my back pain subside. Then I got a signal and had to sit in the soil to find it.
It was worth it as it turned out to be a hammered coin, unfortunately in very
poor condition and not worth photographing.
We
carried on till dark and then headed home, grateful for the good detecting break
we had gained. I had to phone in sick for a week, and then decided that the best
way to recuperate was out in the countryside, if you get my drift.
So
it was that within a short while we were very excited at the prospect of
spending several days searching that one field, as long as the farmer hadn’t
ploughed it!
Back
on site we were gladdened to see that nothing had changed, except for the
weather. It was now dull and damp. We suddenly became conscious of the fact that
since buying Skidmark we had spent more time in that than we had at home.
We
settled down to a nice routine i.e. a couple of hours searching then back to
Skidmark for a cuppa. Buttons were coming up in some numbers along with lots of
old lead, you know, the white stuff that tends to indicate it’s been there
some time.
Then
Mo’ found the coin weight shown in Fig. 3. This is a nice find. It is
marked ‘COINED BEFORE 1772’ and was used to check the weight of gold
guineas. On the reverse side it has the letters ‘Dwt’ &.’Gr’
with the numbers ‘5’ and ‘6’ below the letters. We are led to
believe that these stand for 5 pennyweights and 6 grains.
A
short while later Mo’ was giving me the hammered coin sign. We were over
the moon; another hammered from the field. Mo’s find was a short cross
penny which we haven't been able to identify. It is shown in Fig.4.
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Figs 3 & 4
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Nothing
else came up that day and the next day we thought we’d try the field next
door. Most detectorists tend to do this i.e. they’ll find a nice field and
think that the field next to it might be even better. It’s got something to do
with…. “the grass is always greener or, in the case of detectorists, the
stubble is always softer!”
Nothing
at all came off that field and in late afternoon we were back on the first field
after a break. Buttons and coins continued to come up but no more specials that
day. We had to go back home as I was due back in work the next morning. I had to
work for four days then I would be on my six days off, we planned to return to
the area within the week.
We
also had to rendezvous with a friend of ours Ian Postlethwaite and so invited
him to meet us on the fields the following weekend. We really had now spent more
time in Skidmark than at home and it became a sort of game. How long could we
keep this up?
We
arrived back at the site on the Saturday. Ian was due to meet us on Sunday. We
started our search on the ampulla field which was still, thankfully, free.
We’d had two hammered from it and knew there had to be more there it was just
a question of searching slowly and carefully.
| All
our finds had come from the roadside edge of the field and slowly through
the day we worked our way towards the back of the field.
Signals were less frequent here but the odd piece of lead, musket
ball or coin kept us going and enjoying our detecting. By tea-time I had
found three hammered coins. They just kept popping up from here and there.
I couldn’t believe my luck. The coins are shown in Figs. 5, 6 & 7.
They are Edward I, Class 9 penny, Canterbury mint (Fig. 5). Edward I
penny, London mint, (Fig. 6). Edward I penny, Class 10, Canterbury mint,
(Fig. 7). |
 
Figs 5, 6 & 7
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Mo’
had no such luck and kept calling me a jammy so-and-so. I have to admit that I
am ‘cos it’s well known that if there is just one hammered coin on a field,
I will trip over it. Mo’ was just happy that she had found the unusual coin
weight.
We
had a quiet night and Ian arrived bang on time next morning. After a cuppa
during which we showed our finds and told Ian where they had come from we were
off. There was another field beyond the blank field that we decided to try for
an hour or two. If it proved to be a fruitless search then we’d go back to the
ampulla field.
It
was when we were in the middle of the field that we noticed some humps and bumps
in the field. We examined them closely but couldn’t decide whether they were
the remains of ridge and furrow and some other earthworks. They were
concentrated at one end of the field and didn’t seem to run into the next
field, as ridge and furrow might. But, they were definitely there and so, to us,
meant activity.
Another
form of activity was also taking place around us. Teams of tractors and
cultivating machinery arrived at the blank field next door whilst a tractor and
plough descended on the field we had just walked on. We had a word with the
farmhand on the tractor and he confirmed what we feared i.e. that all the
fields, particularly the three we were working, would be ploughed, rolled and
seeded within the next day or so.
We
started detecting looking at the tractor running up and down the far end
of the field. Deep down I was hoping he would break down, at least for a
couple of hours. A few signals began appearing as we all neared the bumpy
area, nothing special but it beat wandering around without a signal. Then
I retrieved a signal and was gob-smacked to see a cut half of a voided
penny of Henry III. This is shown in Fig. 8.
I
showed the others, got called a jammy so-and-so again and carried on.
About half an hour later Ian found what we thought was a lovely little
medieval brooch. It was lovely for later it turned out to be made of
silver. This is shown in Fig. 9.
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Figs 8 & 9
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This
area was proving to be interesting but we didn’t get the chance to search it
properly for the tractor was making rapid progress and we soon thought it polite
to move off this field and go back to the ampulla field, if the tractors
weren’t working it.
Once
again we pointed out to Ian where the ampulla and the hammered coins had come
from. There was no pattern to it really so it was really a question of pot luck.
We had a quick brew then all went off on our separate ways. Myself and Mo’
were conscious that today would be the last day we would be searching this field
at least for another 10 months. This hobby, at this level, really only lasts
about two months, if you’re lucky!
It
was about half an hour later when I bumped into Mo’ and asked what she
had found. She pulled out the piece shown in Fig. 10.
Until fairly recently we had this down as a bale seal or similar as
it is made of lead. We have since discovered that it is a very early coin
weight dating to 14th or 15th century. It shows a cross with three pellets
in one of the angles. The other side appears to have a few letters on it
but these are barely discernable. They may not even be letters. The item
weighs 9.3 grms. A nice find.
I’d
only walked a few yards away when I got another hammered coin, my fifth in
two days. It was another Edward I penny, this time from the Durham mint,
CIVITAS
DVREME. It is shown in Fig. 11.
Mo’ knew me of old but we’re sure Ian was beginning to wonder
what was going on!
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Figs 10 & 11
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| For
a few hours we all beavered away stopping for the occasional smoke and a
chat. Evening was drawing near and we would all be calling it a day in a
few hours time. On one of my final runs I dug up another hammered penny,
also of Edward I, London mint. This is shown in Fig. 12. What a trip, what
a thrill. Not sure about Mo’ but certainly Skidmark seemed to be
bringing me the luck and the finds. |
Fig 12
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Ian
called me all the lucky so-and-so’s going, confirming what Mo’ had been
telling him all along. We’d had a great laugh and it was with some sorrow that
we parted for we knew that it would be some time before we met up again. Ian
would probably be working in an Eastern bloc country within weeks. We promised
we’d keep in touch with him via e-mail and make him feel sick by telling him
what the detecting was like back home.
We
had another safe and speedy journey back home and didn’t get back detecting
for a month or two. We are almost up-to-date now so will tell you of our journey
to York and a couple more hammered coin finds. Get the
Searcher
Magazine to follow in our footsteps
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