Ian's (Paint) impromptu 50 acre dig today

[Blackadder43]

Hi All, Slackbladder here

So today i ventured out of my cave and drove to sunny Gloucestershire.
It was an invitation by our forum member Paint (hence forth known as Ian) to attend an impromptu dig on 50 acres of his land.
The reason for the "impomptu" title is that the farmer is about to spread about 100 tonnes of "green " waste all over it
Now, i have always thought "pfft surely its only a bit of waste and wont cause a problem"
I was wrong
On the land there was 2 huge piles of the stuff and i shoved my Nox 800 into it and it went absolutely monkey beserk
Such a shame
Anyways, i am going off topic here:

So i was up at 5am, only having 1 hours sleep due to my wife deciding that it would be a good idea to see if she could break the sound barrier with her snoring!
I did contemplate sleeping with the dogs, but they smell of wee and need a shower

So full breakfast consisting of a spare ham roll and a cup of hot coffee, did some toilet habits, jumped in the shower, managed to dress myself and away we went
50 minutes later and i arrive at the fields to be greeted by a very jolly Ian who was smartly dressed in his "Carpentry tools pictured colourfull braces" holding his shorts up
And this view

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Sadly due to the pressure Ian was under to get some detecting done on this field before it was lost to green waste, we had very tough stubble to contend with, that was 6 inches in places

Some finds did come up, no hammered to my knowledge and no Romans either
I had some blank discs that were once coins, some bronze blobs and some small lead blobs which i was pleased to have found due to the conditions

It was a very enjoyable day and i got to meet some great MDF members, some who have been here for years
One even complimented me (you know who you are) and so i will be sending you Thefiggis share of jelly beans for this month, as he has been slacking cause he has been on the Gin whilst his wife is away!!

So, finds wise its not an exciting array for sure, but as we iz honest detectorists we show the good and the not so good

Thanks for the chance to come up today Ian, you are a top man with kindness in similar amounts to the scrap iron and ally cans i dropped into your scrap bucket

First photo are my own finds, the next ones were just on Ians finds table:











So again , many thanks Ian and great to meet all the folk there

[thefiggis]

Great write-up, chap Sounds like a day which typifies detecting: the finds maybe weren't spectacular but the company and the day itself made it an enjoyable experience anyway. Great stuff.

However.

One even complimented me (you know who you are) and so i will be sending you Thefiggis share of jelly beans for this month, as he has been slacking cause he has been on the Gin whilst his wife is away!!

1. I can't imagine for one moment what it was you were complimented on, unless that be the size of your wossname. JB stash.

2. Ian, you're more than welcome to my share which, basically, consists of naff all. So you can continue to compliment BA on the size of his stash because it will in no way be diminished.

3. I'm on the gin when she's here

You know, I'm still trying to get my head round why anyone would want to spread that stuff on their land, but I'm pleased it led to a good day out at least

[Blackadder43]

Updated the repeat photo to now show the correct one...doh...must be heatstroke or summat

And John
Although Ian is a thoroughly good all round egg, it was actually another forum member who gave me said compliment, so you have lost your share of beans this month
Stop throwing tantrums and move on

Joking aside, you are correct John that todays finds can be typical of a group of folk on 50 acres of land
Yet a different day with slightly different conditions and that finds table would be over flowing
Thats the way the hobby crumbles..

[Count de Washers]

I went to this one too, and I would like to thank Ian for his generous invitation, top man!

I was struggling with the stubble as well but time pressure meant the dig had to be now. A few of us were there bright and early at 7.30, and it was lovely to meet you all. I have to say, meeting Blackadder was like spotting a celebrity! And what a nice chap he is too.

A fellow 'Wessex Searchers' member made it up there as well, nice to catch up with him.

No finds apart from scrap for me today, but it was still enjoyable. Funny thing is I had been looking on and off all day at the huge pile of green waste but it didn't click as to what it was until I just read Blackdder's post!

[thefiggis]

Although Ian is a thoroughly good all round egg, it was actually another forum member who gave me said compliment, so you have lost your share of beans this month

Whoopdedoo. No change there, then.

I have to say, meeting Blackadder was like spotting a celebrity! And what a nice chap he is too.

Oh boy. Another candidate for waiting behind the letterbox with a catcher's mitt to open up a parcel containing precisely zero JBs Glad you enjoyed it though

[Oxgirl36]

I can’t see the finds table pics, but can see the field ones. Very weird

Edit - I can now

[Oxgirl36]

Looks like a beautiful field and glorious weather. Wish I could have gone

[paint]

Thanks all who attended today £75 was raised for guide dogs for the blind weather was amazing company outstanding finds a let down 3 out of 4 is not to bad i give it my best shot to save as much history form this land as possible but it was hard going i did stay until 3 30pm but even i was defeated we did put in over 30 hours of detecting on these fields between us so have had a good go before they are lost to green waste will still try to talk to the farmer when i tell him how much we have raised dare i say in better conditions with the stubble plowed in and no green waste these fields will produce
again thanks for all your efforts today
cheers paint

[Macroman]

Brilliantly put together account of your days events..well done..and many thanks for posting..and as always..Good hunting

[GeoffBristol]

Just like to say thanks to Ian for the invitation today, ( great person ) I won't forget the braces, and also it was good to put faces to names, the weather was perfect, shame about the stubble being a bit hard and high ( but you got to take your chances while you can ) I had a couple of toasted coppers, some pistol balls and a few buttons, I left just after twelve as my legs were killing me, shame more people didn't turn up , but after all it was a week day.
Geoff

[sweepstick47]

Super photo's of the location and great weather for the dig

Green Waste is the absolute pits wherever it rears it's head! Good job it was still awaiting distribution!

Despite the minimal finds made, it was obviously an enjoyable meet We can never foretell the outcome but there's always expectation and often it comes to little because the finds are simply elsewhere, not quite in the chosen search area.

The day was spent in good company each with the object of making some funds for a very worthy charity so a big success in that respect. Well done Ian

[Saffron]

Most importantly a massive THANK YOU to Ian for organising this event.

Masses of land, although as others have implied and can be seen from the photos a big heavy roller would have done it wonders. Sadly less people there than I expected so we barely touched the available ground - especially as I suspect most swung the coils above the stubble so lost a lot of depth.

I saw the lovely seal matrix that Ian had found on the field before, anybody would have been delighted to have found it. So between that and the other finds previously made the land certainly did deserve looking at and justified the dig. As BA said the green waste was full of metal so will ruin these fields, so who knows what will be lost.

Good to see Ian again and meet BA for the first time. As always everybody nice and friendly.

My very first signal was a 1959 sixpence. This looks promising thinks I, 3 hours later it has proved to be a false dawn and only scrap has been found.

Tactical withdraw is then made to the burger van that was mentioned in the orignal thread. A very good move, "breakfast roll", 2 large sausages, 2 eggs, 3 rashers of bacon, black pudding and masses of mushrooms only £4.50 A real feast so anybody traveling on the A38 I strongly recommend it, and well worth a detour of the M5 between J13 and 14.

The tactic worked well and suitably refreshed straight on to a toasted copper, soon after a 20p.

Then another blank period.

But I had worked out the secret for this ground ....... food ... So raided the hedgerow for my first blackberries of the year, and tasty they were too and part of the 5 a day we are all meant to have.

You might laugh .... but the tactic worked !. Straight on to "an interesting find", a poor condition very thin disc, with a pattern and date (172n ??), might be a jetton, second guess a token, but do not think its an English coin. Have made no effort to clean it yet but will let you know the results. Then a few yards further on another toasted copper (I have made no effort to see if either of these coppers can be read).

But as I only had a handful of blackberries the effect then wore off and I admited defeat due to the lack of sleep, heat and having to go out latter in the afternoon.

Well done to Ian for organising the dig and pleased it raised some money for such a good cause, although I admit I did think it deserved better support.

Sad to say but I do have a complaint. As you can see from the pictures a lovely setting and a (mainly) blue sky and the harvest has been safely gathered in. Well, somebody who will remain nameless due to risk of breaking forum rules (but think start of the alphabet!), comes from Zummerzet where they do make the most excellent zyder .... with that setting what would be the perfect drink to quench our thirst obviously that excellent zyder ... but did he bring any ??. I do not know what others think but I say confiscate his jelly beans.

Evan

[Blackadder43]

Cheers fella

[Saffron]

Thanks all who attended today £75 was raised for guide dogs for the blind weather was amazing company outstanding finds a let down 3 out of 4 is not to bad i give it my best shot to save as much history form this land as possible but it was hard going i did stay until 3 30pm but even i was defeated we did put in over 30 hours of detecting on these fields between us so have had a good go before they are lost to green waste will still try to talk to the farmer when i tell him how much we have raised dare i say in better conditions with the stubble plowed in and no green waste these fields will produce
again thanks for all your efforts today
cheers paint

Ian, good to see you again and many thanks for arranging this dig.

I admit I thought there would have been more people there, and hence raise more money, but even so £75 is still a nice sum for a very good cause which I am sure they will appreciate.

Myself, and everybody I noticed, was swinging above the stubble so probably losing at least 4-6" depth. So I am sure that as you say "in better conditions with the stubble plowed in and no green waste these fields will produce again". If you could arrange these conditions I for one would be willing to give it another try and chuck in another tenner for the guide dogs.

Evan

[jcmaloney]

Don`t suppose anyone took a picture of said GW and/or its contents did they?

[kenleyboy]

So i was up at 5am, only having 1 hours sleep due to my wife deciding that it would be a good idea to see if she could break the sound barrier with her snoring!
I did contemplate sleeping with the dogs, but they smell of wee and need a shower

both ring true for me

Great write up .