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ISSUE 2All the latest news from the National Council for Metal Detecting

P1-5 NCMD News

P5 Caption Competition

P6 Yorkshire Region

P6-7 Scottish Region

P7 Anglia Region

P8-10 Midland Region

P10 Book Review

P11-12 NCMD Bulletin

C O N T E N T SNighthawkingSeminarThe seminar hosted by English Heritage included speakers from the DCMS,NCMD, Police, English Heritage and a representative in the form of JohnBrowning from the NFU (National Farmers Union).

From the start there werestatements from Dr Wilson andProfessor Cunliffe, that"Responsible metal detectoristsare not being targeted and thatneither English Heritage or theCBA or any other body as far asthey were aware had any intentionof banning metal detecting.” Thepurpose of the seminar was tofollow on from the nighthawkingreport and find ways to combatillegal metal detecting onSchedules sites.

However, it became apparent froma number of speakers that therewas intent to introduce restrictionsand controls wherever possible.This is viewed by many as ameans to further restrict legitimatedetector users.

The police admitted a lack ofknowledge on the subject atConstabulary level. Hoping toenlist accredited volunteer‘Nighthawk Reporters’ fromaround the country.

The NCMD President John Wellsgave an address which spelt outthe NCMD position in plainlanguage. “The NCMD has not,

does not and will not condone orencourage going equipped tosteal. The NCMD encourages thefull use of the law and supportsthe strongest actions againstwrongdoers. The fact that I haveto say this in open forum is anindictment on the system that hasfor years put my organisation onthe back foot and imputes theintegrity of my members andthousands of other law abidingdetectorists who would no moreconsider going equipped to stealthan they would otherwise breakthe law.”

A full transcript of John’s addresscan be found on the NCMDForum.

Suzie Thomas and the Council for British ArchaeologySuzie Thomas, Community Archaeology Support Officer forthe Council for British Archaeology (CBA) attended theNCMD Executive meeting in November as a guest.

Suzie presented the preliminary findings of the CBACommunity Archaeology survey carried out during thesummer. The aim of the survey was seeking to establish thenature of the involvement in archaeology by various typesof voluntary archaeological groups including metaldetecting clubs and individuals. She also presented briefdetails of a forthcoming conference taking place in March2010 looking into metal detecting, collecting andarchaeology. The conference will be held in Newcastle.

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NCMD Newsletter Manager: Trevor AustinPublisher: Editor, Design & Layout: Harry Bain, Searcher Publications LtdTypesetting, Production and Repro: Tradeset LtdPrinted and Distributed by: Warners Midlands PLC, West Street, Bourne, Lincs, PE10 9PH.

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N C M D N E W S

The Robin and Karolyn Hatt Memorial Trophy CompetitionThis year's competition welcomeda bumper amount of entries fromthe results of coins and artefactsgoing through club to regionalheats, to the final judging bydelegates at the Novembermeeting of the National Councilrepresenting clubs from all overthe country.

This year the Competition had anextra dimension. We decided toprovide individual members andclubs on the central register withthe facility to post their entries onour own NCMD Forum. Thisproved to be the perfect mediumfor including every member,putting so many people in theenviable position of playing theirpart by casting their votes in thisprestigious annual event.

The winning coin, artefact, plustwo hoards from the Forum heats,were included with the otherentries to be finally judged.Membership secretary John Rigbyorganised this, and I think thethread amassed the largestamount of posts than any other. Iam sure this innovative measurewill grow from strength tostrength. I hope many more of youwill join the Forum to either postan entry, or cast a vote. Each yearwe all comment on how difficult itis to pick a winner from entrieswhich are all capable of comingfirst but this year however mustrank as one of the hardest. Thequality of everything on the tablewas superb.

Best Artefact1st. Darren Hoyle – Medieval goldclasp. Ashfield M.D.C. CentralRegister.

2nd. Gordon Innes – 13-14thCentury gold & sapphire fingerring. S.A.R.G.

3rd. Jerry Morris – Merchant'ssilver thumb seal ring.S.H.R.A.D.S.

Roy Jones. – Early decoratedbronze flat axe. Wrexham M.D.C.

Chris Fenn – Iron-Age Enamelledlinch pin. East Yorks. M.D.C.

Jerry, Roy and Chris's entries all tied.

and runners-up, beautifulinscribed hand-made woodenbowls, examples of hiscraftsmanship in wood-turning.

Plaques were also given to therunner's up, and to last year'swinners. I would like to thank allwho took part, and look forward tonext year's competition withanticipation, looking forward to abumper crop of entries. Can itpossibly top this year’s? Well thatis up to you.

Hilary Fagen

2nd. Dave Rogers – MerovingianTremissis. Hoyland SearchersM.D.C.

3rd. Ray Simpson – Roman goldAureus (Nero 64A.D.)

Other coin entries included aWilliam III guinea, Edward IV half-penny, and a 5th-7th Century goldMerovingian Tremisses.

Best Hoard1st. Tom Redmayne – Purse loss,12 medieval silver coins.Individual member.

Other Artefacts were a late-earlyMedieval cast copper-alloy Urnes-style knotted beast strap mount11th century, an enameled Iron-Age linch-pin, and a bronzesocketed axe-head.

Best Coin1st. Kevin Gorman – Edward IRose Noble. North West M.D.C.

Best Artefact Winner Darren Hoyle

Best Coin Winner Kevin Gorman

Gold miniature lock

Edward I Rose Noble

2nd. 'Tessy' – 120 Romandenarius. Individual member.

3rd. The 'Buckhurst Hoard’ 13hammered coins, 1553-1596.

The prizes were presented by TheSearcher editor Harry Bain.

Charles Smith from the south-westRegion donated to the winners

Purse loss, 12 medieval silver coins

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Valuing the Staffordshire HoardWednesday 26th November wasthe day assigned by the TreasureValuation Committee (TVC) tovalue what must arguably be themost spectacular hoard of AngloSaxon treasure ever recovered inthe UK, if not anywhere. There areover 1600 items, and althoughmuch has been seen in the pressand on TV only a handful ofpeople have seen the hoard laidout in its entirety, it becomesevident from the pictures what adaunting task the TVC faced.

The whole of the previous weekthe Committee members hadlaboured over reams of paper,images and spreadsheets emailed

Both I and the rest of theCommittee were particularlyimpressed with the Peter’spresentation, reason, methodologyand comparanda being ofexcellent standard. As most of youmay know, besides being a findsexpert, Peter is also a member ofthe NCMD Yorkshire Region and along time member of the WestRiding MDC.

I set off at my usual time of5.30am for the meeting, on thisoccasion; there would be only oneitem on the agenda not the usual30-40. The hoard, being so large,was laid out in the SturgeBasement, Department of PreHistory & Europe, being the onlyplace large and secure enough toassemble the whole hoard on onelong table. It must be mentionedthat it takes two hours for thehoard to be laid out; and eachtime one of the advisors visited theBritish Museum (BM), IanRichardson, Janina Parol, CarolineBarton and Caroline Lyons did anexcellent job of unpacking andlaying out all the items in theircorrect numbered order.

So it was when we arrived, thefinal pieces of the hoard were stillbeing laid out.

The work done at home in thepreceding days now began to payoff. The Committee members hadhighlighting objects that neededparticular scrutiny, largedivergence in provisionalvaluations of particular objects,images of items that did not viewwell, or simply items of specialinterest were sought out by eachmember of the Committee whoeach compiled copious notes thatwe could refer to later in the day.

Nearly all of the items that haveappeared in the press and on TVhave been of the major pieces in

the hoard, however, there arehundreds of small fragments,particularly from what is probablya ceremonial helmet, thatalthough quite small are lovelypieces of art.

We decided to return to our usualmeeting room in the afternoon todiscuss our findings and to assesshow we would arrive at avaluation.

By now each member of the TVChad his own calculations on thevalue of the entire hoard; NormanPalmer decided to start off theafternoon by asking each memberwhat their personal assessmentwas. Remarkably; the difference ofopinion round the table varied bysome £300,000…yes, I know agreat deal of money, but in thecontext of the hoard, quite close. Ittherefore became clear that our

discussions, although protracted,would eventually lead us to aconsensus of opinion we could allagree. The prospect of having tostay in London for a second dayhad, for the time being,diminished to some extent.

During this time, the hoard wasstill in the Sturge basement, underthe careful watch of Museum staff,we had decided that although wewere now in the Hartwell Room,we may need to see the hoardagain, or selected items from it.This proved to be the case andseveral items which caused somedifficulty in valuing wererequested for further examination.

The folded cross, the mostvaluable piece in the hoard,provided some discussionconcerning its potential forrestoration. We had conservators

to us at home, which wouldhopefully help us in ourassessment of the valuation on theday. As is usual the TVC hadcommissioned provisionalvaluations from its expert advisors,and on this occasion were, JamesEde, Bonhams, Judith Nugée(Christies) and Peter Spencer. Theprovisional valuations were allwithin the expected seven figurerange and therefore did not requireany further valuations to besought.

Photos ©British Museum

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from the BM on hand, who wereavailable to answer any questionsput by the Committee; theiropinion was that the cross wouldnot be unfolded by the acquiringmuseum. However the Committeehas to look at what potentialbuyers would do, in the opinion ofthe Committee any prospectivebuyer would in fact view thepossibility of unfolding andrestoring the cross, thus upliftingits potential value. There is also apotential uplift in value once theother items have been cleanedand this was also taken intoconsideration.

As the day wore on the sheernumbers of items, particularlypommels, pyramid mounts and

other sword fittings began to seemendless. Establishing a basevaluation for the finest example ofpommel, geometric foil backedcloisonné garnet and thenattributing a value to others of thattype made the work easier. Wesimilarly applied the samemethodology to pyramid mountsand sword hilt collars to theirfinest examples giving a fairoverall comparison of type.

By 6.00pm the Museum gateswere closed and I was parkedinside the museum car park,perhaps an overnight stay wasneeded! To assess the smallfragmentary pieces; which arequite considerable in number, theexpert valuers had either not

attributed a value to these items orhad given a collective figure. Forthe most part these pieces areextremely small, someunrecognisable as objects or partof object, but under the TreasureAct they are treasure and thereforehave value. It could be argued thatsimply by having association withthe Staffordshire Hoard theseunrecognisable pieces wouldattract a premium; which is whatwe decided, and thereforeattributed a suitable figure.

The valuation complete wecongratulated ourselves on adifficult job well done, as themember representing finder’sinterests I believe it to be a fairresult for the finder andlandowner.

The valuation of £3,285,000 is alarge amount of money; if you hadwon this amount on the lotteryyou would have advisors to assistand guide you from Camelot.Unfortunately we don’t have thatfacility, but we did contact thefinder and landowner to let themknow our decision, which musthave brought to an end a nerve-racking day for them both.

For myself, I was lucky enough tohave contributed to theassessment of this amazing findon an even more amazing day. Iwas also lucky that the Museumgates were opened to allow me todrive home and reflect on whathad gone before and look forwardto the next exciting find.

Trevor Austin

The NCMD has received a numberof requests to clarify who actuallyowns finds made by detectorusers. This would seem to bestraightforward; but as we will seeit depends on a number ofdifferent scenarios. Let us look atthe easiest first…

Treasure. All items of Treasurebelong to the Crown, not thelandowner or the finder and havealways belonged to the Crowneven before discovery. There isone exception to this, where thereis a franchisee such as the Duchyof Cornwall the find belongs to thefranchisee. However the variousfranchisees that exist have agreedthat Treasure finds will be dealtwith in the normal way and thefinder and landowner will receivean ex-gratia reward of what isdetermined by the TreasureValuation Committee to be a fairmarket value. This reward, in theabsence of any agreement to thecontrary, is usually split equally

between the finder/finders andlandowner.

Disclaimed items of Treasure.When an item of treasure isdisclaimed by the Crown theownership of the find will revert tothe landowner. Any treasure findwill need the permission of thelandowner before it is returned tothe finder. ‘Any objects disclaimedin this way will be treated asthough they had never beentreasure and will be returned bythe coroner. The coroner will givenotification to the occupier andthe landowner (if different) that heintends to return them to thefinder not less than 28 days afterthe date of his notification unlesshe receives an objection fromeither of them. If no objection isreceived, the coroner will informthe national museum andauthorise the reporting centre inwriting to release the find; thereporting centre will then returnthe find and inform the coroner in

writing that the find has beenreleased. If the coroner receivesan objection, the find will beretained by the coroner, or by thebody to whom he has entrusted it,pending the resolution of thedispute between the parties. Thecoroner does not have the powerto make a legal determination asto title as between the occupier,the landowner and the finder, andthis question will, if necessary,need to be resolved in the courts.’

Non Treasure. These are the findsthat most of us find on a day today basis and the ones that causethe most confusion. Some detectorusers assume that if a landownergives permission to metal detect,this automatically gives the finderthe right to keep any finds. This isnot true. The landowner does notforfeit any of his rights to legal titleto finds discovered on his landsimply by giving permission todetect, even if the landownermakes a charge. It does not

automatically mean that finderswill receive an equal share of thevalue of any finds that may besold. It is always advisable to havean agreement with the landowner,either verbal or written, regardingthe disbursement of any finds.

The lawful owner of any nontreasure find is now wellestablished in law, in July 1995Waverley v Fletcher; where variousprecedents were sited as to theownership of chattel, (e.g. Elwes VBrigg Gas company 1886…Staffordshire Water v Sharman1896...) and which relied heavilyon ‘Buckland and McNair RomanLaw and Common Law’

The three appeal Court Judgesreiterated that; “Where an articleis found in or attached to land, asbetween the owner or lawfulpossessor of the land and thefinder of the article, the owner orlawful possessor of the land hasthe better title.”

Who’s Find Is It Anyway?

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Log on to our website atwww.ncmd.co.uk and viewthe latest hobby informationand where past issues of ournewsletter Digging Deep areavailable to download.

You will also find informationon the benefits that we offerour members; including thelatest Insurance Certificateand together with its Termsand Conditions.

Available to download as wellis information relating to thelaw on Treasure and thevoluntary recording schemes.The latest Treasure/Portable

Antiquities report. In facteverything you need to knowabout the NCMD and thehobby.

We also have a ‘member’sonly’ forum, where you canlog on and discuss the lateston a wide range of topicspertaining to the NCMD andthe hobby of metal detecting.

Catch up on the latest forumchat including the recentNighthawking Seminar andview the NCMD Presidentsspeech in full. http://ncmd-forum.com/

Log on and get updated

In this issue I thought I’d follow upmy article on Common Land withanother topic frequently discussedin my mailbag, footpaths. It is apopular misconception that youcan legally metal detect onfootpaths without permission andwhat may at first seem to besimple and straightforward can infact be quite complicated.

First of all let us look at whatexactly is a footpath. A footpath or‘right of way’ to be precise, in thecountry falls into three categories:A footpath, a bridleway or abyway. On footpaths the publichas a right of way on foot only. Onbridleways, the public also has aright of way on horseback orbicycle. Byways on the other handare part of the Queens Highwayand are open to all forms of traffic;this includes motor vehicles and issubject to the same laws. For ourpurposes we will concentrate onbridleways and footpaths, whichare the ones most detector userswill be interested in.

Identifying footpaths or publicrights of way is usuallystraightforward. The DefinitiveMaps of Public Rights of Way isavailable at most libraries andlocal authorities and are availablefor public inspection. They are

also marked on Ordnance Surveymaps such as Pathfinder andLandranger series.

So what are your rights on a rightof way? The public has a right topass and re-pass along the way;you may stop to rest, admire theview or take refreshmentsproviding you do not cause anyobstruction.

Who owns footpaths? The surfaceof the path is for most purposesconsidered to belong to theHighway Authority (howeverduties have usually been given tolocal county, unitary, metropolitandistrict authorities to administer).What this means is that theauthority owns the surface of theway and so much of the soil below(up to one spade depth) and theair above as is necessary for thecontrol, protection andmaintenance of the highway. Therest normally belongs to the ownerof the surrounding land.

Is it an offence to disturb thesurface of a footpath?

If the footpath crosses a field andit is not reasonably convenient toavoid disturbing it by ploughingetc then the answer is no, but thefarmer has a duty to repair thesurface, usually within two weeksfor crop cultivation (Rights of Way

Act, 1990). However it is anoffence to damage or disturb thesurface of other permanent paths.The Highways Authority also hasthe power to serve notice on thelandowner for repairs to footpathswhich have been disturbed and toprosecute the person responsiblefor the disturbance.

To conclude let us try to put thisinformation into some sort ofacceptable procedure.

Firstly if you wish to detect onfootpaths that cross arable land,you will need permission from thelandowner. You must also ensurethat if you dig into the surface ofthe footpath that it is repaired to a

Treading the Right Pathsimilar state prior to disturbance.However on permanent footpathswhich cross for example moorlandor woodland, it is an offence todisturb the surface of the path andyou would therefore needpermission not only from theAuthority but also the landowneron whose land the footpath maycross.

It is also worth remembering thatdepending on the depth of anyrecovered finds, the owner couldbe either the landowner, if deeperthan one spade depth, or the localauthority if it is in the first coupleof inches.

Trevor Austin

The image below was taken onthe 15th April 1996 outside theoffices of the then Dept of NationalHeritage, now the DCMS. The fourpeople in the picture; John Wells,Dennis Jordan, Bob Whalley andTrevor Austin, had just emergedfrom a meeting to discuss theTreasure Bill. The one person notin the picture is John Fargher, whowas behind the camera! The

Caption CompetitionWin a year’s membership to the NCMD!

resulting picture was caricaturedby Berni of the South Lanc’s Club.

We would love to get your ideasfor a witty or humorous captionand will print the winner and aselection of the best in the nextissue of Digging Deep.

Send your caption ideas either byemail to trevor.austin@ncmd.co.uk or on a postcard toTrevor Austin, 51 Hilltop Gardens,Denaby, Doncaster, DN12 4SA by1st February 2010 and winnerwill be chosen soon after.

Rules: Entries submitted by NCMDExecutive committee members notallowed. The prize is nonnegotiable, and no cash alternativewill be offered. We will not takeresponsibility for entries lost ordamaged in the post or late inarriving or emails lost in the etha.

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S C O T T I S H R E G I O N

Iron Age Gold in ScotlandPut it down to beginners’ luck...inearly November, hot on the heels ofnews of Terry Herbert’s Staffordshirehoard, it was announced that DavidBooth, a game warden at aStirlingshire Safari Park, had madethe most important find of Iron Agegold in Scotland on his first outingwith a newly bought detector. Davidhad practised using the detector foronly an hour or so before venturingon to a field, and within a few stepsfrom the rear of his car, he detectedthe gold find. Four gold neck bandsor torcs, each more than 2000years old, lay glinting in the soilunder his hands.

After taking the torcs home andgiving them a gentle clean, he filledout a treasure trove report onlineand submitted photographs.Archaeologists who rapidlyexcavated the area found that it layin a pit within a circular footprint ofa large timber round-house. Theyfound no other artefacts or remainsin what was described as a“surprisingly barren” site. Dr FraserHunter, Curator of Roman and IronAge collections at the NationalMuseums of Scotland, described itas a “stunning” find of internationalimportance.

Two of the torcs are like delicately

twisted ribbon and are a localNorthern European design, likely tobe from Ireland or Scotland, but it isthe others that dramaticallyincrease the find’s rarity value. Oneis an ornate torc, broken in two, ina design characteristic of south-western France. The other, themost precious, is a hoop made ofbraided gold wire of ornate andflowing design.

With tests ahead of where the goldoriginated, the pieces of foreigndesign may have beencommissioned for someone inScotland, or brought back by atraveller, a diplomatic emissary,

mercenary, or after a marriagealliance. Dating from around 350BC, Dr Hunter said that recentwork suggested that very few itemsof this nature were buried for safe-keeping. They were most likelyburied as a votive offering, a gift tothe gods, and it is expected thatthese are likely to be similar.

Under Scottish law, the find isautomatically Crown property, andthe Scottish Archaeological FindsAllocation Panel (SAFAP) willdecide their value.

Y O R K S H I R E R E G I O N

Heslington East Community Archaeology ProjectYork and District members wereinvited in September 2008 byCath Neal, the Fieldwork OfficerHeslington East, University ofYork, Department of Archaeologyto help unearth the archaeologicalsecrets of the site of the Universityof York’s £500 million campusexpansion.

This was a great opportunity forhands on experience of excavatingwhat is a fascinating site south ofthe site of a late Roman masonrybuilding whose remains wereunearthed earlier by

archaeologists. The dig was closeto where a 1,500 year oldskeleton was recently discovered.

Eight members were involved overa two week period and wereinvited to help barrow out thespoil, to detect the spoil heaps andinside the trench and to get downand dirty with trowels. A regularupdate of the progress was given

and any questions raised wereanswered, providing a greatinsight into archaeology.

In May this year nine memberswere involved over a five weekperiod in carrying out a systematicdetecting survey of a new areaprior to trenches being machinedout, bagging finds, GPS'ing findspots, creating a finds database

and producing a Google Earth findspot map.

Members then detected the spoilheaps and trenches each day as90 students carried out theexcavation work.

We all thoroughly enjoyed takingpart and would like to thank Cathfor the invitation.

Phil Dunning

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A N G L I A R E G I O NAs a region we are not very good,but as individual clubs we arethriving.

Memberships are on the up due insome measure to the recenttreasure finds. Back in 1997 theEast Coast Searchers was formedand started ‘days out’ for clubmembers, in those days theamount raised for charity wasquite small and there were losses

on a couple of occasions. Then weopened up our days to everybodyin the region and it became asuccess, with many charities largeand small benefiting from ourefforts.

Nowadays things have changed,many detectorists haven’t accessto farmland of their own, and sothe Anglian Detecting Group wasformed and now has 254

members. We have only two rules;carry relevant insurance cover andbackfill any holes. Unfortunately,though we have held days to raisemoney for museums to purchaseimportant artefacts, many localarchaeologists are against us evento the point of saying in a letterheaded Suffolk County Councilthat if we used the services of anFLO we would be charged up to

£1,000 which it says would notleave much for charity. We nolonger ask FLOs to attend.

On a lighter though serious notethat brings home the value of ourinsurance. On our latest ‘day out’we had a stubble fire whichspread to 270 bales of straw ofconsiderable value, a droppedcigarette end?

Ken Willcox

Kinross Museum OpensKinross-shire had been without amuseum for the best part of adecade as a result of dry rot andstructural damage to the buildingwhere the museum and publiclibrary were housed. The museumsartefacts were having to be storedin Perth Museum for safe keeping.

However, this was all about tochange. The local council haddecided to relocate both themuseum and public library into theLoch Leven Community Campus.The Campus was a multi-millionpound project which would providethe Kinross-shire community with anew home for a brand newKinross-shire High School, sportsfacilities, leisure amenities andmuch more. The Campus, with allits brand new technologicalequipment, will service theKinross-shire communities’ needsfor a good few centuries ahead.

I had received an invitation to theofficial opening of the brand newKinross (Marshall) Museum. Otherinvited guests included ProfessorDavid Munro MBE, Lord and LadyMoncrieff (Museum trustees),Friends of the Museum, counciland other local governmentdignitaries, so it promised to be avery important local event.

Lord Moncrieff, local Laird, Chief ofthe Moncrieff clan who resides inTullibole Castle, is a well knownhistory buff. David Munro has beencollecting for both Kinross andKinnesswood Museums fordecades. He is into local history ina big way giving lectures toaudiences all over the world. TheFriends of Kinross Museum are agroup of locals who subscribe asmall donation annually to helppromote local history. They alsocarry out a lot of unpaid work tohelp improve the local standard of

life. Indeed this group of ordinarypeople will become the unpaidmembers of staff who man, openand close the public library andMuseum, caring for the local need.

Representatives from theconstruction, planning, andlandscaping and otherdevelopment stages involved increating the Campus were also inattendance. A terrific day was hadby all, blathering to each other andrevealing all our excitement withthe end product.

My invitation was received as aresult of my work surveying,recording, and helping the locallandowners recover artefacts fordisplay. The many lonely hourswalking in rain, hail, snow andsleet, were being recognised locallyby very important authorativebodies.

Apart from the joy of making some

very important finds this event hadbrought me even more pleasure, allthanks to my detector. Wedetectorists participate in awonderfully rewarding hobby withmany hidden bonuses. All artefactsrecorded in the museumsinventory, including my own, areavailable for display, or, for futureanalysis as research equipmentevolves and improves, or, for re-assessment as conclusionconcerned with dating andimplement use changes and newdiscoveries are made.

These artefacts become a veryimportant asset and source ofknowledge and database for allfuture generations to ponder over. Itis very important that we continueto handover, to the authorities, ourfinds for assessment and recordingpurposes.

Jim Crombie

The Ancient Monuments and Listed Buildings (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill

Earlier this year, the ScottishGovernment issued a consultationdocument on the above bill.

Section 4 of the documentdiscusses defences involvingknowledge or belief to certainoffences under the AncientMonuments and ArchaeologicalAreas Act 1979 and contains aproposal within para.2.8 thats42(7) of the 1979 Act should beremoved.

S42(7) relates to metal detectingon scheduled areas and reads:

‘In any proceedings for an offenceunder subsection (1) or (3) above,

it shall be a defence for theaccused to prove that he hadtaken all reasonable precautions tofind out whether the place wherehe used the metal detector was aprotected place and did not believethat it was’.

The NCMD Scottish Regiondiscussed the proposedamendment to the 1979 Act andconsidered that the defencestatement in s42(7) of the 1979Act should remain. A response tothis effect was submitted to theScottish Government in July 2009.

On 1 October, the Secretary of the

Scottish Region, Alastair Hackett,attended a meeting with fourrepresentatives of Historic Scotlandto discuss the Region’s response.The meeting was positive, andassurances were given that effortswould be made to devise analternative form of words to replaces42(7) rather than have it removedcompletely. An amended form ofwording might include a listing ofacceptable defences. For example,it is only too easy to inadvertentlystray into a Scheduled area wheresite boundaries do not followdefined natural or manmadefeatures. They can be difficult to

locate and define on the ground,especially in the context of anarable field.

Only time will tell if the Region’sefforts have proved successful inmodifying this part of the bill.

The consultation period for theabove draft bill has now ended butthe responses from all interestedparties (including that of the NCMDScottish Region) can be viewed at:w w w . h i s t o r i c - s c o t l a n d .gov.uk/index/about/consultations/consultation-responses-bill.htm

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Translating The PastThose lucky enough to have founda medieval seal will know what itis the second it comes out theground. But the chances are youwill not have a clue what theinscription on it says. Here aresome items I have found and hadtranslated over the past few years.

The first is a lead seal that I foundin the early days of the hobby.Waiting to get it translated was thelongest few weeks of my life, wasit a man or woman, what was the

name? When the translation finallycame through it read S’MARGERIFIL ROB CEGI. The seal belongedto a woman, Margery daughter ofRobert Siege. The closest wordmay be the Latin ‘ceges’ meaninga variety of things including asiege, a field, or the office of abailiff.

The second seal also made fromlead, is broken in half. I found thetwo halves separately with a twoyear gap! After an even longer wait

than the last time this seal readsSIGILL WILL RUSSEL the seal ofWilliam Russell. It turns out thatRussell is diminutive of the oldFrench word ‘red’ which may haveserved as a Christian name for oneof William’s ancestors, andsuggests he, in turn, was a red-head.

These two seals are 13th centuryand during this time not allindividuals had hereditarysurnames. Some did, but manyindividuals still used ‘bynames’,i.e., effectively nicknames, oftendescribing personal attributes.Others were known by theirChristian names plus their father’sname; yet others used the name ofthe place where they were born asan identifier. A final group usedthe name of their profession. Overtime, these names becamehereditary, even when (e.g. theprofession was no longer practisedby the individual).

The third is a bronze seal and hasno legend at all, but depicts whatlooks like a rabbit. As seals wereoften used for legal documents Ican only guess that this person’s

M I D L A N D R E G I O N

My brush with CnutOne of the coin types that hadalways eluded me was a ‘proper’Saxon penny and it was placedsomewhere near the top of mywish list along with a gold staterand a few other coins.

I was searching an otherwise fairlyquiet field with the usualscattering of shotgun cartridgecases and odd bits of lead when Ireceived a very sweet signal thatstopped me in my tracks. Ipinpointed it and dug, I could seethe edge of a silver coin and itlooked too thick to be hammeredso I thought to myself,hmmm…modern milled. It wasn’tuntil I rubbed the soil from one

face that I realised I hadsomething rather special.

I placed it back down and fumbledfor my camera wanting to capturethe moment and then looked moreclosely at my prize. I still didn’tknow what it was at this point butwas fairly convinced it was Saxonand in above average condition. Itook more pictures of it on myhand and even more after a gentleclean with a soft toothbrush andwater at home. I contacted a goodfriend of mine and he got rid of theblack deposits that had built up onit for me. I re-photographed itagain so I now have the full set.

It turned out to be a Cnut pennyclass BMC XVI, short cross type1029-1035/6. Minted inWareham by Leofric. E.H.C. Vol 1rev. Pg 168, No 790.

I’m sure you’ll agree it’s the find ofa life time and another coin tickedoff my wish list.

Chris Matthews

job was more important than hisname, maybe he was a Warrenerfor a local land lord.

The forth isn’t a seal but half of amedieval silver guilt brooch, andreads AZARE. As it was treasure Ishowed the farmer before it went onits long journey through the treasuresystem. The farmer had studiedLatin at school but couldn’t decipherwhat it said. The legend turned outto be religious and reads LESUSNAZARARENUS REX LUBEORUMwhich translated is Jesus ofNazareth, King of the Jews.

I don’t believe there are any otherartefacts to be found, that give ussuch a fascinating and personalglimpse into medieval life; fromtheir names, their jobs and eventhe colour of their hair!

Chris Winton

(Grantham Search Club)

9www.ncmd.co.uk

Lancaster Crew Remembered

Hidden in a small wooded valley,some six miles south of Grantham,lies Stoke Rochford Hall. On thenight of 27 April 1945 LancasterBomber LM719 struck trees, andcrashed into the private grounds.Her seven man Canadian andBritish crew all perished. Theofficial enquiry placed the blamefirmly on the 24-year-old pilothowever, the circumstances bearfurther examination. The aircraftwas on a training sortie and all thecrew were very inexperienced: thepilot had only 60 hours flyingexperience.

The weather, that April night, wasatrocious, with severe icing andthunderstorms. Two eyewitnessessaw the aircraft, shortly before itcrashed with two of its enginesand a wing in flames. We willnever know for certain - however,it is possible the aircraft had been

struck by lightening. The officialRAF report states, “RadioTelegraphy communications lostand aircraft failed to acknowledgeWireless Telegraphy communica-tions”. If struck by lightening thenit is possible their radio equipmentwas damaged and unusable.Thus, this very young,inexperienced crew, flying inappalling weather, iced up, withunknown airspeed and faced withan onboard fire, met their tragicend.

The crash site was found someyears ago by members of theGrantham Search Club and theaircraft type and the crew wereidentified from archives at RAFHendon. One club member, DavidFrampton who works at StokeRochford Hall was astonished tofind a crashed bomber on hisdoorstep. David, whose father wasa rear gunner on Hampdens andlater Lancasters during the war,decided to carry out furtherresearch and after a further twelvemonths traced surviving membersof the aircrew’s families.

Grantham Search Club recoveredmany pieces of airframe and thesewere cast into a plaque by RAFCottesmore workshops. Thisplaque was unveiled at a Serviceof Remembrance conducted by anRAF Padre and attended by 200people including members of thesearch Club. Relatives of the crewtravelled from Canada and Leeds.22 banners from local branches of the RAF Association, the Royal British Legion and other

ex-serviceman’s associationsprovided a heart-warming back-drop. Family members and theCanadian High Commission laidwreaths. The engraved plaquenow stands next to a CanadianMaple tree, donated by StokeRochford Hall’s Director. Togetherthey will form a permanentmemorial in the grounds of theHall. A specially commissionedpicture of the Lancaster nowhangs in the Hall, together with adisplay of some of the artefactsrecovered by the Club.

Lancaster LM719’s crew are allnamed on the plaque and were:

Flt Lt Norman Guy, RCAF (Pilot)aged 24

FO Richard Ourom, RCAF(Navigator) aged 20

FO John Travis, RCAF (WirelessOperator) aged 20

Flt Sgt Donald Wilson, RCAF(Bomb Aimer) aged 20

Sgt Henry Jones RAF VolunteerReserve, (Flight Engineer) aged21

Sgt Verle Cline, RCAF (AirGunner) aged 21

Sgt James Williams, RCAF (AirGunner) aged 20

The six Canadians are buried inBrookwood Military Cemetery,Sussex.

Sgt Jones is buried in RomfordCemetery, Essex.

This story has a verypowerful sequel…Recently the sister of the WirelessOperator, John Travis contactedDavid concerning the finds andhistory of the events leading to hisdeath. The sister, Mrs AlleyneMurphy, never knew the full storyand was searching on theCanadian Veterans Affairs websitefor information when shediscovered the entry for herbrother and the information aboutthe remembrance plaque.

Armed with this new informationshe contacted surviving relativesof the aircrew and it was foundthat she lives near the family ofVerle Cline, the mid-upper gunner.A visit was duly arranged andAlleyne paid a visit to Verle’s sister,Vesper. During the course of thevisit when viewing each other’smemorabilia, it was found thatVesper was in possession of John'sHigh School graduation ring,which had obviously been sent tothe wrong family at the time. Itappears that immediately prior tothe fateful flight, the ring had beenplaced Verle Cline’s locker andthen sent to the wrong family bythe service police.

The Canadian Air Force andVeterans Affairs, having beenmade aware of the mistake, held avery moving ceremony at the localair force base to return the ring tothe right family. I have discussedwith WW2 RAF veterans, thehandling of personal effects ofdeceased aircrew. It was apparentfrom their conversations that all

10 www.ncmd.co.uk

personal items were treated withutmost respect and duly forwardedto the families.

We speculated that thecircumstances of the ring going tothe wrong family may haveoccurred thus: The crew weregetting ready to go on the flight.

John, possibly forgot to take it offin his billet and not wanting towear the ring under his gantletswould have taken it off in the crewchanging room. He may then haveput it into crew locker - along withletters or other personal itemsbelonging to Verle Cline. After the

accident, it was found andnaturally, the service police wouldassume it belonged to Verle andbagged it up with his personaleffects. I wonder if this is whatactually happened? Certainlyplausible.

However without the publicity

about the Remembrance Plaquewhich was made from metalrecovered by Grantham SearchClub, the connection would neverhave been made. Heart warmingstuff indeed!

David Frampton

The Staffordshire HoardKevin Leahy and Roger Bland

On 5 July 2009, Terry Herbertwas using a metal detector in aStaffordshire field when he beganto unearth gold objects. It was astupendous discovery, the largesthoard of Anglo-Saxon gold everfound, glittering in the sun-light forthe first time in 1400 years.Highlights of the hoard arecurrently on display at the BritishMuseum in Room 37.

Made up of over 1800 objects, thehoard contains some of the finestAnglo-Saxon craftsmanship and

A beautifully designed short introduction to the largesthoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found.

“This is going to alter our perceptions of Anglo-SaxonEngland in the seventh and early eighth centuries asradically, if not more so, as the 1939 Sutton Hoodiscoveries did… Absolutely the metalwork equivalent offinding a new Lindisfarne Gospels or Book of Kells.”

Leslie Webster, former Keeper of the Department ofPrehistory & Europe, the British Museum.

artistry ever seen. This, the firstbook on the hoard, tells theremarkable story of the discovery,describes the fascinatingcollection of objects it contains,and offers an initial interpretationof the treasure and its significance.Close-up photographs show theintricate details of these amazingobjects, which include fittingsfrom the hilts of swords, fragments

B O O K R E V I E W

from helmets, Christian crossesand magnificent pieces of garnetwork.

This is just the beginning of thestory…

£1 from the sale of every bookwill go to the Staffordshire Hoardappeal fund.

The AuthorsKevin Leahy is a National FindsAdviser for the Portable AntiquitiesScheme, with responsibility forearly medieval metalwork; RogerBland is Head of the Departmentof Portable Antiquities andTreasure at the British Museumand leads the Portable AntiquitiesScheme.

Publishing November 2009

48 pages, 46 colour illustrations,ISBN 978 0 7141 2328 8 PB£4.99

See advert on page 12 foravailability details

Images © Daniel BuxtonPhotography

© PAS

© PAS

© PAS

© PAS

11www.ncmd.co.uk

NCMD Bulletin 52

Seminar: CombatingNighthawking. Reducingthe Threat from IllicitMetal Detecting.

Promoted by English Heritage thisseminar took place on the 18thNovember at Burlington House,Piccadilly, London where speakersrepresenting organisations asdiverse as the Police, EnglishHeritage, the Country Landownersand Business Association, theNational Farmers Union, and theNCMD put forward their views onthe activities of nighthawks andhow to deal with them. Thesubstance of these presentationsand subsequent discussions waswide ranging. Although there wereopportunities to challengestatements and misconceptions, the seminar time limits did notallow more than a cursory debateon any particular issue.

For brevity it is not possible toreproduce in any detail the events of the day. However observationswere made by the NCMD officers who attended which are ofconcern to the hobby, some ofwhich are highlighted below.

There remains the perception thatnighthawking is a widespread andserious threat though the NCMDremain unconvinced that this isnecessarily the case given theconsistent lack of hard evidenceproduced to back up these claims.The reliance on hearsay andanecdotal evidence from both theNighthawking Survey and some ofthe speakers was most telling.However we should all beconcerned at the continuing lackof success in using the current

legal system to actually deal withthose apprehended for night-hawking and secure a conviction.Although the Nighthawking Reportstated as a recommendation thatno new laws were needed totackle offenders some speakerswere openly pushing for theenactment of a new law of metaldetecting without consent.However the NCMD agrees withthe basic finding of the Survey inthat no additional legislativepowers are needed, just a betterunderstanding of how best to usethose which are available.

English Heritage again stated thatthere was no intent to ban metaldetecting. However the NCMDremains unconvinced andconsiders this to be something ofan understatement in that theunintended consequences of thearchaeological pressure to dealwith the unquantifiable willseriously impinge on the freedomsthe responsible hobby currentlyenjoys. Nighthawks are criminalsand by definition no laws willentirely stop their activities yet theraised profile of their activities withlaw makers, archaeologists andlandowners will harm the hobbyby default. Nighthawks willcontinue to operate whilst thehobby will be further restrictedand controlled which is perhapsthe real intent of the wholeexercise.

Mr. Browning, a Suffolk landownerwhose land has suffered thefrequent attention of nighthawksfor some decades, was invited tospeak on behalf of the NFU.Mindful of his obvious frustration

at the lack of action by theauthorities to get a grip with theissue locally, it would seem thatthe obvious actions which couldbe taken to deal with this problem,namely properly organised detectorsurveys of affected land, have notbeen undertaken. One half heartedeffort on a part of the land hadtaken place, but it seems that inline with other nighthawkedploughed Scheduled Monumentsthe exercise is considered byEnglish Heritage and localarchaeologists as too costly anddifficult to carry out. Lacking thewill to tackle the problem in thisway, it would seem that theGovernment’s official heritagebody, paid from the public purse,has found it easier to ignore theproblem for the last three decadesrather than deal with it head on.Perhaps that is why the welldocumented problems that Mr.Browning has experienced and hisown efforts to deal with thenighthawks are always put forwardas a prime example ofnighthawking in press and otherstatements, reports or documents.It is of note that following theseminar on the 21st Novemberjust such an article appeared inthe East Anglian Daily Times.

It has been understood within thehobby that the long time actions ofarchaeological bodies and theirpolicies to encourage landownersboth private, public and institutionalto adopt negative access policiestowards metal detecting, hassignificantly contributed to thecontinued activities of nighthawks.Indeed it is highly probable thatthe Council for British Archaeology

and their promotion of the STOPCampaign of the late 70s andearly 80s started the phenomenaof nighthawking. There was scantrecognition of this duringdiscussions and even less will towork to reverse these policies as aprimary means to tacklenighthawking.

The NCMD President John Wellspresented a frank and forthrightpaper at the seminar, the full textof which can be viewed bymembers on the NCMD Forum.

Conference. PortableAntiquities: Archaeology,Collecting and MetalDetecting

This is to take place on the 13 and14th March 2010. Provisionalvenue is the International Centrefor Cultural Heritage Studies,Newcastle. It is jointly sponsoredby Newcastle University and theCouncil for British Archaeology. Itseeks to address the issuessurrounding the use of metaldetectors in the location ofportable antiquities, the collectingand archaeology of this resourceand its future management andprotection. Undoubtedly a livelytopic which will engender someheady debate over a number ofconflicting issues. The NCMDhopes that a broad spectrum ofspeakers will be invited to putforward their views and that theconference is not simply to beused as a platform to promotefuture archaeological policies onthe collecting and sale of portableantiquities as well as metaldetecting.

NCMD MembershipFor membership joining applications, information and fees please contact: John Rigby, Membership Secretary. Tel: 01253 692313 Email: jjrigby@sky.com

EnquiriesFor all other enquiries please contact:Trevor Austin, General Secretary,51 Hilltop Gardens, Denaby, Doncaster. DN12 4SA. Tel: 01709 868521 Email: trevor.austin@ncmd.co.ukNCMD Website: www.ncmd.co.ukNCMD Forum: http://ncmd-forum.com

12 www.ncmd.co.uk

Coroners and Justice Act

This Act received its Royal Assenton the 12th November. Itintroduces a number of changesto the Treasure system by creatinga Coroner for Treasure which it ishoped will speed up theprocessing of treasure finds. Italso brings in a requirement todeposit Treasure finds with theCoroner and that the Secretary ofState can designate others towhom Treasure finds can bereported to such as FLO’s. The Actalso introduces a requirement foracquirers of items which wouldmeet the Treasure definitions toreport them to the coroner forTreasure within 14 days.

Implementation is not expecteduntil spring 2012. However beforethen there will be consultation asto how the coroner for Treasureand other amendments will workin practice.

Future issues

Following the attendance ofNCMD officers at the PortableAntiquities Advisory Group (PAAG)meeting on the 11th December a

number of relevant topics werediscussed. These include:

Natural England are currentlyfinalising their guidance for metaldetecting rallies on ‘agreement’land. This is to be used by itsregional Historic EnvironmentAdvisers enabling them to dealwith enquiries from landownerswishing to hold such events. Itappears that the Council for BritishArchaeology’s Guidance Note forRallies could be used as a bestpractice document by NaturalEngland despite the fact that it hasnot been endorsed by any metaldetecting organisation.

Finally the Portable AntiquitiesScheme has resurrected their draftleaflet for landowners entitled,Metal detecting and searching forarchaeological objects in England:advice for landowners, occupiersand tenant farmers. This will becirculated for consideration byPAAG members in the comingweeks.

The Next NCMD Executive meeting will be 21st February

The Next Treasure Valuation Meeting will be 26th February

The Next Portable Antiquities Advisory Group (PAAG) boardmeeting will be 11th May.

C O N T A C T D E T A I L S

M E E T I N G D A T E S

For membership enquiriescontact the MembershipSecretary: John Rigby6 Arkholme AveBlackpool, Lancs, FY1 6QJ

Tel: 01253 692313jjrigby@sky.com

For all other enquiries pleasecontact the General Secretary:Trevor Austin51 Hilltop GardensDenaby, Doncaster, DN12 4SA

Tel: 01709 868521trevor.austin@ncmd.co.uk

Wishing all our members a happy and fruitful

New Year from the NCMD