Another afternoon on pasture

Brimming with renewed enthusiasm for my generally barren first pasture permission I went out to have another swing at it yesterday afternoon.

The first hour was spent on a triangular field that I hadn’t tried before, criss-crossing back wards and forwards in one corner to get a flavour of what might be there. Bugger all but a few scraps of foil.

So it was back to Tuesday’s field. During the course of the afternoon I tackled one area quite intensively, which produced a few odds and sods but nothing to get excited about, headed up to the top of the field in a straight line and then back across towards another landmark. The rest of the session was spent in the lower part of the field in the general area which produced Tuesday’s finds. A few bits and pieces came up, though it was not as rewarding a session as the one earlier in the week.

What’s interesting is that the top half of the field, which lies above a shallow rise, produced nothing at all. The farmer has previously told me that in the past there has been some marl digging from that field, so it’s possible that any finds that might have been in that area have already been stripped away. Presumably though they should be elsewhere on the farm.

Finds

1 lead weight
1 lead disk
2 tombac buttons
1 pewter spoon handle
2 fragments of pewter spoon handle
1 corroded coin, probably a Georgian halfpenny
2 small 4-hole buttons
1 flint thumbnail scraper
1 fragment of black-glazed terracotta

A lead weight and some flints

Another bright sunny afternoon and another few hours detecting yesterday.

I decided to access the land from the other direction, with a view to detecting at the far end of the permission. From the road the field slopes up to a ridge and then down again to where I had been detecting on other recent visits, but the ridge area had been churned up by cattle and was rather boggy so I ended up back more or less where I’d been detecting previously. I wandered along the upper edge of the field, down the slope along the line of the old footpath/hollow way and back along the bottom edge. There must be something about the geology of the field as the lower slopes are noticeably better drained than the top.

Once  again, finds were sparse.

• The lead disk gave a cracking signal and as it appears to be completely plain I assume it’s a weight of some sort.
• An iron ring. Also a cracking signal. I’m tempted to send this to Ged (PeaceHavens) for his collection.
• 2 pieces of flint which came from a hole in which the signal came from a piece of nondescript metallic scrap.
• Another fragment of a die cast toy, this time what appears to be the seat of a vintage car.

All of the finds except for the iron ring came from the line of the footpath, and the toy fragment was found only 15 yards or so from the one found last week.

The two pieces of flint fit together perfectly so obviously came from a single piece. It’s nothing I can put my finger on but there’s something about them that doesn’t look entirely natural so I will be showing them to the FLO next month. One piece in particular looks as thought it might have been intended as some sort of boring tool, but what do I know?

It was noticeable how much the days are drawing in now. Although sunset yesterday was officially at 16.18, the sun had dropped below a bank of cloud shortly before 4pm and the light was already fading perceptibly by then. In another month it will be setting well before 4pm so either morning or afternoon sessions are going to be short ones unless I start taking sandwiches as well as a flask of coffee and eat lunch in the field. Roll on spring.

Finds: 1 lead weight, 1 iron ring, 2 pieces of flint  and a piece of a die cast toy.