Random Finds From A Random Field In North Wales, UK.

[Pete E]

I was out yesterday with a local FB group. The area itself was very rural in the hills not to far from Mold. The farm was much the same as any in the area, with nothing to suggest it was going to be so productive...In fact I am always amazed at some of the stuff that comes up from these random fields in such a quiet backwater.

I guess there were 35 or 40 of us out to cover two large fields. The weather was a little miserable at first, but the drizzle soon gave way to a glorious summers day.

Pretty soon a whisper went around that a Roman fibula (brooch) had come up further up in the field I was detecting in. Looking I could see a gaggles of people dotted about obviously looking at finds that had come up.

With in an hour three fibulas came up in one area of the field about the size of a football pitch... I steered myself away from the groups and carried on detecting. I had already found several buttons, the small silver item, a couple of toasted coins and plenty of white lead,

Then I get a signal on the Manicore, a 28, with a slightly stretched trace on the centre line...I chuckled to my self about it being a fibula, only to be shocked to find it actually was a fibula!

A closer examination showed it was in lovely condition, almost complete except for the iron spring and pin at the rear which had obviously rusted away some time over the last 1700 years it had been buried. A very gentle cursory clean showed some orange/yellow enamel was still present..

A few paces further on and I got another signal that turned out to be a lovely patterned spindle whorl.

The rest of the day was back to buttons and lead, but I was over the moon with my Roman fibula, my first Wirral type not to mention the spindle whorl and silver artifact.

By the end of the day, 5 complete fibulas, plus a fragment of one had come up in the same relatively small area of this rather random field. Strangely no Roman coins were found...

Additionally 3 or 4 hammered came up including a stunning Edward 3rd groat.

All in all, a great day out with good company and in lovely surroundings...

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

Well done !

 

[Gene Mean]

Wonderful finds!! Congrats on the fibula and other relics. You should post pictures of the other fibulas and the buttons and hammerds.

 

[Pete E]

Wonderful finds!! Congrats on the fibula and other relics. You should post pictures of the other fibulas and the buttons and hammerds.

Thank you for the kind words...The other fibula and coins were found by other members so I don't have pics..
The various buttons and toasted coins ended up in the bin or scrap pile...

Most of our fields contain lots of buttons, usually either the plain and mundane tombac, poor condition uniform style, or the dreaded 4 holers..

Unless a button is notable in some way, ie it's age or design, they don't generate much interest over here..Same goes for the toasted copper coins...most are just blank, while some you can just about see enough faint detail to tell it's a George or perhaps a William. Once in a while a half decent George or William comes up, and I will put those to one side..

 

[oldmxrat]

Very nice finds, congrats!

 

[Digger RJ]

I was out yesterday with a local FB group. The area itself was very rural in the hills not to far from Mold. The farm was much the same as any in the area, with nothing to suggest it was going to be so productive...In fact I am always amazed at some of the stuff that comes up from these random fields in such a quiet backwater.

I guess there were 35 or 40 of us out to cover two large fields. The weather was a little miserable at first, but the drizzle soon gave way to a glorious summers day.

Pretty soon a whisper went around that a Roman fibula (brooch) had come up further up in the field I was detecting in. Looking I could see a gaggles of people dotted about obviously looking at finds that had come up.

With in an hour three fibulas came up in one area of the field about the size of a football pitch... I steered myself away from the groups and carried on detecting. I had already found several buttons, the small silver item, a couple of toasted coins and plenty of white lead,

Then I get a signal on the Manicore, a 28, with a slightly stretched trace on the centre line...I chuckled to my self about it being a fibula, only to be shocked to find it actually was a fibula!

A closer examination showed it was in lovely condition, almost complete except for the iron spring and pin at the rear which had obviously rusted away some time over the last 1700 years it had been buried. A very gentle cursory clean showed some orange/yellow enamel was still present..

A few paces further on and I got another signal that turned out to be a lovely patterned spindle whorl.

The rest of the day was back to buttons and lead, but I was over the moon with my Roman fibula, my first Wirral type not to mention the spindle whorl and silver artifact.

By the end of the day, 5 complete fibulas, plus a fragment of one had come up in the same relatively small area of this rather random field. Strangely no Roman coins were found...

Additionally 3 or 4 hammered came up including a stunning Edward 3rd groat.

All in all, a great day out with good company and in lovely surroundings...

Very Nice!!! Congrats!!!

 

[Gare]

NICE GOING you are doing great

 

[Gare]

I was out yesterday with a local FB group. The area itself was very rural in the hills not to far from Mold. The farm was much the same as any in the area, with nothing to suggest it was going to be so productive...In fact I am always amazed at some of the stuff that comes up from these random fields in such a quiet backwater.

I guess there were 35 or 40 of us out to cover two large fields. The weather was a little miserable at first, but the drizzle soon gave way to a glorious summers day.

Pretty soon a whisper went around that a Roman fibula (brooch) had come up further up in the field I was detecting in. Looking I could see a gaggles of people dotted about obviously looking at finds that had come up.

With in an hour three fibulas came up in one area of the field about the size of a football pitch... I steered myself away from the groups and carried on detecting. I had already found several buttons, the small silver item, a couple of toasted coins and plenty of white lead,

Then I get a signal on the Manicore, a 28, with a slightly stretched trace on the centre line...I chuckled to my self about it being a fibula, only to be shocked to find it actually was a fibula!

A closer examination showed it was in lovely condition, almost complete except for the iron spring and pin at the rear which had obviously rusted away some time over the last 1700 years it had been buried. A very gentle cursory clean showed some orange/yellow enamel was still present..

A few paces further on and I got another signal that turned out to be a lovely patterned spindle whorl.

The rest of the day was back to buttons and lead, but I was over the moon with my Roman fibula, my first Wirral type not to mention the spindle whorl and silver artifact.

By the end of the day, 5 complete fibulas, plus a fragment of one had come up in the same relatively small area of this rather random field. Strangely no Roman coins were found...

Additionally 3 or 4 hammered came up including a stunning Edward 3rd groat.

All in all, a great day out with good company and in lovely surroundings...

Great story and great report From here it seems like every field in the UK has buried treasures in them ?
Peter thank you for your report

 

[Pete E]

Great story and great report From here it seems like every field in the UK has buried treasures in them ?
Peter thank you for your report

I think every field has potential, but there are plenty that turn out not to be very productive.

A few years ago I ended up detecting a small construction site...Half the site was still grass pasture, and was devoid of anything old, but the other have had been scraped, and the house footings had been started. I detected the spoil heaps, and the scraped areas. By doing this I guess I was about 2 foot lower than on the undisturbed part. I had a field day...I must have had a dozen Roman bronze coins from different parts of the site, a lovely Fibula and a Roman ring...
I have no doubt the other part of the field had the same history under it, but it was just out of detector depth...
I suspect a lot of fields are like that,...

 

[iAmMike]

That is a very beautiful fibula! Great finds and a good story. Thanks for sharing!