After a great afternoon entertaining friends on Saturday I decided to clear the cobwebs on Sunday morning and set out on a short bike ride on one of the cycle routes around Framlingham. After the long slog to Walberswick last week I kept things a bit shorter this time and, after a brief detour to Leo's Deli for some doughnuts and pain au chocolate for later, I headed out into the surrounding countryside. The castle and mere looked glorious under a cloudless sky as I headed away from the town. For any local cyclists who have not tried it yet Suffolk Cycle Route 1 is an easy, picturesque and fairly traffic free route.
With the weather still glorious when I got home, we walked down to Framlingham to buy some ice creams and then went to eat them at the castle where there was a knights' tournament going on.
With fine weather still prevailing on Monday we went to Snape Maltings to catch the short pleasure boat cruise along the River Alde. It was a very pleasant way to pass an hour and we learned quite a few facts from the old boy who lead the trip. I hadn't realised how narrow the actual navigable channel is and how, if we had simply headed in a straight line we would have ended up stranded on a mud bank. We had to follow a fairly convoluted route of posts.
At the furthest point on the trip we had this view of the lovely Iken church.
After disembarking we drove along to Orford for a sandwich at the tea shop on the beach.
Marion had a hair appointment yesterday so I had four or five hours out with the metal detector. Photos of the finds are at the bottom of the blog for those who are interested. When we got back we drove to Jimmy's Farm just outside Ipswich for a pre theatre dinner before walking into the woods for a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream by Red Rose Chain.
It was our second outing to their Theatre In The Forest. The meal, including some of Jimmy's speciality pork, was very enjoyable and the play was great fun. If you are a Shakespeare purist it might not be to your taste as, to entertain a family audience, the production veered off piste a few times with forays into pop music but if you enjoy a good laugh and an enchanting and magical woodland setting you'll certainly have a wonderful evening's entertainment from this young, lively and enthusiastic theatre group.
So, back to the detecting. It was a hard slog sweeping the detector across some very very thick stubble but I didn't come home empty handed. Here are some of the finds.
This is what I tipped out of the bag when I got home. I managed to dig up three pop drinks cans - a penalty you pay if you search a field within chucking distance of the road. Here's what I had when I had sorted through it.
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| I Think That This Is A Medieval Buckle Plate With Ring And Dot Decoration |
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| Reverse |
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| A Silver Elizabethan Coin C1570 |
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| After My First With A Clear Head Of Elizabeth Last Week This One Also Has The Queen's Face Visible |
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| Unidentified Lead Item |
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| Large Medieval Vessel Fragment |
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| Pewter Fragment Embossed With Vine Leaves |
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| Belt Studs Probably Late Medieval |
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| I Believe This Is A Medieval Lozenge Shaped Brooch But Have Not Found Another With The Lugs On The Face |
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| Reverse |
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| Tudor Button And A Later Button |
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| Dutch Coin Hollandia 1723 |
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| Tudor Rose Button Possibly 17th Century |
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| Strap End Fragment |
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| Mystery Lead Item |
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| Bag Seal |
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| Early Buckle |
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| Lead Hook Date Unknown
As you can see, I haven't been able to identify all the items fully this time. I'm off to Bury St Edmunds in a week or two to see the archaeologist who records the finds on the Portable Antiquities Scheme and I am sure that he will enlighten me.
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