A Few Hours In The Fields

Ever since we moved to Suffolk I have been itching to try the metal detector on the fields near our house. I've had a few detecting hours with a friend on fields near where he lives but those near us have been full of crops until this week when the harvest got under way. A local farmer has kindly given me permission to try his farm and I hope to get some time out in between child minding visits to Rochester (I am writing from the Premier Inn there this evening). 

This was the result of just over two hours with the XP Deus. There's quite a lot of rubbish there but there are four or five buttons, a lead weight and an old coin.

I haven't managed to identify the coin yet but it is a medieval silver hammered penny and will date from around 1200. Hopefully I will be able to get a positive i.d in the near future. I'm pleased to have found this coin as it shows that the field was in use hundreds of years ago and it could well hold more coins and artefacts from the last thousand years. I'm looking forward to trying again before we head up to Scotland for the arrival of our third grandchild in September.

I also found this decorative cast shell. I don't think it is particularly old but it will look good in the finds cabinet.

Today we headed to Tunbridge Wells to meet old friends Wyndham and Lesley Westaway. We met them in 1986 when we lived in Edenbridge and our children became friends. It was great to hear all about their family - a lot has happened in the ten or more years since we last met. Although we are not exactly on their doorstep now, we are a lot closer than we were in Southport and I hope that we are able to catch up with them again soon.