A Good Week

It was nice having my mum come to visit us here in Framlingham this week. It was her first trip to Suffolk in many a long year and we had a busy week ending with a trip to Rochester to see our son and family before dropping Mum off at Gatwick for a flight to Alicante to see my sister who lives in Benidorm. Although Mum is a very fit 88 year old, negotiating an airport like Gatwick was a bit daunting but Gatwick had a great assistance service which helped her to get through security and to the boarding gate more easily. My sister Julie emailed this photo to show that she arrived unscathed.

Our week of Framlingham dining out continued on Thursday when we joined some friends for a meal at The Station. It's not as formal as The Crown but the pub was very busy and everyone enjoyed the food which was reasonably priced, well cooked and very tasty. The same went for The Lemon Tree where we had a pleasant meal last night. We were trying out their new Suffolk Supper Club. It was a great idea - one long table and one set meal so that everyone could eat together and talk to new people. The only snag was that, sadly, too few people joined the party and we ended up with just two groups of four on one very long table and one group left a large gap between the other. The food was good and we enjoyed the conversation with another couple we had never met before but another twenty diners were needed to make it a success - a pity.

After all the driving around with Mum and to Gatwick and back we found time for a bit of relaxation over the last couple of days and I managed to get out in the fields again with my metal detector. I took a friend onto one of the fields that I have permission to search and he was delighted to find this medieval heraldic pendant. This is a lovely find dating to c1200-1400. There is still plenty of detail and perhaps we will be able to find the family that the pendant represents.

I didn't come away empty handed and along with about forty shotgun cartridges I found over twenty buttons.

Including this Dandy Button from the 18th century.

This good pewter globular button from the seventeenth century.

And these nice early buttons from around the same period.

I also found this cloth bag seal dated 1590.

And this interesting harness decoration which I think may be medieval (I'm checking with the local archaeologist in Bury St Edmunds).

There was a decorated buckle from c1600 too as well as the usual couple of musket balls.

And finally a large hammered silver coin.

Unfortunately it has been folded in two. Tantalisingly there is writing inside and it is tempting to try and unfold it to try and find out what reign it is from but I am sure that would just end up with it snapped in half. I'm sure that the archaeologist will be able to identify it. My best guess is Tudor. The field will be planted up shortly so I'll have to wait until harvest time to see what turns up next.