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Jonathan Manning enters the magical world of metal detecting and the stories it brings to life
Instructor Graeme in action
Metal detecting is the nearest thing to time travel,” says Graeme Rushton, a detectorist coach and author.
“The last person to have held what you find might have lived hundreds, or even thousands, of years ago.” Finds are an opportunity for imaginations to run wild. Was a child scolded for losing a button from their clothing? How did a weary traveller pay for his stay at an inn if his coins had fallen from his purse on the journey? Did a musket ball wound or kill an enemy soldier? What words of seduction or love accompanied the gift of a brooch?
Historians and archaeologists can date artefacts, but the individual stories that led these metal ‘treasures’ to end up buried beneath fields and hedgerows, woodland and beach are the domain of the detectorist.
It’s just one of the reasons why metal detecting is such a fast-growing pastime.
The pandemic boosted its popularity, with the idea of a quiet activity in the open air attracting followers, while the BBC’s brilliant, BAFTA-winning comedy, Detectorists, celebrated the friendship and fellowship of a shared hobby.
Gallery
“Metal detecting used to be an activity for middle-aged men, but now lots of families have got into it, and we’re seeing a lot more women and children,” says Graeme. “It’s a great way to get outdoors and away from screens.”
However, screens have played a role in popularising the pastime, as many detectorists post their most interesting finds on the internet and online communities helping to identify them. Graeme’s Unearthed UK Facebook page has more than 50,000 followers, many of them from overseas – the New World never had careless Romans, Saxons, Normans or Tudors dropping their denarii, hammered silver coins and sovereigns.
If it’s tempting to think of the British countryside as a giant lottery scratch card, with treasure only a scrape away, the reality is likely to be different. Ring-pulls from drink cans, rusted door keys and the tops of shotgun cartridges are more likely to generate a beep from the metal detector. If Detectorists is to be believed, acronyms such as BOOT (‘bit off a tractor’) and POACH (‘part of a combine harvester’) are part of the metal detecting lingo. As an angler once explained, his sport is called ‘fishing’, not ‘catching’, because there is no guarantee of success. It’s the same with metal detecting.
Nonetheless, novice hobbyists have unearthed jewellery, including gold necklaces and medieval silver signet rings, as well as hoards of ancient coins. The thrill of potentially finding such riches has brought me to Cumbria, just a few minutes from Meathop Fell Club Campsite, for a beginner’s detecting session with Graeme.
There are practical skills to learn, as well as a host of rules to learn if you want to stay legal. So, once I’m armed with a bit of his kit, Graeme challenges me to detect a line across the testbed he has created, which is peppered with buried coins from his own expeditions.
No stone unturned
Readings on Graeme's detector screen
My snail-paced walk is good, he says, but I could swivel more to cover a wider arc with each sweep of the detector. Next go, I loosen my hips and half expect a Len Goodman call of ‘Seven!’. The detector is adjustable for length, well balanced and surprisingly light, at under 3lbs. It’s less than half the weight of the detectors that Graeme used when he started. “After an hour your arm would be dropping off,” he recalls.
The closer the ‘coil’ is to the ground, the stronger the signal it sends and receives, so Graeme encourages me to trust the scuff cover and scrape it through the grass and over loose soil. This is a multi-frequency detector, which means it can discriminate between different types of metal and help you avoid so-called ‘trash’.
Graeme adjusts the sensitivity of the detector to avoid interference from an overhead powerline, before I set out on a proper trial. Within a couple of minutes there’s a beep from the machine, my heart begins to race, and I switch the detector to ‘pinpoint’ mode to zero in on the find. The strength of the beep is no indication of the value of the artefact – a large copper coin would trigger a stronger alert than a sliver of gold.
Digging up finds is a skill, too, involving surgical precision to avoid damaging the ground surface. A landowner does not want to see their pasture cratered like the moon after a detecting expedition, explains Graeme.
Using an ultra-light carbon spade with serrated sides, I cut three sides of a square, but leave the fourth intact to act as a hinge when I raise the plug of earth. Artefact located (a tiny, broken buckle), I carefully manoeuvre the plug back into the hole and stamp it down.
“If you cut all four sides, grazing animals might come along afterwards, intrigued by the broken soil, and pick up the entire lump with the grass, leaving holes that you thought you had filled in,” says Graeme.
He talks me through ‘gridding’ (a systematic search of an area), before divulging some of the techniques he uses to read a landscape and optimise his chances of success. Hedgerows, for example, have been a source of both shelter and berries for centuries, and so are likely to have had greater footfall than the middle of a field. Likewise, ponds, lakes and rivers have been natural places for people to wash, fetch water and bring their animals to drink, so their banks can be fruitful hunting grounds. And identifying old paths between villages, and from village to church, means you’ll be detecting on land where people have walked for centuries.
The hope of finding what they dropped is intoxicating, each blip of the machine a signal that a potential prize awaits. It may not be gold, but a quickening of the pulse, a glimpse into a past time, and the firing of your imagination – well, that’s priceless.
Can you dig it?
Do’s and don’ts for detectorists...
- You must always have the permission of the landowner to detect on their land. Asking face-to-face, rather than by email, is more likely to secure access, advises Graeme. Consider joining a local metal detecting club, which often has ‘permissions’ in place.
- Stop digging and seek expert help immediately if you find anything unusual, such as unexploded ordnance, human bones, and archaeological evidence.
- There are strict laws governing what constitutes ‘treasure’ – the Treasure Act 1996 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and the Treasure Trove Law in Scotland. In relation to the former, the definition of treasure includes groups of two or more precious metal coins that are more than 300 years old, although certain single gold coins may also meet the criteria.
- If you find treasure, you must report it – to the Coroner (via your local Finds Liaison Officer (FLO) in England and Wales. Treasure found in Scotland should be reported to the Treasure Trove unit at the National Museum of Scotland. The National Council for Metal Detecting website (ncmd.co.uk) is a good source of further information.
Information
A personal one-hour metal detecting tuition session with Graeme Rushton costs £40.
Contact: uneartheduk.co.uk, 01229 463857
Stay: Meathop Fell Club Campsite
National treasures
Three more detecting courses near Club sites around the UK
• Gordano Valley, North Somerset
An eight-hour beginner’s session, including a skills school and detecting across a 500-acre site, costs £100, with all equipment provided.
Info: metaldetectingexperiencedays.com
Stay: Cheddar Club Campsite
• Petersfield, Hampshire
Learn how to metal detect on a one-to-one, full-day course (£160) with Gary Blackwell, mastering the perfect set-up of your detector and the techniques required to use it.
Info: skill-school.co.uk
Stay: Rookesbury Park Club Campsite
• Sheriff Hutton, North Yorkshire
This day-long course (£99-£129) includes all equipment and tuition to make a start in the world of detecting.
Info: discoverdetecting.co.uk
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