OR A TRUE RELATION OF STRANGE PROCEEDINGS IN A SOMERSETSHIRE LOFT AND THE FIELDS ABOUNDING

Wednesday 10 April 2019

RESCUED AND TREASURED ONCE AGAIN

One of the reasons posts have been rather lacking (apart from my inherent laziness) is that I have started a brand new hobby which my sons are getting involved with too...metal detecting. A couple of months ago I took the plunge and bought a good lower end of the market detector and we are all absolutely hooked, so much so there is another better detector on order, so we are not queuing up to have a go.

It was a strange feeling entering an entirely new community with new jargon to learn, (strict) rules to follow and many people to meet but we are having the whale of a time. I won't post too much on everything we find , but here are a couple of items directly related to wargaming which have come up on one of our permissions (a permission is land where you have been allowed by the owner to detect).

The little chap below was found when son 2 was using the detector, and popped out of the ground yesterday in a field at the end of our road, he was about 6 " down.
A semi flat made of lead, probably about 25mm scale, the horses head was bent right back


A worm bids him farewell.
The upper end of the field we were in seems to have been a popular picnic destination in the 18th and 19th century. It has a splendid view of the valley and is far enough out of town to be a pleasant walk there and back to make a day of it. We have also found in the area coins from the reigns of George II, III , William IV and Victoria, teaspoons, a silver matchbox, and other items that may have been dropped by folk having a day out, and perhaps this soldier was lost by some little lad on such an excursion. He has now entered service guarding other finds on my son's shelf of finds.

Less pastoral, but from the same field was this alarming find

(the orange device is a pinpointer or mini metal detector for locating small finds in holes)

I extricated the casing out first and then was alarmed to see it was still full of  granules of what I now know to be smokeless propellant. The bullet was still lodged in the ground and appears to be coated in red colouring (tracer paint?). I guess this is a round from a Spitfire? I think the groove on the base of the casing indicates it was from a belt fed gun, but any ID'S would be welcome.

So there we are, let me know if you are interested in seeing other historical finds.