Coincidence Or Fate?

I was born in 1975 and spent most of my infant years in a small village in Kent called Bethersden.

- Alec Beale

Later on, I left school and finally moved to Langley to pursue a career. Thus I had always considered that Bethersden was well and truly a place of my past – or was it?

A few weeks ago, a good friend of mine informed me that Let’s Go Digging were holding a rally on the 11th February down in Kent and, rather intrigued, I looked up the details. Amazingly for me, it was being held at Bethersden! I had not been back there for nearly 40 years, so I quickly got my name down alongside the other attendees.

A few weeks passed, and on the eve of the rally we were given the full location details. It was being held at Langley farm which made me chuckle as I had known that area well. A quick bit of research into the site revealed that we were going to be on, or very close to, the former site of RAF High Halden, which had been used as an American airbase during the Second World War.

On the morning itself, I met up with a few old friends, then after a short briefing from organiser Paul Howard, I headed out into the 180 acre permission with my Rutus Alter 71 in hand. It didn’t take long before we all got separated out in the fields – I’m sure you’ve all experienced that! After a few hours, all that I had to show for my efforts were a few green blobs that used to be coins and some (as to be expected) ordnance. I stopped and looked around and decided to try my luck in a different field. It feels somewhat strange to write this, but as I passed a small pond surrounded by trees, something told me I should have a hunt around the area.