Feisty Ferrets And Fallow Fields

The joys of detecting for me are not just confined to the discovery of artefacts and coins, but also to the meeting of people and occasionally their pets.

- Denise Moncaster

I recently bumped into a gentleman walking his dogs and struck up a conversation about detecting and finds made. This soon turned to a lengthy chat about his doggy trio and his ferrets! I’d never seen ferrets in the flesh before, so soon I was granted an audience with this charming group of furry critters (Figs.1 & 2). Their suppleness and agility was incredible, but thoughts of owning any were soon dispelled when I remembered my pigeons back home in their loft. I explained to the owners how they would hopefully make their guest appearance in the pages of Treasure Hunting and that next time it will be the doggies turn!

I had noticed that quite a number of fields had been left to over-winter which was a big bonus. The downside, however, was that for some lengthy stretches of time they were far too wet and sticky to get on – isn’t it always the way? After several days of hard frost and bone chilling north-easterly winds, I wrapped up against the elements and set forth to a field that had a couple of long since vanished footpaths cutting through it. The entrance was a swamp, so skirting round it I tried to pick up one of the routes; before I’d gone several paces my Laser was spitting. Upon retrieving the target from the cloying mud I decided it was worth keeping seeing as it was some sort of iron tool minus its wooden handle. It was months later that quite by chance I was watching a program which showed a thatcher at work – he used the same tool for trimming off the ends of straw at the roof line (Fig.3).