Anglo-Saxon Treasure

The year 2016 was one that I will certainly remember. It was in early October when I finally got the call giving me the Lincolnshire permission I’d had been waiting for.

- Alan Smith

For over two years I’d been trying to get on the land, and my perseverance had finally paid off– all 1,200 acres of it.

The farmer had told me that as far as he was aware, nobody had ever detected on the land; it was a detectorist’s dream. He then asked if I would like to come out to see him the following day so that he could show me all the fields that he owned. “Great, looking forward to it,” I said, agreeing a time and a place to meet him.

The following day I went out to see him as arranged, and I was thrilled when he went out of his way to drive me around, showing me the many fields that belonged to him. “I think I’ll have a job remembering where they all are,” I said; and with that he handed me a photocopy of a map, outlining and numbering all the fields. “Here take this with you,” he replied.

The day was just getting better and better! A lot of the fields were very heavily ploughed and not quite ready for detecting. The farmer said he would be working them in the next few days so I told him I would pop back in a few days’ time.

Over the following days I kept nipping out just to check if any of the fields were ready, always with my XP Deus fully charged and ready to go. I could hardly wait!

Then on a warm bright Tuesday morning one of the fields that had looked very promising had at last been harrowed, and I noted it had a slight rise towards the far side. As I pulled my van into the field entrance, I thought to myself, “What a beautiful warm sunny day.” It was certainly very mild for the time of year, and an ideal day for detecting. I decided I would work my way down the edge, then across the bottom of the field towards the rise on the far side. Getting out of my van I set up my XP Deus to program 3 (fast) and headed off.