Spudz's Detecting World Musings, rants, raves, moans and all manner of goings on from the world of metal detecting......and my part in it.

It's taken a while, but last Sunday Doris, (my Safari), finally struck Saxon in the shape of a cruciform brooch!
When I dug it out it looked like just another lump of unidentifiable metal we all find scattered over our fields, but after clearing away the surface mud I thought to myself..."crocodile."  "Crocodile?"
OK, it looked old, but Crocodile??  Maybe it was a toy of some kind or an ornament.  Puzzled, but quite pleased with the find, I carried on.
Back at home that evening I convinced myself it was a crocodile and maybe post medieval.

There was only one way to find out what it was.  I posted a picture on the Finds ID forum at www.detectorist.co.uk and within minutes I had a reply saying it wasn't a crocodile (silly me), but in fact a horse and, better still, was part of a Cruciform Brooch dating from the Saxon period!!  (That's somewhere between 410 and 800AD).

The weather here has been awful and very 'anti detecting'.  I went out last just after New Year when the first batch of snow had disappeared but the temperatures were still in the minus figures. 
The ground which, before Christmas had been soft and easy to dig, had become more like concrete and it was nigh on impossible to break the surface let alone dig a hole!!  A mechanical digger not being one of my possessions, I had to make do with chipping away with my shovel until I'd got through the frozen top layer, which was up to 3 inches thick in places.  Needless to say, I didn't find much to speak of.
Eventually giving up. I drove round to the farmers yard to tell him I had a different car and not to come charging across the field, shotgun at the ready if he spotted it. 
During the conversation he asked if I'd found much and suggested I try the field he'd just finished harvesting sugar beet from.  Being 100 or so acres, it should keep me busy for a while.  I left him pleased that I'd taken the time to go to his yard as I now had a new field and one that wasn't stubble!!
Which brings me back to the weather.  I had planned to go out the following weekend but friday night saw a huge amount of snow dumped on the area which meant the fields would be covered in a layer of around 5 inches.
Fingers and toes crossed, I might get out this weekend.  I'm getting withdrawal symptoms and need to get some digging done real soon!!

After finding the odd fragment, I've at last found my first complete Crotal bell.  And quite a nice one too!

Went out for what I hoped would be a few hours detecting on Tuesday but ended up as being only an hour and a half as I was called back to work.  :-(

I'd got from one end of the field to near the far end digging up just a few pieces of lead and a button, when I hit upon a nice, clear loud signal.  I dug a small hole and there, about three inches down, I spied the edge of what was obviously a Crotal bell.  My first thought was it had to be another fragment but I was pleasantly surprised when I pulled out a complete, virtually undamaged specimen.

Another target to tick off the list.