METAL DETECTING UP IN THE SHIRE WITH PONDGURU

Back up in the wilds of Hexham Shire today. This lake behind me needs to be drained, there's a big long drain key which has been lost years ago somewhere along this bank side, possibly, and I've had a quick look for it and can't find it. But apparently it's about six foot long and it's a little bit like the key that you get on the side of a tin of corned beef, except this one you put down a hole, you turn it and it releases all the water from the lake. So I'm here with the Deus. The 9 inch coil. I've got quite a deep setting on here but when I've had a look for this key and hopefully found it, I'm going to go into the local pasture. Hopefully the wind won't cock it up too much because away from this little valley bottom it's hellish windy so I may not be able to film much. Just beyond the farmhouse there's an area where they've been tipping bottles and the farmhouse has been there for years. I might have a dig in there. If it gets too windy and too wet, that's where I'll head. But I'm hoping to get into the pasture and find some decent stuff with the Deus. This gave a cracking signal on the Deus. It was reading 76. It looks like it brought a button. I was gonna say it looks like an old penny, but it's a button. Seems to have been gilded at some point. It's got a little few gold flecks on it, but it's not fantastic. Ah. That actually looks... it looks Roman. Now to me, that looks like it's got a bust on it. It's definitely got a raised bit in the middle. Can't make out any other detail, but if I didn't know better, I would say that that was a Roman coin. And this is a really strange place to find a Roman coin, right up in the hills. It's a bloody pterodactyl. It's quite a nice signal of 66 to 67 on the Deus. Oh man, where have I put that? It looks like a little musket ball from a flintlock pistol. It is, it's actually still got the nipple on the top as well. It hasn't been filed off, so it probably hasn't been fired, that one. There's a nice little track here, runs parallel with the lake, and it looks like it still gets used even to this day. Given that the lake was built in the 1920s, and that this curves around and goes back to the farmhouse, chances are the people who were building this lake were coming backwards and forwards along here, so there may be something on this path. We shall see. That's a pretty good signal. It's reading 89 to 90 both ways, which is good. It's giving quite a nice response, so I'm going to give it a dig. This speed is just so awesome compared to my last one. Well, that's why it was given such a good signal. It's a Georgian penny or Georgian half penny? I think Georgian half penny. I think the pennies are a little bit bigger. Very thick coin from the 1700s or possibly very early 1800s. I cannot see anything on it, but it's the size of a Georgian coin, so I'm assuming it's a Georgian. Cracking signal, reasonable depth, about six, seven inches. And although I can't see anything on it, I'm pleased with that. And right next to that Georgian coin, got a modern 10 pence. That was reading 58 on the Deus. There's also a few other signals around here, reading between 40 and 50 odd or 60. So, could be some more modern coinage around as well. Top of a shotgun cartridge. It's a brass end of a shotgun cartridge. Oh wow, that's another good find. And it actually had something in it that I thought was a stick, but it turned out to be a bone. Oh, it's a little bit manky, but that's actually a little bird ring. More than likely off something about the size of a blackbird or a thrush and it's got reference numbers on there Not sure how clearly you can see that. I'll try and clean it up. That's better. See the numbers on there I think the Royal Ornithological Society website or something similar to that in the UK Has a little search bar in it and you put the reference number and it'll tell you everything about the bird that this was put On which is interesting and I don't believe it. I was just about to pack the camera up And I brought the Deus over here, went right next to where the camera is set up, and there's another signal. This one's reading 56. It looks like another modern coin, another modern 10 pence. So within this very small area, I've had two modern 10 pences, a Georgian half penny, and a bird ring. That's some hoard. Here's another one from the path. This was reading 81 to 82. Giving a nice signal and it's definitely an old penny this one. It's in reasonably bad condition with it being underneath the trees. Looks like a George V so it'll be from the first half of the last century, early 1900s. This was a nice strong reading of 80 and it's another old penny by the looks of it. Very worn that one. 1915 so that's a George V. There he is. Well it goes without Without saying that that gave quite a good signal on the Deus. I was reading 86, extremely loudly, and it was probably no more than two inches deep. It looks like something that would either be driven into the ground to tie a horse to, although they are normally like a screw thread shape, or possibly something that would be driven into a gate post, maybe, to fasten the gate on. I'm not sure, but it's a big nice iron artifact. Now then, I did promise that I was going to do a few reviews of a little bit of the gear that The gear that I've been buying. Like a three-piece set that I have sorely needed. I've been using my pockets and my coat for all my rubbishy stuff and all my good finds. And it's resulted in I don't know how many knackered coats. All sorts of filth building up in there. So I've got a nice padded belt, which secures well. It's adjustable. Anything from anorexic to McDonald's. And on that, I've got a waterproof finds pouch. Now this is actually made personally by the fella who sells them. And you can get quite big things in here, there's that thing I found on the hunt, no idea what it is, plus a load of other rubbish, and it's got a little zip on there for your better finds, nice strong velcro, and when that's fastened down none of your stuff's going to fall out, it's got belt loops on the back there so you don't have to have one of these padded belts, you can use it on an ordinary belt, it's just really well made with good material and it comes in a range of colours as well. Now this thing is a holder for your probe, and if you notice it's got a little D shaped ring on here. That's to attach a security lanyard, one end would clip on there, the other end would go on here with a special fitting, so when you're using your probe, you can't lose it. I don't know how many times I've left this lying around, I have got one of those lanyard things as well, but I haven't put it on yet. So that is especially made for your security lanyard, so you don't lose your probe. And the good thing about this being mesh is, when you're putting this in and out, the mesh actually cleans the probe, and the muck just drops out the bottom. So you can see that, that's after a hunt. Normally that would be absolutely clogged with muck, it would be in the button, it would be just all over the place, and that's pretty clean for me, and I didn't wash it before I went out either, so I'm very pleased with that. It's a three piece combo, I'll put the link to King Digger, where I got it from, in the video description. Get in there, look at that, what a beautiful little jug, absolutely excellent, it's got a bit of muck in it, it's got a bit of weight to it, but that's absolutely beautiful. I like that. What a crackin' find. I'm in an area now where there appears to have been a tip. There's all sorts of manky lumps of iron, plastic bags, but there's also quite a lot of bottles as well. Can't see any coloured ones, and they don't look very old, but I'm gonna have a bit to scrap about in here and see what I can find. It doesn't seem to be anything really old on the top, but that's a quite a nice one, like a smoky brown appearance. Lines on one side, well, three sides. Lines on half of it. That's quite a nice bottle. Could be older stuff, but it may be deep. Unfortunately, there's no sign of any really old bottles in here, or even down the stream. I did, however, find that, which is an old iron, and that'll be left on top of the old range, which is like a big log burner, until it got really hot, then it'll be lifted off and used to iron clothes. So I'm going to see if I can clean that up. Might need a hammer to bash all of this corrosion off, but hopefully that'll come up quite nice. Now this is a pretty awesome find. There you go. A mink trap or a squirrel trap. I think it still works. It needs a bit of a clean up, but whatever it is you're trying to catch goes in there. You bait it up with something. In the case of mink, it might be a lump of fish or something. As soon as it steps on this little paddle here, trapped. That's a cracking find. Believe it or not, that was halfway up a little tree. Looks like it had been thrown away. The tree had actually grown up and taken it with it, so that's another great find that wasn't metal detecting related. Look at that. I've used my spade to dig up a spade. I gave a cracking signal, lad. I ended up giving the bottle away to the fellow that owns the land, which seemed like the right thing to do because he's got a lot of windowsills in his house and it would go nice there with a few dried flowers in or something. So he was very pleased with that. I've kept the old iron and I'm gonna try and clean it up a little bit. Probably is with a hammer, but it'll have to be a very gentle job, I think, in case it falls apart. Now I did ask the landowner whilst I was there, About a lovely flat field that's quite overgrown near an old mill, I think it's a 17th century mill. This field that I asked them about has been used by scouts and also campers for about 60 years. So there's a reasonable chance of finding something there and before that, When the drovers would be driving cattle through there in the 15th, 16th, 17th century, it's a nice, sheltered, flat place to go. So there could be some really old, good stuff in there. I've told Dave from Relic Hunting Scotland that I'm gonna have a full day there, do one of his 10-hour hunts, and I'm gonna try and get into triple figures with the coins. Not sure I'll be able to do that, but I would like to give it a try. My record's 94 in three hours. And that was on my previous coin shooting site, it was an awesome site, so I want to try and beat that. The great news is that it's going to be harrowed, which involves dragging out all of the heavy thick grass. So it should be really nice and flat and easily detectable in about two and a half to three weeks. So I'm really looking forward to going there. That should be a great video. Last week I visited an old fella who'd been detecting since the 70s and he wasn't in the best of health but I had a message from a friend of his who asked me to go down and just have a bit of crack with him and he wanted to show me his collection. So I have videoed most of his collection and I'll be putting little clips of it in upcoming videos. He was a fantastic fella, in fact they both were really nice folks, they're called Ray and Malcolm. And they've both pretty much given up detecting now, but they have such a wealth of knowledge and they've also got excellent collections. They're really just bang into the history, bang into the whole travelling around and meeting people and sharing sites as well. It's such, they're just really nice folks. So upcoming videos are going to have little bits of Malcolm's collection. The sacred fire of love. Ray and Malcolm, and they're both pretty much given up detecting now, but they have such a wealth of knowle- dge and they've also got excellent collections. They're really just bang into the history, bang into the whole traveling around and meeting people and sharing sites as well. It s such. Two shout outs? I like people to help themselves, that's why I do the little clips at the start of my videos. I let people make their own adverts and I insert them into my videos, but there's one fella who I would like you to gravitate to, he's called Von Krit from South Africa and And he's been doing an excellent, A series of interviews with detectorists called Getting to Know the Detectorist. And from that, if you watch a few of them, hopefully you'll see that we're not all day hawk and alcoholic scam artists. Some are, but the vast majority of detectorists have a family, they have jobs. They're basically just normal people with a passion for history. So I urge you to check him out, Von Krit. His link is in the video description. Well, that's all from me. Thank you very much for watching. Another riveting episode of my metal detecting series. There wasn't any fantastic finds, although I was really happy with that iron, and also that clay bottle-stroke-jug thing, which I actually gave to the landowner. He was very pleased about that. And hopefully, I'll find some decent stuff next time as well. Thanks for watching. Now then. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh Now then. I did promise that I... Now then. Now. And it's somewhere that I know has been used for, it's somewhere that I know have, Christ, think what you're going to say, man, think what you're going to say. Now this, it's frozen, it's freezing. I wish I'd filmed this when I first came back. Welcome to England. You go into the, I think it's the Royal Ornithological, what the hell's it called, man? I think the Royal Ornithological Society website has a little bar that you put a button. That's no good. Now excuse me, I think I'm going to sit in the hot tub for an hour or so because I'm absolutely freezing. Thanks for watching.