A metal detecting rally in the heart of the village of Foxham, Wiltshire will be in aid of the local church and village hall. So a good thing? The villagers think so evidently – the participants are even being allowed to camp on the village green. But do they fully understand the nature of the event? I’m betting not.
First, the organiser openly admits – indeed boasts – “In the heart of this delightful quaint rural Wiltshire village, I have for you 136 acres of undetected rich pasture land, which has been pasture and undisturbed for approximately one hundred years” and doesn’t mention that this totally flouts the official Code of Practice for Responsible Detecting and the Guidance on Metal-detecting Rallies which requires activity to be confined to disturbed ground that has been ploughed within the last five years. Do the landowners and locals realise?
Second, do the locals understand why the organisers say this: “Only finds that are subject to treasure trove are to be divided fifty/fifty with the land owner”? It means the 99.9% of finds that are not treasure (and which legally belong entirely to the landowners!) are to become the sole property of the finders – the 150 people from goodness knows where who are first to offer £28 each for a weekend’s prospecting rights in order to be free to take the items home or sell them on EBay. No question of donating all finds to the village as a permanent record of its history. No question of sparing that history on the grounds that the venue is highly inappropriate. (NB, the fact it is a “good cause” changes nothing. The guidelines are clear on the point: “These considerations apply equally to events held for charitable purposes.”)
We have little doubt the locals will have been told that the participants are doing it purely for the love of history. Fine, let them be requested to leave any bits of Foxham’s history with the people of Foxham then! No greater love of history could anyone have! Failing a positive response to that, perhaps the landowners and villagers and church officials should discuss this rally with some professional archaeologists to see if they regard the venue as appropriate. Extra finance for Foxham’s church and village hall would be very nice but raising it by selling Foxham’s history to random people like pick-your-own strawberries? And in a way that the professionals see as damaging……..?
More here…..
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11 comments
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16/01/2010 at 22:47
spam
for your info it has been disscussed with the local archies and flos will be present and many of the items in local museums have been donated by Detectorist get your facts right
17/01/2010 at 05:11
heritageaction
The rally has indeed been “discussed”. The discussions involved the voicing of major archaeological concerns about it.
The facts are not wrong. The event DOES flout the archaeological guidelines and the participants WILL take the finds away as their own.
23/01/2010 at 19:45
senua
Not everything found by detectorists gets handed over to museums. This I know FOR A FACT. I know detectorists who sell whatever they find and are quite happy to admit it. They do not tell local archaeologists about sites they have found and do this because they want the artifacts to sell. New site finds are kept secret. Items are sold in shops and ebay. They admit this. Selling the heritage of Britain is their business and they don’t care. And there is nothing I can do about it. They are doing nothing illegal. Unfortunatly new sites that could be important are being destroyed because of greed. And this seems to be perfectly ok. Our heritage is under threat from all angles and this is not helped by people who take what they want to make a quick buck. Our society is money obssesed from the national lottery to selling off to the higest bidder our heritage. Luckily there are still people who care but is it too late..
31/03/2010 at 00:46
Martin
All one sided as always.
31/03/2010 at 20:11
heritageaction
Indeed! And we never criticise members of local archaeology societies.
Poor you, what CAN be the difference between their behaviour and yours?
06/04/2010 at 21:39
Hunter
Guys, I am 58 and been detecting for 20 years or more and rescuing stuff from the plough and fertilisers. Sure, some gets sold off, but at least it sees the light of day and doesn’t rot away in the ground. If we didn’t find it you probably never would. But these are old, old arguments. Detectorists and thinking archies have buried the hatchet long ago. So sorry if you missed the war, but don’t try to re-fight it just because you missed it. There are bad guys in both camps, nobodys perfect. So get a life and move on.
07/04/2010 at 09:18
heritageaction
A life? You mean spend 20 years helping ourselves uninvited and randomly to a communal resource for our personal benefit and presenting it as “rescue” for the benefit of everyone else? Nah, we’ll stick to conservation thanks.
29/05/2010 at 19:42
michael
….(let them be requested to leave any bits of Foxham’s history with the people of Foxham then
tell me please about the elgin marbles)….and why we wont give them back these stolen items….why is the treasure act only botherd about silver and gold….
29/05/2010 at 20:31
heritageaction
“tell me please about the elgin marbles)….and why we wont give them back these stolen items….why is the treasure act only botherd about silver and gold….”
You would need a change in the law to return objects from the British Museum to their country of origin. In fact, the British Museum is unable (legally) to return, sell or to otherwise relinquish any object in its collection.
15/10/2015 at 08:28
Marty
If it was not dug up who would care ? Who would know it was there?Most of the time if you read rally reports the guys just find junk , they are not all walking away with pockets stuffed with gold. What about the amazing Hoards that now reside in museums that would never have been found ?
15/10/2015 at 10:46
heritageaction
Not the point. The article was about Compliance with the Code of Practice for Responsible Detecting and the Guidance on Metal-detecting Rallies. Is it OK to flout those?