We recently contrasted the big punishments given to people who steal lead from church roofs with the the leniency shown to people who plough out barrows, motorcycle on hillforts, nighthawk on scheduled sites and damage standing stones. But now in a “landmark ruling“, two men who metal detected on a protected site have been given ASBOs (the first time they’ve been used to tackle archaeological crime) as well as one year suspended custodial sentences, community service, curfews, compensation for damage and confiscation of equipment. So a heartening step towards consistency.
But there’s a long way to go. Mike Harlow (EH’s Legal Director) quite rightly said “The history they are stealing belongs to all of us …. Once the artefacts are removed from the ground and sold the valuable knowledge they contain is lost for ever”. But you’d be mistaken to think that meant these two had been convicted of knowledge theft. There’s no such crime, which is why the wider reality beyond nighthawking is grim: 97% of archaeological sites are not scheduled – so if those two gents had legally removed identical objects from any of those and not reported them (as thousands freely admit they do) the self same knowledge would be lost forever and there’d be zero punishment. Hence, although Britain’s approach to heritage crime is improving (and four massive cheers for all the agencies – the police, EH, CPS and the BM – that are visibly bringing this about) our country’s approach to heritage loss remains as illogical and indefensible as ever…..
Who can deny that the only proper approach (which is recognised and enacted abroad) is that no metal detecting whatsoever ought to be taking place without the law imposing what amounts to an antisocial behaviour order on those who do it. (Not a “voluntary” ASBO though. That would be silly, whoever heard of one of those working?!) Such a thing isn’t complicated or unfair – and every time the authorities condemn nighthawks because “The history they are stealing belongs to all of us” they are inadvertently agreeing.
PS…… and no longer said but seen! Yesterday, Simon Thurley, Chef Exec of EH, called for greater consistency by the Courts, which is our first point, with particular reference to Priddy (bravo! about time EH stopped saying they are “pleased” about that) but he also said, about nighthawks: that some of them “even trawled English Heritage’s own databases of protected sites looking for places likely to contain rich pickings….” Yes Dr Thurley, but it’s not just the courts that lack consistency for it’s not just nighthawks that do that and don’t report their finds is it? In fact nighthawks are a tiny, tiny proportion of those that do that so if you find such a thing so scandalous why not make it clear how widely it happens legally and how much you abhor it? You opine that “we’ve got perfectly good laws”. Hardly. On this particular issue the British law is a complete ass and it wouldn’t half help if you said so!
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More Heritage Action views on metal detecting and artefact collecting
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The Heritage Journal 
6 comments
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27/12/2012 at 14:18
Mark
So now you want asbo’s on detectorists?? Pathetic.
27/12/2012 at 16:32
heritageaction
What we actually said was
“Who can deny that the only proper approach (which is recognised and enacted abroad) is that no metal detecting whatsoever ought to be taking place without the law imposing what amounts to an antisocial behaviour order on those who do it”
… which we think almost everyone other than a certain proportion of detectorists would agree with.
What is pathetic is the fact there’s a hobby in which a large number of people don’t report all finds, thus acting in an antisocial fashion.
27/12/2012 at 17:15
Mark
No what’s pathetic is your constant attack on a hobby that brings a lot of heritage to the public that would never be found. Reporting finds that lead to full excavation. There are some people who use detectors to thieve. Find them punish them that’s fine by me. But not all detectorists are.
You keep citing other countries where detecting is forbidden , that’ll be the countries where looting is rife and all finds plundered and sold on the black market. Middle east , Greece , Italy I could go on bit I’ll leave that to you……
27/12/2012 at 17:44
heritageaction
“There are some people who use detectors to thieve. Find them punish them that’s fine by me. But not all detectorists are.”
You have totally missed our point. Fortunately most people won’t have. The simple point of this article is that nighthawks, the people “who use detectors to thieve”, are a minor problem. The main problem is that group comprising thousands of selfish and ignorant individuals who use metal detectors legally but don’t report what they find. The damage they do is vastly greater than the damage caused by nighthawks.
28/12/2012 at 13:29
Mark
If you can prove that there are ” thousands ” of selfish ignorant people out ther then good luck to you. Go out and do something about it but my guess is that your figure of “thousands” is about as accurate as that sham of an erosion counter you keep peddling. If artifact collecting is that easy you should have asked Santa for one so you could scoop everything up and hand it in. ( just like the vast majority of detectorists I might add) anyway merry Christmas to you even though you brand me as ignorant and selfish without even bothering to find out yourself…….
28/12/2012 at 13:54
heritageaction
If you can prove that there are ” thousands ” of selfish ignorant people out ther then good luck to you.
We don’t need to. PAS will confirm there are at least 8,000 active detectorists and many thousands of them have failed to report finds to them.
“you brand me as ignorant and selfish without even bothering to find out yourself”
We haven’t.