Amazingly, Worlingworth Local History Group are pleased to host a metal detecting day in Worlingworth, Suffolk, on Sunday, 29 September 2013. Sometimes someone says it all and there’s nothing to add, as Paul Barford has here.
Except to say, as he will know:
1. It’s not really the worthy group of local amateur archaeologists pictured below that have set this event up, they’re not into taking stuff for themselves, or indeed doing anything at all that might attract criticism.
2. PAS will be attending. It’s well known what they think of rallies and that they go because if they didn’t they’d go ahead regardless. But WHY didn’t they have a quiet word with the members of the Worlingworth Local History Group who then most certainly wouldn’t have gone ahead regardless. Have PAS got it into their heads that amateur archaeologists think and act like detectorists? How insulting. They don’t. Perhaps they could have that quiet word now.
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More Heritage Action views on metal detecting and artefact collecting
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The Heritage Journal 
12 comments
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24/08/2013 at 20:17
Daryl K
It just goes to show how entrenched in the common psych is the notion that the nerdishly perceived activity of metal detecting is a good thing. Hardly surprising when the media are also propagating the notion that the finding of rare and unusual historic objects by metal detectorists is news worthy and doing so in a very positive light. The public just seem to lap it up eagerly and want to see the shiny objects for themselves and the government is keen to be seen to support the activity as long as the public perceive metal detecting to be a good thing performed by nerdish types. We now even have TV adverts featuring metal detecting is ever there was proof of how the public accept willingly the fact that historical objects are being found day in and day out but these individuals and that it all seems so harmless.
15/09/2013 at 18:03
Geoff Robinson
Please could you remove the image of the people attending a talk on history. You do not have permission to use it nor does it have any relevance to metal-detecting or the Worlingworth Rally. It is not even a History Group event.
And if you want to support our heritage (I assume that you do), please send a large cheque for a four figure sum (at least) payable to Suffolk Historic Churches Trust or Worlingworth Parochial Church Council.
Put your money where your mouth is and stop criticising people who strive to maintain THEIR local heritage.
15/09/2013 at 19:43
heritageaction
We will of course consider the matter of the image once it is confirmed that the request is from the committee of the Worlingworth Local History Group.
Our hesitancy arises from the fact all reference to the metal detecting rally has suddenly disappeared from the front page of the Group’s website including the words “Worlingworth Local History Group are pleased to host a metal detecting day in Worlingworth” and much else.
You will appreciate our confusion. The difficulty is that neither the event nor the prose surrounding it sound like they were inspired by amateur archaeologists and the fact the event, previously said to be “hosted” by the History Group has suddenly “disappeared” adds to the mystery.
16/09/2013 at 18:55
Geoff Robinson
Do you like the ‘Picture of the Month’ then? Would you like to sponsor the ongoing restoration of a flushwork panel on our Parish Church? Please send a cheque for £500 payable to Worlingworth P.C.C. to one of our churchwardens – you’ll find their contact details on the Hoxne Deanery website. Hope that’s not a mystery for you. Thanks.
17/09/2013 at 02:56
heritageaction
On the contrary, it remains a profound mystery how a Local History Group came to sponsor a metal detecting rally (and on what basis of knowledge and outside advice it did so). That’s why we were interested to know if the committee approved the decision to hold the event and to then remove it from your website and why but you are yet to explain.
You appear to think (or have been told) that holding it for charity makes it alright. Sadly that’s not true, hence our interest in who was involved in the decision and who advised them.
17/09/2013 at 06:47
Geoff Robinson
Can you stop dodging the main issue here and get your hands in your pockets. Paying for and maintaining this smart website won’t be cheap and so you’ll not be short of a bob or two.
Instead of babbling on about the history group (thanks for the capital letters, by the way), will you show us that you ‘do what it says on the can’, support our local heritage, and GIVE MONEY towards the upkeep of our parish church? You make a big play on the idea of supporting local heritage but I don’t see it ‘in action’ here. You just protest. You just can’t be serious if you cannot back up words with deeds.
Please address the main issue – is it going to be a donation of £500 or not?
YES or NO?
17/09/2013 at 07:57
heritageaction
It is not we who are dodging the main issue. It was a very simple request: please indicate whether you are expressing the views of the whole committee.
We suspect not. Local history groups don’t normally sponsor detecting rallies for good reasons and we suspect members of your group are starting to realise that, hence the disappearance of the rally from your website (though sadly not from detecting forums).
As for giving money, no, we prefer to donate to more responsible bodies. Raising money for one portion of heritage by damaging another is ludicrous and is seen as such by all except detectorists. Perhaps your committee should have been told about the official Guidelines on Rallies, which make it clear that “charity” is no excuse for damage. Were you even made aware that such Guidelines exist? We doubt it. If your committee weren’t told about them they should be furiously asking why – and perhaps they are now doing exactly that.
17/09/2013 at 08:48
Paul Barford
A local historian insists: “will you show us that you ‘do what it says on the can’, support our local heritage”.
What it says on the box is that Heritage Action supports “ordinary people caring for extraordinary places. Its focus is on the conservation of prehistoric sites through promoting greater public appreciation of them and highlighting the many threats they face”. I wonder how “extraordinary” this church is and whether this is because it is “prehistoric”? I do not see anywhere, on box or can, that HA is a grant agency (perhaps Mr Robinson is confusing it with the HLF, also with an “H”), and would suggest when he finds a real grant agency a little more polite approach might be called for. Just a thought.
17/09/2013 at 18:02
Geoff Robinson
Bored now.
17/09/2013 at 18:28
Digger
I am uneasy with this comment;
” It’s not really the worthy group of local amateur archaeologists”
Members of a local history group are not by default ‘Archaeologists’, they are people interested in history. Archaeology is a discipline and if we start using the term so freely then it debases real archaeologists who have spent many years learning to be qualified in the discipline.
Please treat the term ‘Archaeology’ with the same respect that actual Archaeology deserves. Thank You
17/09/2013 at 19:09
heritageaction
Point taken, although the use of the term “amateur archaeologists” is perhaps something best taken up with the various professional bodies, who use it very extensively.
18/09/2013 at 07:20
heritageaction
You may find avoidable cultural damage boring Mr Robinson but we don’t. We’ll say more on Sunday.