Yes, you heard it right. Central Searchers run detecting rallies that are arguably the most irresponsible detecting events in the universe. How can we say that? Well, for a start, Britain is one of very few places in the universe where such events are legal so that cuts the field down a lot. Then there’s their notorious crook-helping rule that says farmers get nothing that’s worth less than £2,000 as secretly judged by the detectorist. But third and worst is the fact they hold rallies wherever they can, irrespective of whether they should.
The latest (at Pertenhall) was to be on top of many recent archaeological evaluation trenches. Archaeologists were outraged and it was prevented fortunately but they have reacted not with shame or an apology but a bellicose announcement that future venues will be kept secret to avoid “trouble-making“ – i.e. to avoid archaeologists being able to ask farmers to say no to rallies on vulnerable archaeology.
Wrongdoing by detectorists is always portrayed as confined to “a tiny minority” but the fact Central Searchers rallies are constantly promoted and praised (to the skies!) in the hobby press and always attract hundreds of eager customers with neither the wit nor decency to stay away makes total nonsense of the claim. Who can deny that large-scale wrong-doing of this sort ought to be publicly exposed and stopped? No-one. Yet officialdom is silent.
Selfish? Stupid? Step this way…
Update 28 October 2013
- Forgot to say: 500 detectorists – ( 12.5% of all detectorists! ) – attended Central Searchers’ Summer Rally this year.
- A County Archaeologist is leaving after 28 years and isn’t being replaced. But one detectorist has just said: “I hope she ends up working on the streets….detectorist’s across the Country will raise a glass and rejoice at her departure” . Another has said: “Good riddance! Another one bites the dust….. They never learn. All those years spent bitching about detectorists amounts to her demise….but detecting moves on!”
Is it unreasonable to hope that archaeologists and politicians (and decent thoughtful detectorists!) will drop the ubiquitous “tiny minority” phrase from all their comments on metal detecting? It’s clearly inappropriate, the minority is not tiny and the misdescription has helped sustain a great deal of wrongdoing and cultural loss for far too long.
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More Heritage Action views on metal detecting and artefact collecting
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The Heritage Journal 
7 comments
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04/11/2013 at 20:13
Jim Bob
Please put a name when you write this drivel please…………….thanks Jim Bob
05/11/2013 at 13:04
danny sanderson
its Archaeologists that are the wrong uns , want it all for themselves , callin the detectorists , thieves , were arnt all night hawkers , , if it wernt for the likes of us a lot of the hoards wud remain undiscovered
06/11/2013 at 14:17
Senua
Perhaps they are better off remaining undiscovered. If they end up in private collections they might as well have been left in the ground. Artifacts should be on display in museums for all to see. If detectorists are so interested in history then money would mean nothing and items would be donated to museums. Archeologists would be involved at every step which would mean a lot more would be learnt about our past. If there was no money to be made from metal detecting how may would still follow this as a hobby. As I have said before if you care about history donate your finds free of charge no matter what.
10/11/2013 at 14:55
Ralf Ritter
The most metal detecting guys are good people – no doubt. They help saving the history, they are not destroying.
10/11/2013 at 17:18
heritageaction
Is that what you tell farmers? Even though the official figures say the opposite?
01/12/2013 at 20:03
ian
My advice to the archaeologists is to get a metal detector, and join a club. It’s a fantastic hobby if you love history, metal detectorists have discovered many historical finds causing the history books to be re written, the Staffordshire hoard one of many fantastic finds which would have lay undiscovered, the portable antiquity scheme lists thousands of detecting finds of great interest. I must admit there is a difference with the detectors in the sense some detectorists class themselves as historical researchers and some as treasure hunters, many detectors like myself love pulling a piece of undiscovered history from the ground even if it is totally worthless in monetary value, but is interesting to research from an historical, aspect. Take all the finds a way that metal detectorists have discovered over the last 30 years. Our understanding of history would be very much poorer for it.
01/12/2013 at 21:26
heritageaction
Any chance you could comment on the article?