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Dear Fellow Landowners,
Last week a chap asked if he and 500 chums could hold a detecting rally on my farm “for charity and Britain”. I support both so I said yes, if you’re insured. He laughed and said “Definitely. Through the National Council for Metal Detecting. For £10,000,000“. But last night, down at the Black Sheep and Wellies, my neighbour told me 3 things:
- he’d heard from a National Council for Metal Detecting official that the insurance cover is for each individual detectorist NOT the event, so if anything goes wrong and the organisers can’t identify the individual, they can’t claim.
- He’d also heard that cover usually doesn’t extend to non-UK residents
- Nor ever to detectorists who act unlawfully (which they might well if they cause you damage).
That worries me, especially as I know detectorists are fond of protection – for themselves: A forum moderator said they should all get a finds agreement because “Should there be unknown dangers on the land, such as concealed shafts, hazardous soil, badly driven tractors, savage dogs etc and you are unlucky to suffer injury, the contract can be a very useful document.”) So I think I need more clarification, maybe in the form of a Comment below from a rally organiser or The National Council or The Portable Antiquities Scheme, or all three, repeated in the farming press. It’s a bit important so you might feel the same dear friends.
Best wishes
Silas Brown,
Grunter’s Hollow,
Worfield,
Salop
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More Heritage Journal views on artefact collecting
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2 comments
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20/01/2019 at 08:28
Paul Barford (@PortantIssues)
Well put Farmer Brown, as always. I think also the landowners that agree to make their land available for metal detecting holidays need to have a good think about who is taking responsibility for what – as the majority of the participants (though not organisers) are from overseas
” has access to more than 33 historic Norfolk farms covering over 11,800 acres of ancient soil. Guests pay up to £2,340, excluding flights, for 12 full days metal detecting”
https://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/norfolk-s-hidden-treasures-luring-american-metal-detector-tourists-1-5856672
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6546749/Instagram-fuelling-flood-tourists-trudging-UK-fields-bid-lost-artefacts.html
This is pretty disgusting, if you ask me.
20/01/2019 at 09:21
Silas Brown
Of course it’s disgusting, as PAS constantly tells the public. Never.
There’s only one consolation for those who are outraged by such events – which are happening more and more: the metal detecting forums are full of UK detectorists expressing contempt and saying that planting of coins during detecting holidays for gullible Americans to find is rife. I’m sure the organisers you’ve highlighted are squeaky clean, nay, noble – but there are many others in the game. An American on an American forum explained why skullduggery is likely to arise:
“If someone is making thousands of dollars doing hunts, if things start to run a little dry it’s pretty easy to buy 5K of finds to make 50k. That’s the reason I would never do a paid hunt because I could never be sure I was making legit finds.”
Great. An intelligent American detectorist. Somewhere a hen needs dental treatment.