Justice for landowners!

Yesterday’s call for landowners to sign nothing and get their own independent advice on both the significance and value of finds has caused quite a stir and we had the most visitors for years. (Readers will know why).

Farmer Brown has long said the same thing. Back in March 2013: he said:
“Don’t do it. Sign nothing, especially if it contains the word “share”. By all that’s logical, legal, practical, safe and just it should be YOU alone who decides what (if anything) you give away, and then only when you’ve seen everything the detectorist has found, not before.”

and again in May 2014 he said:
“I’ll give a bag of mangel-wurzels to any detectorist, archaeologist, lawyer, philosopher or priest that can show why ALL artefact hunters shouldn’t be doing it too. Anything else, like getting the farmer to sign away 50% of his property while still undiscovered (which most detectorists and the whole Archaeological Establishment encourage landowners to do) is plain wrong.”

When will PAS and the Archaeological Establishment protect the interest of landowners?

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More Heritage Journal views on artefact collecting
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