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The majority of abusive contracts are deemed unconscionable due to unequal bargaining power between the parties due to one party’s lack of knowledge, experience, or resources. A typical example, which we have mentioned before, would be where a “Loft Clearer” clears your grandpa’s loft for free and tells you, when you find out, “I have sent him a message when I have found something nice and will tell him where I found it and all he says is “Well done “.
Interestingly, in a forum thread titled Keeping Landowner Updated, a detectorist has just written “I have sent him a message when I have found something nice and will tell him where I found it and all he says is “Well Done “
We have no reason to suppose that detectorist isn’t upstanding but the question arises: out of 27,000 detectorists how many take advantage of the fact they themselves are judge, jury and sole eye-witness of what is “nice” and how many landowners are deprived of their property thanks to unconscionable abusive contracts, sealed with a handshake and a smile?
At a time when the Government may be minded to free itself from “sovereignty-infringing bodies” such as the European Court of Human Rights, there is speculation about whether it might consider leaving other bodies if it feared they might criticise its decisions. A long list has been suggested. Most are unlikely but one, in particular, is very likely and has great relevance to Stonehenge:
“The monument field has to be cleared by 8am so that the site can be tidied up and put back to normal in time for it to re-open to regular visitors by about 3pm on the 21st.”
So everyone must clear off 2 hours 13 minutes before the actual Solstice at 10.13 am ?! So whose monument and whose Solstice is it?
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Update 18/6/2022
English Heritage has answered the question now, sort of:
“WHY ISN’T IT LATER?
The sunrise immediately before summer solstice – when the days gradually start to get shorter – is the moment traditionally marked at Stonehenge, and our live coverage replicates this.”
Hardly the point. People worldwide will be tuning in at the moment of their solstice – which is 10.13 am UK time – when the video coverage will be blank and everyone will have been told to leave.
In 2017 a very prominent detectorist spilled the beans in a way that archaeologists and Parliament don’t accept:
“And then it came on to treasure act reform, the museums are strapped for cash, they are finding it hard to fund the acquisition costs for significant treasure items, so what is the solution? To reduce the amount paid to finders and landowners. Its a total shot in the foot… “They cannot be serious!!!” .. such a policy would probably see the declaration of Treasure items stopping overnight…”
He should know, better than them, and the implications are clear: millions of pounds are being spent on ransom payments and if they are discontinued detectorists will revert to criminality. May we suggest the money is spent on museum subsidies or heating bills for pensioners and treasure reporting is ensured by quadrupling the penalties for non-compliance?
Here is one of the holes recently left when 10 Burnt Tip Orchids were stolen in Kent. The police have been informed and are investigating, as it’s a crime.
Here is one of the many thousands of holes left the same day all over Britain after artefacts were removed and mostly not reported. In no case were the police informed as it’s not a crime.
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In contrast to the radon contaminated tunnel fudge National Highways are proposing to spread on local fields, we are excited to learn of plans to promote a famous sweet manufacturer’s tasty products alongside the A303.
We are not only devotees of wine gums and jelly babies, but on hearing of giant art installations we are imagining seeing Bertie Bassett himself striding along the A303 instead of seeing Stonehenge.
Roadside heritage can’t be beat, and whilst there will be moaners they’ll have to admit it takes ALLSORTS!
We’ve been saying it for far more than a decade: some of the Staffordshire Hoard is almost certainly still in the ground and can be found by a top-end detector that finds stuff at deeper levels. This weekend it has been shown how easy it would be:
“Hi I’m Looking for a company that hires top end Machines ie gpx 5000 or better. There are some company’s that do hire md but I I haven’t found one with any gpx Machines Only need to hire for a week or two at most.any information would be Great thanks”
“The GPX5000 takes a long time to learn … You would be better off hiring an experienced owner & their kit for the week… If you are hiring it on a hunch of there being a hoard in Place X then you would likely be very disappointed.”
“Thanks for the reply … me and my friend are going to buy one that gives us time to learn the Machine until the crop as gone then give it a go”
So there we are. It can be easily done by anyone. See our previous pleas.
As someone who has been obsessed with buzzards since before the Queen was crowned, I found this (which happened very close to Silbury Hill) particularly unacceptable:
“On 1 June 2022 at Swindon Magistrates Court a gamekeeper received a 12-month community order to carry out 180 hours unpaid work and was ordered to pay £393 costs and £95 surcharge for pleading guilty to raptor persecution offences relating to the discovery in 2020 of at least 11 buzzards, four red kites and one gull species that had been dumped down a well on Galteemore Farm, a pheasant-shooting venue in Wiltshire.”
This is a very frequent, rarely provable, and yet avoidable type of incident. When will Britain do what is right rather than pull its punches on conservation (of many sorts) to please vested interests?
Asked by a Ukrainian political pundit how far west the Russian military will advance, the Russian TV anchor Vladimir Solovyov replied: “Well, as I was saying today, maybe Stonehenge. Liz Truss says she’s the one fighting the war.”
In view of citing Truss, the UK’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, why did the TV host not pick on 10 Downing Street as the military target? Why not Buckingham Palace as the military aim, seeing as it is the reigning monarch’s Platinum Jubilee?
Why Stonehenge?
The Heritage Journal 
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