Middleham jewel

[Rah7265]

Am I the only person who hadn’t heard of the Middleham Jewel until today?

I spoke to a chap today who has 120 acres a stones throw from Middleham, then disaster!

If 6 members or more ask why it was a disaster I’ll fill you in on my day.

[Marley]

Very probably

I’ve held it, at York museum when it was moved .
Nice thing

[Oxgirl]

I’m interested

[Rah7265]

Marley how did you manage to get your hands on

What goes through your head when you dig your signal and expose something like this?

[Blackadder43]

Love me a good tale of a days outing
Count me in as listening

[Saki]

In my ignorance, I had never heard of it.

And awaiting your disaster of a day story....

[Marley]

Marley how did you manage to get your hands on

What goes through your head when you dig your signal and expose something like this?

I just happened to be the only person looking at it , at that time
The 2 curators were chatting with me about this and that and how I lived fairly close by , they said it was going on show in London
One thing led to another and it was placed on my palm for a few seconds only before it was taken away .
That’s it, nothing fantastic , I didn’t get to handle it , just take its weight for maybe 10 seconds .

Their is a story about the finder and how it brought nothing but bad luck , but I can’t remember the details

[Oxgirl]

There were 3 people who shared the finders part of the sales money. A fourth person sued for a share too though. He normally detected with them but hadn't been with the others on the day the jewel was found as his machine had been sent for repair. Anyway he lost the case and got nothing.

Valuable finds often seem to have a sad tail attatched to them. Money can be a nasty bed fellow

[Rah7265]

There were 3 people who shared the finders part of the sales money. A fourth person sued for a share too though. He normally detected with them but hadn't been with the others on the day the jewel was found as his machine had been sent for repair. Anyway he lost the case and got nothing.

Valuable finds often seem to have a sad tail attatched to them. Money can be a nasty bed fellow

Unfortunately it seem that valuable finds, lottery wins and even inheritance bring out the worst in people.

Fortunately for me and strangely given that I’m from Yorkshire and have a firm grasp on a pound, when it comes to metal detecting I have no interest in the monetary value of anything I find.

[Rah7265]

This was the day I was going to visit my son at school and drop of some hens I had sold on the way up.

6am, go and catch the sold hens, load them up in my Discovery, load everything else my son likes me to take, one terrier, 2 ferrets, one Equinox, two Deus, spade and box of other metal detecting essentials.
7am raining nicely now, get my other half out of bed, have a quick brew and make up some sandwiches.
7.30am set off in the rain, I didn’t even get to the end of the lane before the Disco engine management light came on.
Returned to farm and attempted to cram all animals food and metal detecting stuff in the wife’s car, it won’t all fit so the dog the Equinox’s and Deus spare coils get left behind.
8am, wet through now we get set off, as we approach Leyburn things are getting better the sun is out and it’s turning into a nice day. I was dropping the hens of at an address about 10 minutes the other side of Leyburn, I found the place first time and pulled into the yard just as the chap I was looking for came out of one of the agricultural buildings, hens are all unloaded and fortunately he likes them. We were invited in for a brew and it came out in conversation that his sons had gone to the school where I was going to visit my son which is only about 15 minutes away. From his kitchen window you could see the castle at Middleham which was about 4 fields away. So I asked him who owns the land in front of us, the answer came back well I have about 120 acres of it at the moment and I’m just buying a bit more. So I asked if it would be OK to come back later in the day with number one son and do a bit of detecting, absolutely no problem at all he says then goes on to tell me all about the Middleham jewel.(I was blissfully ignorant of it).
Off we go and get son from school, we have a sandwich and return to the farm, we are both excited (I’m 55 I don’t often get excited anymore) I take a Google map screen shot of the area and the land owner outlines his boundaries on it so we don’t stray onto someone else’s land, the sun is shining I’ve been given access to some new promising land and I have my son with me, perfect!
Me and boy get our detecting clothes and boots on, son says you detect and I’ll pinpoint, which is good for me because I have difficulty getting down to the hole with my dodgy hips. I get the Deus out turn it on and select deep program, I always sweep the coil over the spade before I set off to make sure the coil had paired, absolutely no signal! I check the coil number on the controller and it’s the right one, the coil is flat! Great! Not to be beaten I assure son it’s OK I have the other Deus with me we WILL be going detecting, I gets Deus number 2 out and turn it on, sweep the coil over the spade, absolutely nothing again, flat coil! son says where are the other coils, I have to tell him they are at home with the Equinox, it’s game over for today! No one’s excited now!
So my day went from bad to great to absolute disaster and due to the second lockdown I haven’t been able to go back.

[Easylife]

Great news, could be good land? Plenty of time for research and a plan of attack.