New orchard. UPDATED.

[Easylife]

Struggling a bit for somewhere to detect as all of my pasture is too dry I drove towards my stubble field in the hope that there may be a suitable part of it. But then on route I remembered a 1 acre paddock that I wanted to detect so went and knocked on their door to ask. The greeting was not too good by the wife but after much interrogation she said she'd ask her husband who was pottering about the garden. I had a chat with him and this went much better and permission was not only given for the 1 acre paddock but also their other 2 acres were offered. The reason that I was interested in this particular land is that I already have permission for the small field next to it and have had Medieval, Saxon and Roman from it.
Taking a look round it it was clear that this used to be an orchard by the solitary remaining pear tree and neighbouring land's fruit trees. But hey, new land that's unlikely to ever have been detected. I started on one side and decided to grid across it line by line. A double tent zipper showed - a sign of camping, followed by coins, bottle-tops, ring-pulls and a lighter. It looks like they had a good time! Six coins in one hole was perhaps the result of a frolic. Moving further in a Vicky penny appeared and an 1805 Irish George III halfpenny. Then a sweet silver tone was a watch bezel, but I'll take that.

Here's all the other stuff I dug, surprisingly only one piece of lead.

I only covered about a third of an acre but it was fun enough. I'm hoping that something older will show from the rest of it. I showed the owner my better finds and they said to come back any time I like.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update: 08/08/20
I went back and covered the rest of the orchard today. Endured 5 mins of welcome by the cattle licking and nudging before they all laid back down and let me get on uninterrupted. Second target was a blank Georgian coin at 11” deep, the bone dry ground didn't seem to be too much of a hindrance. I was pleased to see the decorated 2” crotal bell fragment and also get another bit of silver in the form of a mangled bullhead shilling. It started out cloudy and breezy but the heat only really seemed to increase noticeably in the final half hour fortunately. It was enjoyable and I was content with the finds.

[tesorobri]

plenty more stuff in there I bet

[Easylife]

plenty more stuff in there I bet

I expect a surprise something will show.

[Dave The Slave]

A good day out, Easy.
Looking up the date of your 1805 Halfpenny, like the fact that their coins were struck in random years, previous to 1805 was 1782.
1805 is interesting, you have the standard coin but they also issued Copper Proof, Bronze,Gilt Copper and a Silver restrike for this year.Whichever version you have an Irish Halfpenny always makes a welcome change.
Good Luck with the rest of that field.
Dave.

[shaggybfc]

You’ve nearly got enough for pint there....
I’m sure they’ll be more underneath the modern finds.
I have an old orchard field - trees ling gone, and that’s been fairly productive.

[figgis]

Seen some good stuff come out of orchards and yours looks promising

[Mucky]

Well you certainly were busy. Digging around trees is a pain too!
Well done.. There will be better in there I'm sure.

[Ladybird66]

I’ve always thought it strange what really good finds have been found in old orchards. Makes you wonder, is it the trees that bring them up and what was there before or, what went on in between them trees !
In one of my fields, down in the corner, there’s a stand of Oaks. I found two old rings and a handful of 3 pences all dated around the 1940’s.
The Oaks, of course would have been there for many, many years so it seems it might have been a quiet meeting place for a very long time.

Best of luck with your orchard. I’m sure something nice will show, eventually.

[Easylife]

Well you certainly were busy. Digging around trees is a pain too!
Well done.. There will be better in there I'm sure.

There's only one pear tree left!

[Mucky]

There's only one pear tree left!

Ah well that's cheating! Lol

[Easylife]

Makes you wonder, is it the trees that bring them up and what was there before or, what went on in between them trees !

Well it's in a village with history back to Neolithic so would most likely have been farmed as a huge field long ago. You've got me looking at maps now to see when it became an orchard, seems to be around 1890, though just one pear tree remains now. I've had a few decent finds of Medieval and older from neighbouring land so there's a fair chance here too but this is less than an acre. I'll see how long I can stand the heat for tomorrow? It's the other roadside paddock where I would really expect something to turn up.
I have another 1 acre orchard where the apple trees are about 100 years old and they sure look it, some departed, planted on ridge and furrow but lots of Victorian junk on there but some George III coins, still fun to detect though. I found a police helmet badge on it!
I wouldn't expect many casual losses actually from the orchard workers, more so prior to that.

[Easylife]

Now updated in first post.

[Blackadder43]

You're a braver man than I thats for sure !
A bit of rain may uncover more finds from this area too
A bit of silver and a bit of a crotal bell

I fitted 2 new smoke alarms today with 10 year battery life spans, and i ended up going for a shower as i lost about 3 pints of liquid
Maybe i'm just out of condition