Quote:
Originally Posted by Retlaw
Hi Homegrown.
All the moorland on Moleside and parts of Hambledon were regarded as common land, until one day I was up there a heck of a long time back and there were survey makers all over the place, turns out due to some old law that the land could be claimed by them in the know, and it was, but the present landowners live so far away that I doubt if they would ever know you'd been there. Try the area around what is known as the gambling caves. I used to go up there in the late 1940's and early 1950's with a dog and a gun, every weekend there would be blokes tossing coins, six blokes would be on lookout for the police and if they saw any one who looked suspicious they would all scatter. They never bothered about me being there. There must be loads of money and other stuff in the ground around there.
Retlaw
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Thanks Retlaw - never heard of the gambling caves, can you tell me just where they are? I will pass that info onto another detecting friend of mine who I know would be very interested.
For myself and my regular 72 yr old detecting friend, im afraid neither of us are fit enough to hike anywhere, especially with all our gear, (headphones, detectors, spades, etc, and moorland is very difficult to detect on and dig (very tufty).
Plus we prefer the safety of farmland where you are not going to get accosted by yobs. Sadly this happened to me once. Detectors are very expensive and highly stealable items and invariably elicit interest from anyone passing by. A couple of oldies like us wouldn't stand a chance if some yob decided to take them. Also areas of regular occupation like farms give more interesting and varied finds, and less rubbish like ring pulls, drink cans, bottle tops, foil etc.
Coins and metal artifacts deteriorate rapidly in moorland soils which tend to be highly acidic. A friend of mine found some copper coins on the coppice a while back and initially thought they were roman as they were about the right size (10 - 14mm). But when he got home and cleaned them they turned out to be old pennies less than 40 yrs old, pretty much rotted away. Whereas on pasture type farmland like we have in this area, those pennies would have come out of the ground in nearly as good a condition as the day they were lost.
I might be wrong on this (but don't think so) - there is no such thing as common land anymore. Not common in that you are free to make use of it (owned by everyone). Before I took up detecting I thought pretty much like yourself - that there is loads of land to go at where no one would bother you or where you wouldn't be breaking the law - but sadly that's not the case.
Thanks for the tips though - much apreceated. You obviously know the accrington area very well.
Regards
Home Grown