Metal Detecting (Including Finds).

[DaveinGermany]

Originally Posted by Accyexplorer

"Smuts' importance

Are you kidding? Smut is an essential, always has been & always will be for juvenile, pubescent lads humour for generations.

[Accyexplorer]

To cut a long story short,I managed to secure permission to dig on a bit of land in Yorkshire while me and our peg was visiting friends,it was rumoured that military buttons had been found on this land after turning over the soil so I was itching to have a swing
Anyhow,I manged to find quite a few interesting bits including a lead seal,a few old pennies,a sixpence and a few military buttons
I've only got access to my phone at min so I can't upload multiple pics at once

image.jpg

[Accyexplorer]

Here is a better shot of the buttons and what I assume is a lead seal.If anyone has a idea of age,rank or regiment I'd appreciate it (I may gift a little karma too ).
image.jpg

[DaveinGermany]

Originally Posted by Accyexplorer

Here is a better shot of the buttons and what I assume is a lead sealAttachment 51702

The 2 at the bottom right are standard American military, above them, the RAC badge appears to be just your bog standard Road Association Corp emblem rather than the Armoured Corp. As to the rest, top left bog standard 1930's/40's/50's military buttons. Not sure of bottom left, middle or top right, a bit more cleaning & tidying may give you some answers.

[Accyexplorer]

Originally Posted by DaveinGermany

The 2 at the bottom right are standard American military, above them, the RAC badge appears to be just your bog standard Road Association Corp emblem rather than the Armoured Corp. As to the rest, top left bog standard 1930's/40's/50's military buttons. Not sure of bottom left, middle or top right, a bit more cleaning & tidying may give you some answers.

Once again, I bow to your superior military knowledge D.
I thought the darker buttons with the eagle on were Polish,I should of known

[disco]

Hi All

i just thought you might be interested to know.

I was out metal detecting about a six weeks ago near to the Kings Highway. After about an hour of finding nothing but bullets buried three to four inches deep, I was most interested to receive a signal on my detector reading seven inches deep, so out came the trowel and down i went. I was very pleased indeed to find at about nine inches deep a James 1st silver sixpence. It is not in the best of condition but you can see what it is and it is dated 1603.

As I stood up and looked across Accrington and beyond I tried to imagine what the person who last held this coin could see. I am sure it would not have been the Tesco, Railway Viaduct or Express gifts in the distance.
I would guess the coin had been under the ground at the very least three hundred yours.

This is the second of my three hammered coins that i have found in the two years that i have been metal detecting

[Retlaw]

Originally Posted by disco

Hi All

i just thought you might be interested to know.

I was out metal detecting about a six weeks ago near to the Kings Highway. After about an hour of finding nothing but bullets buried three to four inches deep, I was most interested to receive a signal on my detector reading seven inches deep, so out came the trowel and down i went. I was very pleased indeed to find at about nine inches deep a James 1st silver sixpence. It is not in the best of condition but you can see what it is and it is dated 1603.

As I stood up and looked across Accrington and beyond I tried to imagine what the person who last held this coin could see. I am sure it would not have been the Tesco, Railway Viaduct or Express gifts in the distance.
I would guess the coin had been under the ground at the very least three hundred yours.

This is the second of my three hammered coins that i have found in the two years that i have been metal detecting

Those old bullets would have come from the old rifle range at Hapton, they would be .303, I've found MkII, MkVI and MkVII on that range, it was closed down in early 1960 because of rock falls behind the butt stops were causing dangerous ricochetes. The Kings Highway was the old route to Rossendale & was the only route for 100's of years until Blind Jack o Knaresborough built Whalley Rd, and Manchester Rd, through Accy in the late 1700's.

[disco]

Hi Rentlaw

The bullets that i have been finding are to the southern side of Hameldon and the northern side above Mitchell's Reservoir. The fields are littered with bullets, there must be thousands of them.

I believe that part of this area was used as a dummy air field during the second world war. I cant say for sure if this is right or not.
Anyway I was detecting the area I believe to be the air field when I picked up a signal different to the one given off for the bullets. So out came the trowel and down I went and guess what I found, an RAF cap badge.

Also when you stand in what i call the air raid shelter and look through the missing brick in the blast wall you will notice that the dry stone walls have been laid in such a fashion as to give the affect of an air field. I also believe that there was dummy areoplanes built from a type of cardboard on the site

[DaveinGermany]

It may have been mentioned elsewhere, but try these.

Hameldon Hill decoy site is one of five sites set up to defend Accrington.

http://aircrashsites.co.uk/air-raids...es/accy-leadn/

[Retlaw]

Originally Posted by disco

Hi Rentlaw

The bullets that i have been finding are to the southern side of Hameldon and the northern side above Mitchell's Reservoir. The fields are littered with bullets, there must be thousands of them.

I believe that part of this area was used as a dummy air field during the second world war. I cant say for sure if this is right or not.
Anyway I was detecting the area I believe to be the air field when I picked up a signal different to the one given off for the bullets. So out came the trowel and down I went and guess what I found, an RAF cap badge.

Also when you stand in what i call the air raid shelter and look through the missing brick in the blast wall you will notice that the dry stone walls have been laid in such a fashion as to give the affect of an air field. I also believe that there was dummy areoplanes built from a type of cardboard on the site

You'd be surprised at th distance and direction a .303 bullet will travel, the safety zone behind the target area of a range without butt stops is supposed to be 3 miles, that building was to house the generators, they were on the right at the end of the passage, the other room had bunk beds in it, if you look at that brick wall with the opening in it you will find that pepperd, donkeys years ago my father and I had a block of wood that we used to hide in that shelter, it fit in that hole, we used to pin targets on it, as for what was on that field we never knew, as they had armed guards to all the known pathways into that area, only the farmer at Mitchell House Farm was allowed in, ( owd Tommy used to tell me about it after the war, wish I'd listened more) we couldn't even get to pick the whimberries. There was a 5 mile swathe of those sites on all the moorland between Liverpool & Manchester, (there was a simillar site on the Burnley side) it was supposed to fool jerry navigators , can't say it worked very well, I could see the search lights and the ack ack flashes from my bedroom window as jerry circled over Salford.

[disco]

Yes thanks for that Rentlaw. I suppose the bullets could have come from the riffle range at Hapton, but there really are thousands of them up there.

You seem to be very knowledgeable about the area around Greater Hameldon Hill. I was wondering if you could shed any light on a tail I was told about the Gamblers Caves.

About five years ago I had sold something to two guys (farther and son) on the internet, these guys lived in Burnley. As they came to collect the item they had bought the older of the two asked me if there was a road near my area that went up onto Hameldon Hill and to some caves he had been told about. I told him of The Kings Highway and Sandy Lane, but none of these road names rang a bell with him. Then he mentioned a chap that lived on the road he was thinking of that owned a factory in Burnley. I then realized he was talking about Plantation Road, and I was correct.
So now for the interesting bit.
The chap lived in the Arden Hall Coach House on Plantation Road.
Now I am not sure how this chap was connected with the MOD but I guess he must have been in some way.
As this chap said that during the Second World War the gamblers Caves was used as an ammunition dump for the allies. This chap witnessed with his own eyes this dump being stocked with arms and ammunition. Apparently these ammunition dumps were dotted all over the North of England and Scotland and obviously their positions were kept top secret. They were there to aid the allies if retreating from a German invasion.
At first I thought no it can’t be true. But then I thought why would someone quarrying for sand stone drift an hole into the rock face to extract stone, surely it would be far easier for them to just open quarry the sand stone.
It would also explain the armed military guards all around the southern side of Greater Hameldon keeping people away from the site.
The chap also said that after the war the entrance to the cave was blown up sealing it for ever with the ammunition still in it. That would explain the pile of rocks just inside the cave that looked like a natural cave in.
Also about 10 years ago some guy got permission once again to extract stone from the quarry but was told under no circumstances has he to remove stone from the cave.

I hope you can understand all this as my English is not the best in the world

[disco]

Thanks For the links.

Very interesting

[Retlaw]

Originally Posted by disco

Yes thanks for that Rentlaw. I suppose the bullets could have come from the riffle range at Hapton, but there really are thousands of them up there.

You seem to be very knowledgeable about the area around Greater Hameldon Hill. I was wondering if you could shed any light on a tail I was told about the Gamblers Caves.

About five years ago I had sold something to two guys (farther and son) on the internet, these guys lived in Burnley. As they came to collect the item they had bought the older of the two asked me if there was a road near my area that went up onto Hameldon Hill and to some caves he had been told about. I told him of The Kings Highway and Sandy Lane, but none of these road names rang a bell with him. Then he mentioned a chap that lived on the road he was thinking of that owned a factory in Burnley. I then realized he was talking about Plantation Road, and I was correct.
So now for the interesting bit.
The chap lived in the Arden Hall Coach House on Plantation Road.
Now I am not sure how this chap was connected with the MOD but I guess he must have been in some way.
As this chap said that during the Second World War the gamblers Caves was used as an ammunition dump for the allies. This chap witnessed with his own eyes this dump being stocked with arms and ammunition. Apparently these ammunition dumps were dotted all over the North of England and Scotland and obviously their positions were kept top secret. They were there to aid the allies if retreating from a German invasion.
At first I thought no it can’t be true. But then I thought why would someone quarrying for sand stone drift an hole into the rock face to extract stone, surely it would be far easier for them to just open quarry the sand stone.
It would also explain the armed military guards all around the southern side of Greater Hameldon keeping people away from the site.
The chap also said that after the war the entrance to the cave was blown up sealing it for ever with the ammunition still in it. That would explain the pile of rocks just inside the cave that looked like a natural cave in.
Also about 10 years ago some guy got permission once again to extract stone from the quarry but was told under no circumstances has he to remove stone from the cave.
I hope you can understand all this as my English is not the best in the world

There is no truth to that story, that place which was known as the Gamling caves is actually a place wher stone was quarried from a rock face it went in no more than 10 yards, and there was practically no vehicular access except for horses, ( its not far from the place you mentioned in the last thread) As for storing Ammo in a cave Blooming Eck why would the do that in such an inaccesable place, the idea is laughable. That place called the Gambling caves not used by the gamblers but the flat area in front of it was, I watched them many a Sunday tossing 1/2 pennies from a little wooden block that fit over the first two fingers of the right hand, a couple of years back I got my daughter to take me up there in her car, the nearest access was via Rising Bridge then a trudge of about a 1/4 mile, when I found it, it had changed quite a lot, and some one had been quarrying there and in other places, there were sevaral new spoil dumps all over the area, they didn't seem to have got much useable stone why they bothered in the first place beats me, there are plenty of other places to quarry wth better access. Another reason for why there would be no ammo dumped there, ammo containing Cordite deteriorates very rapidly in damp conditions and the nitro glycerine in the Cordite leaches out and the slightest bump or spark and youve got one ell of a bang, most un-needed ammo is dumped at sea for tht very reason, the bottom of the Irish Sea & the Channel is littered with the stuff. One last tthng that shows hes blowing hot air, that all that area was part of a decoy site, which jerry was expected to bomb instead of Salford and Manchester, storage area for arms and ammo gior mon.

[disco]

Its no wonder they needed the Yanks to help out during the second world war then is it. If as you imply the British army would find a place like the Gamblers Caves in inaccessible. Now that is what I call laughable.

As for access. If an horse and cart can get there then why not a truck or tracked vehicle

Also we are talking about a retreating army. Now I am pretty sure they would not want their reserve ammo out on show for the enemy to bomb.

As you state about damp ammo being dangerous I am sure you are right. But then again how did they keep it dry in the trenches during the first world war.
Hell that place was even wetter than Accrington.

And the armed guards on all the pathways leading to the area. I find it hard to believe that they was guarding a dummy airfield.

Yes you are correct, ten yards into the cave is all you could get, but this was due to the roof of the cave collapsing in. Unless you was around before the roof collapsed.
When you say you watched gambling going on up there, Was this before or after the war?

Anyway I am not going to get into an argument with you about it. I also know the area extremely well and we both have our own ideas about what went on up there.

[Retlaw]

As for access. If an horse and cart can get there then why not a truck or tracked vehicle

Also we are talking about a retreating army. Now I am pretty sure they would not want their reserve ammo out on show for the enemy to bomb.
EH Don't talk so daft what retreating army, Britain was on the offensive when they started building those moorland sites
As you state about damp ammo being dangerous I am sure you are right. But then again how did they keep it dry in the trenches during the first world war.
Hell that place was even wetter than Accrington.
Damp ammo doesn't deteriorate immediately it takes time other wise the Navy would have had nowt to fire their guns with, they used Cordite in cloth bags.

And the armed guards on all the pathways leading to the area. I find it hard to believe that they was guarding a dummy airfield.

Yes you are correct, ten yards into the cave is all you could get, but this was due to the roof of the cave collapsing in. Unless you was around before the roof collapsed.
When you say you watched gambling going on up there, Was this before or after the war?
I watched them gambling after the war but I knew the area well before the war as I said we were no longer allowed access to pick the whimberries, and that cave was like that before the war, Those guards weren't guarding a dummy air field, they were keeping people away for security reasons, like the old watime posters use to say careless talk costs lives
Anyway I am not going to get into an argument with you about it. I also know the area extremely well and we both have our own ideas about what went on up there.
You might know the area pretty well as it is now, but unless you as old as me you won't know it a 1/4 of what I do. But if you want to believe what that chap from Burnley told you then carry on, I feel sorry for you.