Hard Going

The year 2016 had me looking at the fields with the highest hopes I’d had since starting this wonderful hobby nearly 30 years ago.

I was in a unique position of having taken a generous redundancy deal from work, allowing me the opportunity of a few months off to ‘catch’ the land at the optimum time. Like many of you, no previous harvest had ever gone by without missing some of the best places due to the quick drilling.

Our ‘season’ becomes ever shorter with the speedy cultivation, and in some cases we are disappointed to see the last year’s stubble directly drilled. I made my plans carefully, prioritising certain farms and making sure I didn’t over commit myself by adding more acres to the mix. The saying ‘the grass is greener’ can haunt a detectorist as, after a quiet day, the next farm in the distance always looks so attractive.

The consequences of this attitude usually means there are undetected corners on your current farm that are overlooked for pastures new. I deliberately held off from sending out any more requests for permission. I know I had the time, determination and perseverance. What could prevent me from having my best ever year? The British summer that’s what!

Every promising field was detectable at the same time as the farmers took advantage of the rare rainfall to break the earth down. I was straight out of the blocks searching for five hours a day, all week now instead of just the weekends, and hoped that treasures would throw themselves up like fish in a dynamited lake.