What Alan does not mention is that many farmers and landowners make a condition of your being on their land that finds are not reported which can make it very difficult if something important does come up.
Time after time the detector user is forced off a site by pressure being put on the landowner. Can't blame the owner as they can find themselves in the position that they need to ask permission to put in a new gatepost.
In the old days you could get local permission to hunt National Trust land (Stately Home sites, parks, beauty spots etc that have been mainly donated to the nation). Forestry Commision land, common land. Most of this has now been blocked off.
Forestry Commision land it was agreed should be open for the enjoyment and use of the public. One small area was and that was it.
I seem to remember you posting on this forum that you agree with the aims of the archaeologists that detecting should be restricted to regularly ploughed ground. Which is well and fine for you living in an arable area but not so good for the large percentage that live in the hills and mountain areas where sheep and cattle are put to graze and ploughing rarely happens.
Still there's always the beach. Or is there ? The Thames foreshore was detected for years but what happened. First a charge to detect, then whole areas that you were not allowed on, finally regulations as to how you were allowed to detect and the introduction of a four inch rule for digging.
Now there's the moves to extend that to the beach. No spade, just a hand trowel, four inches deep holes as a maximum (well the whole coastline could be an archaeological site and the waves /storms never remove more than four inches do they?). Plus don't forget the suggested charge of £20 per beach per year to be allowed on the sand.
All this steming from asking the public if they would like improved access round the whole coast of Britain which yes everyone wants but now its suddenly gone from a footpath round the coast to control of what happens on the sand that people have built sandcastles on, detected, dug bait etc for years.
You also fail to mention anything from the Spring edition of the F.I.D. (Federation of Independant Detectorists) magazine.
Headline "Not such good news for 2008"...new heritage legislation, nothing like as free and easy as in the 1970's". Stewardship schemes that offer free money to toe the line. "While we have to watch out for National Goverment mischief we must be very vigilant with regard to the semi official quangos and local councils ....who always sought every means possible to wipe our hobby out".
No mention either of the article "Well and Truely Duped" by a detector user who has spent years researching his parish (thought to be an uninhabitale no-mans land) and finding Neolithic, Roman, Viking, Medieval sites, locating finds, handing all the information over. Being asked to record finds first with a seven digit map reference, then asked for ten digit references.
The final result was he was banned from detecting. All the area had been turned over to the new Higher Level Stewardship Scheme.
He was told to stop moaning about losing access to so much land and to go find some more. On replying that he only had a bike they suggested he should buy a moped !
When the authorities get there way none of the mentioned finds below will be being made. Archaeologists have to clamp down or even ban detecting because they take so much money from the taxpayers to produce so few results. And money is getting tight.
