xxxxxxxxNorwich, Norfolk United Kingdom
The Americans have landed - to metal detect
RICHARD BATSON
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than 60 years ago Americans landed on the fields of East Anglia in their wartime
bombers. And this week a squadron of men from the United States were back on Norfolk soil - but armed with smaller, more peaceful equipment. Despite being from thousands of miles away, they are playing an important part in piecing together the county's history. Scattered across the stubbled soil of a harvested rape field, they are wearing headsets - much like the aircrews of the second world war would have done. But they are not listening out for the orders of their captain. Their ears are expectantly waiting for a beep from the electronic detector in their hands as it finds a fragment of metal dating back scores, hundreds or even thousands of years. The group, from all over the United States, has been making a sortie to Norfolk for almost 20 years to combine their hobby with sightseeing. During that time, painstakingly picking their way across farmland, they have discovered objects dating back to the days of the Iceni tribe, bronze age axe fragments, as well as Roman jewellery, Saxon brooches, and medieval money. Their “commander”, 79-year-old Jim Normandy, a retired pharmacist from California, had just unearthed a 17th century button when the EDP caught up with him in a field near North Walsham.
There were 21 people in this year's tour, having slimmed down following the 9-11 terror attacks on New York's twin towers. “There used to be two groups of 50 at one stage,” said Mr Normandy, who is also a distributor of metal detectors. His current gear is highly sensitive and is equipped with satellite positioning to pin point the location of finds - which are taken back to their tour headquarters in a Norwich hotel at the end of each day for collating. Brit Dave Barwell is the man in charge there. A former chairman of the National Council for Metal Detecting, he organises the Americans' tour - finding the sites, liaising with landowners, and working with museums and archaeologists to check the importance of the finds. “You will see a lot of our objects in displays at Norwich Castle Museum. The experts are keen to have the help of responsible detectorists to help them piece together Norfolk's history,” he said. Norfolk Museums service finds officer Dr Adrian Marsden said the bulk of artefact discoveries were by detectorists, mostly from the county. The American tour group were the farthest-flung, and they were “very generous” in donating items they had found, rather than having them exported back to the States. Most of the discoveries by detector fans were “rubbish” including shotgun cartridges, tin cans and bits of farm machinery - but they occasionally stumbled across star finds. One of the most spectacular by the Americans was a 2in-long Thor's hammer Viking pendant made from silver and gold found in the Great Witchingham area. “When I was out with them last week they found a medieval gold 'angel' coin from the time of Henry VII,” he added. Mr Normandy and Mr Barwell were both keen to distance themselves from the “treasure hunter” tag given to detectorists - because it gave the wrong image. Mr Barwell said: “Sometimes a Roman coin might be only worth a couple of quid, but is priceless in terms of history - which we are serious about.” The annual American visit was “like a club” with many of the members being regulars who had been coming for years. Banter between the baseball-capped crew as they worked their field was resonant of camaraderie among the earlier “yanks” who were based here in the 1940s - except this time they are recording history rather than making it. | ||||
This
Years Tour has Yielded a remarkable number of interesting Finds See highlights from our first few days more finds to be posted in few days... | ||||
