I went out the other day on a ‘farm quest’ as you do once in a while and found a farmer who was not only agreeable to my request to detect on his land but was also keen on local history.

First of all he showed me his recently harvested fields and drew his boundaries out for me on a piece of paper.

Next he marked all the footpaths on the map together with the ruins of a mill near to the river and finally he explained that he found two stone hand mills which were dragged up by his plough.

It goes to show that there are farms with friendly farmers out there somewhere. It’s just a case of ignoring the knock-backs (believe me I have had dozens) and soldiering on in your quest. The farm itself is next to a river and a mile away from a major road so I am hopeful of finding something out of the ordinary as oppose to my normal shotgun caps, broken pewter buttons, impacted musket balls and 20th century coins.

I am by no means gloating about the potential of this new site, I am just illustrating to the disillusioned out there that the next farm door you knock on could be the big one.