It’s not always an easy thing to tell others about yourself and I have never really been one for self promotion. But this is a little different as it’s more about how I got in to this amazing hobby, and I guess I can’t do that without revealing a little bit of information about myself. I was born and raised in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, and surprisingly I still live here which is a testament to the lovely town that Hitchin is. It’s been home to my family for hundreds of years and until the late 1960’s they used to run a market farming business in the town. I’m told they used to own quite a bit of land around Hitchin which is where they grew the produce for their business, mainly fruit and veg.

The land was sold off before I was born so I never got to see the family as farmers, but they did keep a couple of fields which is where my metal detecting adventures began. Back in 2004 I bought a fairly cheap metal detector, I took it out a few times but never really connected with it or the hobby so it was left to gather dust in the shed. Then years later I happened to be flicking through the TV channels and came across this little gem of a comedy called ‘Detectorists’.

I completely fell in love with the show and this subsequently reignited my interest in detecting. So for my birthday in 2020 my partner Heather purchased a Minelab Equinox 600 as my present and I have never looked back. As you can probably guess I started out in the fields my family had kept and they did well to provide me with my first bits of significant history. From those two small fields I had my first Crotal Bell, my first Roman Silver Denarius, my first Celtic Bronze Unit, my first Silver Hammered Coin, my first Anglo-Saxon Brooch, my first Vesica Seal Matrix and a few other odds and sods too.

From these first experiences I wrote a short piece for Treasure Hunting Magazine, where Julian Evan-Hart (the editor) recognised the scenery in one of the accompanying photos. It turns out that Hitchin was part of his old detecting stomping ground as he used to live locally. Over the years Julian has stayed in touch and encouragingly nurtured the writer in me which has resulted in numerous articles for the magazine. This also filtered into my day job as a graphic designer where I looked after producing a few issues of the magazine whilst they searched for a new artworker, which for me was great fun work on. This then led to me producing the design and layout of the third instalment in the ‘Finds Identified’ book series which was a great privilege to be a part of.

Since starting the journey in those two family fields I now have 3 other permissions which I regularly visit, and knowing how hard it is to gain permissions I feel incredibly lucky to have them. This is largely due to some brilliant friends, old and new, who have trusted me with their permissions, without which I would still be in the family fields, so a huge thank you must go to them.

Writing these articles in the way that I do has also brought me into contact with more professional people in the realms of historical discovery. This is because during the research for my articles I regularly ask questions of local archaeologists, museum curators and my finds liaison officer, all of whom provide valuable insight and bring life and context to the things that I find with their brilliant contributions. 

Writing has only been a hobby for me since I started detecting again, but it’s something that I get an immense amount of pleasure from doing. I can only hope that anyone who happens to read my ramblings will get some sort of enjoyment from it too. Especially those who live locally and have an interest in learning about the people who lived in this area through the many ages before us.

With all that being said I will now end this ‘about me’ section and hope that if you choose to read my blog that you will find it an informative read about metal detecting and the history of the local area. 🙂

Detecting with Shmee150

One of my recent articles was about how I came to meet the Youtuber Shmee150 and ended up metal detecting on his land. Below you can watch the video and see how the adventure turned out…