LAND AND ALL THINGS PERMISSION
Everything From Gaining That Permission to the Research and the Finds.
Second to ‘What gear do you need?’ which we’ve covered in our ‘Roman Found Gear List’ the next biggest question that we get asked is all about land; most specifically, getting permission and researching. So look no further cause here is everything that we know and use to make the most out of our land!
GETTING PERMISSION
In the UK it is illegal to metal detect without permission from the landowner and this is one of the hardest parts to getting started in metal detecting. Every bit of land will be owned by somebody and unless that is you then permission is required, this even involves parks, common land, public footpaths and wooded areas. Some people even say it’s best to lock in the land before making the purchase of a metal detector.
But whilst this might seem quite daunting to start looking for these elusive landowners there are several places closer to home that you could try first. We literally got started in our back garden, family members back garden’s and even friend’s back gardens, whilst these might not bring the oldest of finds if you’re after that roman they are a fun dig and good to start cementing down to your friends and family members that you are INTO this little hobby of metal detecting.
On that note, you would actually be surprised at the land connections that you may already have without even realising it, so don’t keep quiet about your hobby, be loud and proud and mention it to everybody you know. You never know the connections that just might pop up, a little field over there, a small paddock in the next village across, your aunt might go to pilates with Jim the farmer’s wife from down the road … get talking!
Having a point of contact with the landowner first can be very helpful in winning them over to gain that sacred permission. This can be through a friend or family member, work or even from the local pub. Networking is crucial. However if your network isn’t proving very fruitful then there are other ways of gaining permissions and building up that land network.
Is there a farm down the road from you? Any nearby? Asking the farmers in person is the most tried and trusted method of gaining a yes, it especially helps if you are a local and are passionate about the history, history gets people talking. You have to be prepared for several ‘no’s’ though and to not be disheartened by rejection as to some people it’s a big ask to be let on their land especially if they don’t know you first or they have had bad experiences in the past as we unfortunately come across from time to time.
You never know the connections that just might pop up, a little field over there, a small paddock in the next village across, your aunt might go to pilates with Jim the farmer’s wife from down the road … get talking!
If asking in person seems particularly scary to you then it is also possible to email, send a letter or even make a phone call. All you need is that one yes and once you have got your foot in the door with one permission several more may open up through that farmer or landowner’s personal connections as they start to get to know and trust you. This is how we have built up our own permission, we literally started with just one field, didn’t ask for too much and gradually got known by the tenants and the landowner better and better until now just over two years later we find ourselves with pretty much free reign over the entire estate.
But you don’t need permission for all available places for metal detecting as there are other options. Beaches are a great alternative where you don’t need permission to metal detect, although it’s best to double check before making the trip as some beaches are prohibited, most Crown Estate and Scottish Beaches are good to go. You might be disappointed thinking oh you won’t find any history on a beach but you would find yourself surprised as there are several beaches around the country where historic artefacts and even medieval hammered coins can be found as ancient villages are eroded down from the cliff edge.
There is also, as with most hobbies, a paid alternative to permission. There are various metal detecting groups on Facebook who host large group digs with paid entry. These can be a great opportunity for learning the craft from fellow detectorists and picking up some important tips and tricks as well as getting on a site that would be particularly hard to gain the permission of alone. Generally a facebook group dig is held once a week throughout the year so there is always technically somewhere to go.
Then you have the digging weekenders and rallys, large metal detecting festivals set over thousands of acres with thousands of attendees for one wild weekend digging and socialising. These are great fun and super important for networking and making those digging friends and connections that you will treasure.
RESEARCH
So now that you have obtained your permission and you can’t wait for your first visit to this fresh and exciting land, what do you need to do next to get the most out of your land? Well it can be pretty handy to hit the books and do some research first to give you some key areas to target, this is especially helpful if you have been lucky enough to gain yourself a rather large permission.
There are plenty of handy sites and research all available online which can give you this head start. Some important websites to start familiarising yourself with are:
Historic England: A great website for discovering the known historic sites connected to, in or around your land, it also has a list of all Scheduled Monuments and Sites which is very important to double check as metal detecting is prohibited by law on such locations. They have also recently introduced an Aerial Archaeology Mapping Explorer which we find an invaluable tool to land research as it displays identified archaeology in the land that has been mapped using over 30 years of aerial photography research. Definitely a great one to give you some pointers on where to start.
National Library of Scotland: Maps are quite essential to researching your location and this site has one of the best free online map tools for land research. They have a georeferenced side by side map viewer which allows you to compare recent satellite imagery with antique maps. They have a variety of maps available at different scales going back to the 1800’s allowing you to view how the land has changed over time through mapping.
Some good things to look out for are old footpaths, especially ones that are no longer in use as they may have been around for much longer than you realise. We have used this tool to discover various disused footpaths on our permission and several have even brought up hammered coins and romans showing they have been a public route across the land for centuries. The oldest maps on the database also have some handy little archeological notes scrawled across them that aren’t present on current maps such as ‘Roman Coins found in 1862’, historical pointers to some locations that may have been lost on paper.
Portable Antiquities Scheme: An excellent database that should be every detectorists go to for research and recording of finds. But it can also be a very useful tool when it comes to land as well. You can search through the database by narrowing down on location, you can get quite specific with this and nail it down to a parish, this gives you a good idea of what kind of finds have come up in your area and what kind of things you could be looking out and listening for.
Google Earth: Once again maps are crucial and satellite imagery can be very useful for revealing some hidden secrets in your land, if you know what to look for. Google Earth is a great website for this as it allows you to actually flick back through time to look at previous satellite imagery, this function is a little tricky to get the hang of but previous satellite imagery can reveal all. If the year was particularly dry or the satellite imagery was taken at a slightly different time than features might stand out or be revealed more than on the current images.
Some important features to familiarise yourself with will be, ridge and furrow which is good evidence of ancient ploughing, square or rectangular shapes which could be old enclosures or roman villas and buildings, a sort of grid pattern of squares and rectangles which could make up deserted medieval villages or even round shapes which could be linked to bronze age barrows or celtic sites.
LiDAR: LiDAR can be a very useful tool to metal detectorists and there are several websites online where LiDAR can be viewed for free such as Lidar Finder and House Prices. Whilst these maps don’t quite cover the whole reach of the UK yet, if you are lucky enough that they do cover your permission then LiDAR, which measures the topography of the land through light, can reveal features on your permission that might not be visible on normal maps, concealed by vegetation or just not prominent enough to be spotted.
It can also be quite handy to put the words ‘*insert land location name such as Collingham* archaeology’ into google and see what comes up. There could be archaeological surveys and reports from previous planned housing developments which are often accessible online and even old archaeological reports from previous dig sites that also get published online. These reports often contain notes and theories from the archeologists that can be useful when thinking about your land in a wider picture, taking into account the land around it and how that was used and therefore the likely locations for similar uses on your land.
GROUNDWORK
Whilst you could spend literally hours researching your land online there are important research points and markers that can only be found on foot. The more time spent at your permission the better you will get to know it. We feel like we are only just beginning to understand our land and we have been here for over two years now!
LiDAR and Satellite Imagery can’t quite reveal everything, and how better to understand the topography of your land than by walking over it like the ancient’s would have. Approaching our permission on foot from all different angles allows us to gain new perspectives over the landscape and work out the natural route of passage across the land. Routes of passage will be the most commonly travelled area and therefore quite high for finds.
Certain earthworks as well might be more visible from the ground than the air, especially if they have been ploughed out by several years of ploughing. It is also quite hard to estimate elevation from maps and physically seeing the land will better help you understand the vantage points and high and low points that could have been crucial for ancient settlements or areas of occupation and work.
Keeping an eye out for waterways, water sources, or evidence of old water sources such as boggy and swampy zones is an important marker to watch for whilst navigating your land as accessibility of water would have been incredibly important to daily life. In fact most medieval village sites are built around water sources and it’s very common to find several spring line villages. Water sources were also important in ritual and many cultures from Celtic to Roman would send sacrifices into their sources that could range from coins to artefacts.
Understanding the boundaries of your land is another important aspect that’s best done from the ground. Long unbroken lines of hedgeline that span several fields and especially in the countryside are most likely to be rather ancient and could be evidence of old passageways or land boundaries from even as far back as Roman times.
There really is no better way to understand your land than by spending the time there digging and travelling the landscape. Your finds of course will unlock a new understanding of your land so it’s important to note down your findspots using GPS or apps such as What 3 Words so you can start building up your own personal map of ancient activity that could start pointing you into new locations. Not all research is on paper and the more you learn about your permission the more finds and history you will begin to unlock.
LOOKING AFTER YOUR LAND
We work hard to gain our land so once you have this precious permission it’s important to look after it. You have been trusted by somebody to be on their land so there are several things you can do to ensure it can be a long term permission and even gain a few more.
The first and most common thing that you can do to look after your land will be filling back in every single hole that you dig. This is especially prevalent on pastures where any hole can be very obvious if you aren’t tidy. The aim is to really look like you have never been there. A 3 sided plug should do the trick on pasture, this is simply where you dig a square with three sides and use the side that you haven’t dug as a hinge to flip the plug out whilst it still remains connected to the rest of the pasture. This ensures that the grass doesn’t die where you’ve dug the hole leaving unsightly brown patches and allows for perfect placement of the plug back exactly where it came from. Being able to dig neatly and with no mess on pasture will be very beneficial as it will give the landowner and farmer more faith to allow you in with livestock and more precious pastures.
Building up relationships around your permission is incredibly important, and not just with the landowner but with the farmers and the locals as well. The longer that you dig on your permission and the less trouble you cause the more trust can be built which could open up new fields that you may not have been trusted with in the beginning. We have certainly found this on our permission, where we have several tenant farmers, and it takes time to build this relationship and trust but it’s worth it. A simple phone call to check that no that field hasn’t been seeded and yes it is ok to go on goes a very long way and shows the respect you have for the land. From building up this trust we have been allowed more free reign over our permission, have even been let on drilled fields several times and are generally looked after very well.
The farmers aren’t the only ones that you need to build up the relationships with. As many of you will find, metal detecting is a very outdoor hobby in quite a public realm. We often get interrupted on a dig by a curious local and it’s important to take the time and chat to them, show them what you’ve found because you never know what they may offer in return. The locals have been crucial to pointing us in the right direction on our permission. You don’t quite realise the knowledge they have locked away, even if it is just a village rumour about a Roman Villa. These rumours normally have some evidence behind them and are very worth checking out.
Land, the second biggest challenge to metal detecting but the most rewarding once you’ve gained yourself that little corner that you can call your patch. Good luck out there and happy permission hunting!
