As I sit here, day dreaming about metal detecting days to come, it occurs to me that there are many items that I hope to one day find. Its true, I have more chance of finding some coins & artefacts than I do others, but that’s the thing with metal detecting, you just never know..

..for instance, when I first started metal detecting, I longed for a Roman brooch. That was my ultimate find. Something held & worn by someone who lived here during the reign of the Roman Empire. Luckily, I realised that ambition (and then some, thank ye detecting Gods )...

..I don’t go out detecting expecting to find these things. I’m always hopeful, but I can only ever find something if it’s there. Pretty self explanatory, I know, but important to remember nonetheless. My list of dream finds is as long today as it’s ever been...

..in no particular order...
Civil war siege piece, Roman ring, gold hammered coin, gold Roman coin, Celtic stater, medieval horse harness pendant, a coin of Oliver Cromwell’s reign, complete clay pipe, posy ring, sword pommel & of course, a Roman or Saxon hoard ...

..there are many other items that I’d like to one day find, but for the sake of this thread, we’ll limit it to those for now However, if I’d written this thread during or before August of 2018, there would definitely have been an extra item included in the previous tweet..

..that item would’ve been, a complete crotal bell. Metal detecting can be a cruel mistress. There were many occasions when I’d dug a signal & laid eyes upon what looked for all the world to be a complete bell. Only to lift it & realise that it was a fragment..

..I was beginning to think that it just wasn’t meant to be. Depending on how familiar you are with detecting, you may or may not be aware that some people have a lot more luck with certain things than they do others. I guess location plays a big part...

..for instance, up until that August, I hadn’t found a single crotal bell, but a friend of mine had a cabinet full. I on the other hand was doing amazingly well at finding Roman brooches & my friend had none. A crotal bell was fast becoming my white whale...

..it was a find that seemed achievable (as I had indeed found fragments of them before), but also extremely evasive. I really wanted to find one. Find one & I would become the first person in centuries to hear it ring & that was something I would’ve loved to hear..

..luckily for me, my friends invited me to detect a field of theirs in Derbyshire. So on the 1st of September 2018, I paid them both a visit. I got to meet H & D & see their beautiful home, then I had a cup of tea & some biscuits and off I went...

..H had told me that the building was Georgian & so I was very hopeful that there may be some Georgian finds. Sure enough, almost immediately I found some buttons. I’m not an expert at dating buttons, but they certainly looked like they could’ve been Georgian in date..

..then I discovered a big penny from the reign of King George III. There were other Georgian coppers too & more buttons as well as little pieces of lead. The sun was shining, the field was beautiful & I was having the time of my life. Then I got another signal. A large signal..

..I began to dig & saw the familiar shape of a crotal bell emerge. I resigned myself to yet again lifting another broken fragment, but just in case, I loosened the earth around it. Luckily for me, because as I gently pulled it free, it came out complete!..

..the inside of the bell was packed with soil, so initially the bell didn’t ring. I was aware that the ‘ringers’ were often made from iron, so there was a chance that it had corroded away or rusted solid to the inside, but I was hopeful after a clean, I’d hear it ring...

..Leanne picked me up not too long after that, so I thanked H & D for an absolutely fantastic day & headed home in anticipation. Once home, I began to gently clean the bell & tried to remove as much dirt from its centre as I could. I noticed a small crack in one of its panels..

..and thanked my lucky stars that it hadn’t broken before I’d found it. Once it was clean, it was time to see if it still rang. And it did! I was most probably the first person to hear the bell ring in 200 years. Maybe even longer. To this day, it remains my only crotal bell.. https://twitter.com/scottylar/status/1035962774936068096

..hopefully once this virus has been consigned to the history books, I can begin to get out regularly again. And who knows, I might be able to add another crotal bell to my collection, or maybe even cross something else off my list of ‘things I’d love to find’? ..

..one things for sure, I can’t wait to start making some more memories again. Like the visit to my friends field in September of 2018. A day that I’ll never forget