by Meadowcopse » Fri Feb 28, 2014 12:37 pm
Sounds like you'd fit in well at the occasional Goth club I end up in Oldclaypaws - hope any wild garlic doesn't cause you too much trouble in the woods...
I dropped in on my plot one day last year, spotted someone walking along the hedgeline and a small van parked across my gate. Strangely no sign of anyone coming to move the van. Tooted the horn, still no sign of anyone (odd considering I'm sure I'd seen someone from the road), made overdramatic gestures of removing large heavy tow-rope from the back of the Landrover and was positioning it for making unhindered access, when a guy appeared along the track.
He was keen to move the van out of the way - unfortunately his mate holding 2 metal detectors appeared at the end of the track, so a polite but challenging conversation ensued:
"Oh we've got permission off the guy in the big house, do you work for him?"
"No, but I was wondering what you were doing in my field"
"Ah, just walking through into the big field through the gap in the hedge, we were here last year, the guy in the house said it was fine..."
"Oh really, I'll just phone him to check, but I'll also phone the farmer that owns the field you were digging in too"
"Erm, we were just going anyway, nothing was showing up and I think one of the detectors is faulty anyway..."
It's not so much the lying, but the fact that a local archaeological society is doing a coordinated community project for a nearby ruined castle (immediate grounds being a protected scheduled ancient monument). Any finds in the surrounding landscape add an important context to the Mediaeval castle, a Roman villa, a 'lost' river crossing and the whereabouts of a lost battle site that saw the demise of Edward the Elder.
The local landowners have an informal agreement with the local history society for coordinated access and surveys and geophysics etc.
I let the local plod know the reg of the van on the 101 number...