Time detectives
Every tiny piece of information provides another fragment of the history of Upper Weardale. Mining in the area has probably taken place since the Iron Age. The story of the area is one of settlement, agriculture, and industrial activities since Medieval times, told in the People chapter of the Natural History of Upper Weardale.
Detectorists is a TV show where friends go metal detecting with a dream of finding a treasure trove that would cement a place in detecting history (and make them rich). For the most part finds are more mundane, small and random.
Our museums are full of displays where objects, individually or collectively, are used to tell a story, or to set a context for the history being presented. Recently, the Tyneside Metal Detecting Association visited some fields in Weardale. There was no particular reason for looking in these fields other than having permission to do so. Objects were found. What do they tell us?
(l-r, t-b) 15th Century 1442_1461 Henry VI half groat; 16th Century Elizabeth I shilling 1558_1603; 17th Century William and Mary coin c1690; 18th Century George II farthing c1730; 18th Century George III Cartwheel penny 1797; 19th Century George III shilling 1820; 20th Century George V penny 1920; 20th Century Elizabeth II 1995 sixpence.
There were coins found from every century since the early 1400s. This range of coins indicate consistent economic activity in the area. Were the coins dropped during trades for mined and locally refined metal, or wool, with some of a slightly higher value suggesting a loss by someone more than a labourer
Was a coin lost while taking a break at the side of a field, or through a small hole in a pocket as the labourer walked the fields? Lead tokens were also found from a time when coins were scarce and tokens were used for trading exchange by farmers.
Was a rest for a smoke the reason for part of a Georgian tobacco box lid being found, or the more recent gas cigarette lighter?
Spindle whorls indicate the long tradition of sheep farming in the dale, an important part of the wool trade central to the English economy for centuries. It is difficult to date these, but larger perforations suggest later examples up to the 16th century.
Buckles, and bullets (here a musket ball and a more familiar bullet)
Then an altogether more random selection; a thimble top, a tip of a spoon, a whistle, a WWII medal, and a toy gun.
Of course, none of these were found neatly catalogued by year or century, or type. Each detectorist found a range of objects over many acres. It is only later, when sorted, identified, and finds are compared, that we can start to paint a longer picture of this one corner of Weardale.
