My detecting buddy and I found a new field to detect on, it was about half a mile away from the farm, the farmer said we couldn't miss it, because it had a very large pile of manure in it, so we just had to follow our noses. We detected round the mountain of manure for a couple of eye watering hours and all we found was a George V halfpenny and a sack full of used shotgun cartridge shells, so we finally decided to go back to the car for a drink of coffee and a rethink.

Then this chap turns up on a motorcycle and side car and starts chatting to us. We said we were thinking about trying our luck on another farm, as we had no luck to speak of on this one. He told us we shouldn't have any problem finding a new site around here, as all the farmers in that area were friendly and so I asked him if he happened to be a farmer, he said that he wasn't, but that he did own a small field nearby and then went on to describe finding several cartwheel pennies in one corner of it. So my interest sparked, I asked him if we could have a look in his field, he replied very abruptly that no we damn well couldn't, jumped back on his motorcycle and roared off. Funny chap I thought. So we decided to pack it in and call back to the farm to thank the farmer and then set off back the same way we came. As we once again approached the field with the pyramid of manure we had just been detecting on, two police squad cars screeched to halt at the side of the road and six burly policemen jumped out and ran into the field. We didn't stop of course and can only assume someone (I wonder who?) had phoned the police and told them someone was digging up badger sets or something - so much for it being a friendly area, and no, we haven't been back since.

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