Nighthawkers part 2

Today i awoke in a good mood, no particular reason other than I had finally had a chance to go metal detecting a couple of days ago and it did me the world of good mentally, physically I am still in pain and think I may have bruised or pulled something in my right hip but that aside, two days ago I was sitting in a field with a beautiful vista, a magnificent Buzzard hovering very close and a cheese and onion sandwich in my hand.

This was the first time I had been detecting for two years, due to my health issues, lack of transport and other circumstances I was unable to get to the three locations I had permission, now that the Covid lockdown rules have been eased and detecting is allowed I decided to contact the landowners.

Unfortunately one landowner sadly passed away last year and his land has since been sold and another of the land owners wouldn't allow me to return as they had sold off much of the land I wanted to detect, so I was left with one farm to contact, I rang them and I explained who I was and asked if the farmer remembered me, of course he did and he was more than happy to allow me back on his land.

So on Monday I rode the three miles on my electric bike to the field the farmer had told me was currently empty, I spent an hour with several rests detecting a small portion of the large field, only covering around 20ft square, digging was very difficult due to the dry weather and I feel I may have pushed myself a little too far.

I didn't find much this day, a button, a pocket watch winder, a few bits of old lead and one or two unidentified objects I need to get checked out, other than that I dug up a few bits of farm machinery, tin foil and barbed wire.

Why am I telling you this? you may ask, well today after I woke up I spotted an article written by a Guardian reporter about Nighthawking, Nighthawking is the process of digging up historic artifacts and digging on historic sites illegally, having previously written an article on this myself a while ago which can be found on my profile, I was curious and found that this particular piece had been posted on Facebook by one of the Archaeological services, a respected association who organize digs all across the UK.

I won't name them but their post came with the following question from the Facebook page's admin "The question we should ask is it time to bring in a license and a compulsory code of practice for metal detecting".

Now as someone with health problems that control when I can and can't go metal detecting and for the short amount of time I am able to do it having to pay out for a license would not be financially freezable as I sometimes struggle financially as it is (even before the Covid crisis), therefore "pricing" me out of a hobby that I love, something that gives me exercise physically and mentally, a hobby I personally use as a research tool for my writing which is historically based.

This happened to me before where fishing is concerned, I used to love sitting on a river bank enjoying nature and if I caught a fish it was a bonus, but like metal detecting I could only do this when my health permitted it, I could afford a rod license that wasn't an issue and neither was getting to and from the river, the issue came about when the local angling club bought up almost every stretch of water in the area, this meant I could not fish my favorite locations without purchasing the club membership book.

the cost of this may not be much to most but £28 per season for a rod license and then another £35 for the angling club membership was out of my price range and for the handful of times I went fishing was not worth paying out for.

This brings us back to the question of licensing metal detectorists, let's take a look at other areas that are licensed and that have been the target of criminal activity shall we.

In the UK it is legal to own a firearm within certain restrictions, licenses and laws, now if you own a legal firearm you are only allowed to use it at a gun club or on private land with the land owners permission, with scientific practices in law enforcement these days a bullet from a gun can be traced back to the firearm it came from, a unique fingerprint is left which can be matched up.

So this begs the question how many legal gun owners use their weapons for illegal activity in the UK? I can guarantee that the figure is much lower than the gun crimes committed by those who own guns illegally.

The same can be said about cars and motorcycles, to drive/ride one you must have tax, insurance and a license but how many drivers each year are arrested for one or all of the offenses of not having these? the Police do clamp down on these offenses a much as they are able to and that is not the issue, nor is it the point I am trying to make.

If a criminal is going to commit an act that is illegal no amount of licenses,rules or regulations are going to stop them doing it, the criminal mind does not think "oh I can't do that because I have to pay for a piece of paper to say that I can"

In fact it is very naive of anyone to think that a criminal will abide by any rule, law or license and if they think that forcing metal detectorists to be licensed will stop the illegal activity of Nighthawking or selling on artifacts without them being recorded they are sadly mistaken.

Now in my opinion an official organization which records historical artifacts should be funded by the British Museum and/or the government and not by people whom, in some cases, have spent thousands of pounds on their detector and other equipment, spent money on fuel to drive to dig sites, spent money on club membership and group digs, food and drink and then more fuel or travel expenses to take their finds to be recorded.

Perhaps we should also mention that if an item is classed as treasure it is then taken by the PAS and eventually (sometimes years) the item will be sold and the person who dug it up will receive a small finders fee decided by the Treasure Valuation Committee, often this is only a fraction of what the retail value of an item would be.

While we are on the subject of official organizations, there have been allegations on some forums of artifacts "disappearing" from archaeological digs and museums, now I cannot say how much truth there is in these allegations, if any, but there were some suggesting that members of TV's Time Team may have also been involved.

We could also suggest that until the more modern advances in archeology that some archaeologists were not the most trustworthy either and it is well known that many of the early antiquarians and archaeologists destroyed a lot of history in their pursuits not to mention that some of what they did find was either sold off or hidden away in some rich persons mansion.

However this "us and them" mentality is not the answer to stopping the loss of history to Nighthawkers and other thieves, punishing metal detectorists by forcing them to pay out more money is only going to alienate and push out many who love the hobby and do it legally.

Perhaps it is time for a new organization dedicated to protecting our history, the Police Rural crime squad currently deal with this however they are inundated and under a lot of pressure dealing with other crimes.

A new agency who patrol, observe, record and report historic site crime would in fact take much of the pressure away from the Police Force, investigating crimes without confrontation and then calling the Police and giving them the evidence would save a lot of Police time and reduce the amount of Nighthawking that takes place.

This may not solve underlying problems such as funding for the PAS or the fact that a minority of those on legal digs don't report their finds but it would cut down on damage to historic sites, I do know that some metal detecting clubs Police their own members and I have seen them dispose of members not following the code of practice by kicking them out of the club or severe reprimanding and the find handed over to the finds liaison officer.

It appears that most of these heritage crimes are being committed by three types of people:

1. The naive newbie to metal detecting who has no clue that permission is required or that there is a code of practice to follow

2. The career criminal who will target known historic sites, often protected sites where artifacts still lay, these are the people who will take what they can find and sell it on the black market

3. Metal detectorists who distrust the museums, archaeologists and the portable antiquities scheme, these type of people are either purely treasure hunters in it to make a profit but unlike the career criminal they go on legal digs or they are just the type of person who feels that they are treated unfairly by the PAS in regards to treasure and rewards.

There are things that could be put into place to combat two of these types:

1. Education, we have all at one time been naive and may have done things that we did not know were illegal until we were told, I for one was under the impression that parks and public heaths were fair game for metal detecting and was surprised when I discovered this wasn't so, I then went on to educate myself on the code of practice for responsible metal detecting and I taught myself techniques used in archeology so I would not destroy or damage anything of historic value.

Educating people about the laws and code of practice surrounding metal detecting will eliminate those naive people who think they can detect anywhere they please, maybe limit detectors to being bought in specified dealerships and issue them with the code of practice and laws explained.

2. As for the metal detectorists who distrust archaeologists and museums etc the only way around this is communication from both sides, find out what the detectorists want, give them a fairer reward for finding the item, more incentives to report their finds.

Unfortunately there will always be treasure hunters and career criminals and there is no real way to combat this other than observation, if you see someone digging on a location that you believe they shouldn't, report it and record it for evidence if you can do it safely and without confrontation, tougher sentances and bigger fines will also contribute to the demise of nighthawker's.

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