Illegal metal-detecting at English Heritage sites doubles in two years

Guardian UK ^ | Friday, February 28, 2020 | Mark Brown

[SunkenCiv]

Organised crime is being blamed for a rise in illegal metal-detecting at heritage sites, including one of England’s finest medieval castles and the battlefield of Hastings.

English Heritage said December last year was the worst month for such incidents in more than four years and there were more than double the number of incidents in 2019 as there were in 2017.

In some cases there were up to 100 holes where the illegal metal detectorists – known as nighthawkers – had dug up the soil. “How many of those are productive we just don’t know,” said Win Scutt, a properties curator and archaeologist at English Heritage.

The organisation is calling on members of the public to become its “eyes and ears” and report suspicious activity to the police. However, after some violent incidents it advised people not to confront nighthawkers...

English Heritage said sites targeted included the Hastings battlefield in East Sussex, Goodrich Castle in Herefordshire and Old Sarum in Wiltshire, the site of Salisbury’s original cathedral...

Scutt said he did not think ordinary metal detectorists would be naive enough to think it was acceptable or legal to use their detectors on scheduled monuments.

[mass55th]

I loved Time Team. I had a friend in England that put me onto the show, and connected me to a UK torrent site many years ago so that I was able to download the program every week it aired. I’ve got just about every show, and special that aired in its 20 years burned to DVD. Every so often Phil Harding shows up on newer archaeology programs, and Tony Robinson hosts various new historical series from time-to-time. Even Raksha Dave, who was one of the diggers in the old series has been hosting newer archaeology programs.

[SunkenCiv]

"I'm going for the ham."