It’s not often that you get invited to sell coals to Newcastle if you get my drift, or indeed to stretch a metaphor selling ice cream to Eskimos’, but here I find myself writing to you about this great hobby of ours!

I have to admit to being an avid reader of both the Treasure Hunting/Searcher Magazine’s and often I’ve read them in double quick time leaving a gapping hole for the best part of a month until the next issues appear!

It was whilst reading February’s(2005) Treasure Hunting Magazine that I came upon an article called ‘The Find Of A Lifetime’ written by Glyn Jones from somewhere in the vicinity of North Wales and a member of the Historical Search Society in Mold. Nothing new in that you might say and to a degree you’d be right as each month many a story is told of a special find or a great experience of an individual, but something of this story struck me maybe more than some I read each month?

The story of Glyn is one that mirrored by many of us in the detecting world, one of picking up the detector and then for whatever reason putting it down for a period of time. But this story goes a little further and should be an inspiration to some and encouragement to others.

Glyn started detecting in the 1970’s with his periods of detecting and not detecting. In 1994 he contracted a debilitating illness which would have put paid to a lot of us!

In late 2004 Glyn for no apparent reason decided to join the aforementioned club and attended club digs which is par for the cause as things go. It was on one of these digs that Glyn was to get his ‘Find of a lifetime’, and the story was just like every other we’re able to read about.

Now appears a major player in this story, and indeed the heroine as is needed in a good story! You see it turns out that Glyn had married Glenys and Glenys was the kind of wife we all dream about? Due to osteo-arthritis in Glyn’s back it wasn’t possible to carry the spade and detect at the same time, so Glenys was the spade carrier, a help meat of a different kind! Well it turned out to be one of those usual detecting days we all have where finds were few and far between and Glyn was getting to the point where the interest and enthusiasm began to wane. This bought on a lunch break and then a return to the field with a tried and tested second strategy of the old ‘walk anywhere’ routine! Well you’ve guessed it, Glyn and Glenys were just walking up a small incline when that magic signal came and out popped a beautiful 7^th Century Saxon jewel, a type of pendant with fabulous decoration. Within a week with advice from their club the jewel was before three FLO’s who were having one of those ‘show us your finds days’ in Shire Hall Shrewsbury. Much excitement was forthcoming as you might expect, then the find being declared as possible Treasure was off to the Coroner as is the way in these things. It’s now on its way through the treasure process and hopefully will turn out to be really valuable both through the knowledge it will bring and of course the monetary value for Glyn and the Landowner.     The reason I wrote the article about this story is because we all sometimes go through some tough times and we all certainly need people by our side to help us onward and upward no matter what the circumstances. I salute Glyn for a wonderful find, but to me his wife is the unsung heroine who made it possible. Through trials and tribulations we all might go, but how pleasant when we can have some support and company to get us through these issues!

It’s a great thing to be there for someone other than ourselves especially those we can help! I’m grateful for those who have supported and encouraged me over the years. How about you?

Now all I need is a miracle to get the wife to carry my spade!

Until the next time...Pete