Welcoem to posts!!
in the future - u will be able to do some more stuff here,,,!! like pat catgirl- i mean um yeah... for now u can only see others's posts :c
King Henry The Pilchard
He was the love child of Salmon De MonkFish and Dame Mary Tuna of Scots. He was illiterate and blind in his right eye. A self taught archer who came to prominence in the War of The Haddockās and The Crusades into the Great Barrier Keith. He once marched into battle wearing only a Codpiece brandishing an empty packet of prawn cocktail crisps. His fish army got him within striking distance of King Lawrence Linguini of Mackerel. Moving swiftly he wrapped the empty crisp packet over the Kings head and his fish at arms John the Jelly Fish ran him through with a 50lb pike. Returning home from the crusades only to find the people had a severe shortage of Tuna, Henry was crowned at Billinsgate Fish Market in 1587. To this day pubs up and down the country are called the Kings Head in honour of him placing the crisp packet over the rival Kings Head. Thats also why itās traditional to serve crisps in British pubs. In 1666 Henry The Pilchard succumbed in the Great Clamdemic to the Black Death and was buried in the water closet of his regent Sir John West. I only found all this out after finding a penny of King Henry with my metal detector on Skegness Beach.
4 - 0
How did you get into Detecting? What benefits do you get from it?
I wanted X Ray specs when I was a kid. Then I found out they were a con so looked for something else. I found half a copy of Treasure Hunting magazine in a second hand book shop. Thatās when I decided a metal detector was a bit like X Ray specs for the ground. Mum eventually bought me a Whites Coin Master. Second hand for Ā£180 in about 1988. I lived in a built up industrial area. I had no mentors in the hobby. I made every mistake in the book for years. It was akin to me being blind with having no help. I used to go into Birkenhead Park. It wasnāt allowed but I knew all the ducks and squirrels by their first names and so with the entitlement of youth and familiarity I just got on with it.
I mainly found pre decimal coins and social history pieces like badges and commemorative medallions etc. My first machine got pawned and lost for Ā£30. I spent the money on weed which I smoked every day in my teens. My next machine was a Fisher 1265 X with its double discrimination feature. I loved that machine. I carried on hoovering up six pences and shillings. I branched out into numerous parks around Merseyside. I found a silver WW2 wound medal.I found a WW1 Victory Medal on the side of a busy road at a bus stop. I also found a medal of Mussolini and a Nazi Panzer drivers medal. I had shoe boxes of junk under my bed and old books about history in my parents house. The milled silvers were chucked in with mystery bits of junk because I didnāt rate them and still hadnāt found a hammered coin after many years playing at the hobby.
My first finds pouch was my wood working apron from school rolled up with just the pocket showing at the front. For years I never had a spade just a series of hand trowels costing Ā£1 each that usually snapped after a week or two. I got a push bike and went further afield. Sometimes Iād put my bike on the train and seek out far flung parks. Eventually I did the local country park and its grass car parks which were loaded with finds. By then heroin came along and I sold my detector once again along with my soul. Many years passed in a blur of hopeless addiction. Eventually as a full blown addict of crack and heroin I got another detector. A C scope this time. I had no car so remember one time bribing a fellow addict to drive me to a random field. He parked up and smoked the heroin I bought him while I went out and found my first Saxon strap end. I talked another addict into buying a detector. He joined me in the park but didnāt stick at it. Eventually he died bless him to numerous things associated with that life. May he rest in peace.
It was twenty years before I found my first hammered coin or Roman. I rocked up on Facebook and started networking. Iād take my methadone and drive out to visit new friends in better locations. My first gold was a Charles 1 st gold crown in Lincolnshire. I was more hooked on detecting by now again than heroin. I kept spending my money on fuel and sandwiches rather than crack or heroin and just relied on my methadone. Mum died of cancer and begged me to get clean. I kept on detecting. Eventually while suffering from crippling anxiety and helping to look after my dad with his dementia I took my last bit of methadone. I was on shaky ground with not much in the way of support. I clung to my detector as if my life depended on it. For it actually did in my case.
Itās about ten years on from that point now. Roughly ten years clean. I started driving down to the Midlands for rallies. Fell in love with Rachael from Evesham. Moved in and got married. Hence why Iāve lived in Worcestershire these last eight years. I lost my wife tragically four years ago as many of you know. Detecting and the friends Iād made in the hobby helped my battered soul get through all that along with the pandemic we were going through at the time. I started a detecting YouTube channel around the time ten years ago when I got clean. Iāve traveled the whole country detecting and over to Holland also. Iāve morphed from a clueless youth with no mentors and no friends into a mentor myself with countless friends in the hobby all over the world. A fact that constantly blows my mind and donāt get me started on anyone thinking Iām famous or a legend in the hobby. Because some do but I certainly donāt. Iām the kid in his wood working apron cursing his broken trowel still in the local woods. In my head at least.
Iāve now gone on to make many decent finds. Hundreds of Roman coins and silver hammered medieval coins. Iāve had various sponsors for which Iām grateful. My mental health is still very sketchy but Iām open about that and try to inspire others who hear my story. Iām taking a group of Boy Scouts out next week hopefully. I was once a Boy Scout. I did very well in the scouts and was respected and promoted. Looking back it didnāt seem long after when I was a homeless beggar. Just shows you how badly things can go wrong if you make the wrong choices in life. Getting back to the question of what benefits I get out of the hobby well I think Iāve now answered that. I get a sense of purpose out of it for one. As a widower it would be easy to curl up a bitter old man and take to drinking daily or god forbid go back on the drugs. I have a cat to look after though and countless friends in the hobby to keep me somewhat sane. I will impress on the scouts just how important it is to have a positive focus in your life. A decent hobby to keep you occupied and friends that help nourish your soul and pitch in when lifeās struggles overwhelm you.
35 - 17
Iāll be uploading a few more Detecting themed songs Iāve written this week. In order to compile them all into one video once Iāve uploaded them all individually. Various genres so I hope youāll enjoy some of them. Perfect listening on the way to a rally or at a Weekender. š
5 - 0
Something very precious arrived in the mail today. The ring I commissioned to commemorate my late wife Rachael with. Featuring her one and only hammered coin find. A cut half married up to a cut half that I found. Two lost coins like the two lost soulās we were when we found each other. Held together in a delicate band of gold. Which perfectly symbolises this delicate hold on life that we all have. I canāt thank Andy Williams enough for his craftsmanship. Amazing work buddy Iāll always be forever grateful. Andy also sent me two other hammered coin rings and six coin rings plus an amazing pendant. All free of charge to help with Busters vet bills. Iāll put pictures of them up soon. I just wanted to celebrate this very special ring on its own first. ā¤ļø
64 - 18
Old school
About thirty six years ago I got my first metal detector. A second hand Whites Coin Master my dear mum Vera paid Ā£180 for. For the wife of a ship fitter I must say her and my adoptive father Paul spent every last penny on us three boys. I was the middle child and from an early age I was agitated like many middle children are. You are not going to develop normally when youāre continually shaken like a can of Cola and primed to explode. Whether it was a dart thrown at my neck or a golf ball bouncing off my head there was always something headed my way. All part and parcel of growing up in the 70s and 80s in a ship building town.
Unlike my two brothers my coping mechanism was oblivion. Carlsberg special brew and Afghani Black cannabis from aged 13. This all played out in and around Birkenhead. My second home was Birkenhead Park. I went to school there. I dated there. I got drunk and stoned there. So it was only natural when I got that first detector aged about 18 that I took it to the park. I knew every duck by name and the squirrels kept an eye on me. I soon learned that detecting wasnāt allowed in the park. It was my park though not any park policemanās. Detecting was a positive focus and one that didnāt involve oblivion. I dug medals from the war. Both the Allieās and our enemies. Silver Victorian coins by the bucket load. Spending money that may have went on drink.
I had no friends who detected. Which was a good thing because all my friends were a bad influence. Iād pedal my push bike. Iād take two buses. Iād bunk on Merseyrail. All to get to a series of parks across Merseyside. My first detector got pawned for weed. My second detector was a fisher 1265 X which I loved. Heroin came and things got bleak. I worked a series of dangerous jobs all over the country. I came back home one time and bought a C Scope. I talked my addict friend into buying an Ace 250. They were green at the time not yellow. David didnāt get the bug and eventually the drugs killed him God rest his soul. I used to buy another friend heroin so he could drive me out to the countryside. Heād sit in his car and get high while I detected.
Not in a million years back then did I ever think Iād have much in the way of friends in the hobby. In the beginning it was pre internet and pre mobile phones. Now nearly 56 I have put down the drink and drugs long ago. Certainly the drugs, I take a drink still but it doesnāt take me. There is no way if youād have asked me in my early twenties which addiction would hold me the longest would I have said metal detecting. Iād have said oblivion and that I wouldnāt make it into my fifties just like my real father didnāt. Yet here I am. Still metal detecting. Iām known far and wide in the hobby too. Which I find totally bizarre. No way as a child dodging the park police could I have foreseen my detecting future. I was the only detectorist in the village. In the town even. Nobody engaged with me and my hobby.
Itās a funny old world and thatās the truth. Metal Detecting saved my life I think itās safe to say. Ten years or so clean from crack and heroin. Owner of two metal detectors. Caretaker of another three and counting that are being gathered to teach youngsters our wonderful hobby. If I can get one child to choose detecting over oblivion my long and winding road will have been worth every step. My doggy loves me. My cat trusts me. Itās raining outside but life is good. The grass is growing and the sun will shine once again. š
30 - 6
Home for tea
I was walking in the morning sunlight.
Followed by you on your lead.
Our footprints written in dew on the grass.
A squirrel observed from a tree.
We came upon a lake of tears.
I picked you up and we walked on water.
Lost loved ones looked at us from below.
Precious feelings deep inside.
I heard whispers in my ear.
My wife called my name.
Mother smiled and forgave me once again.
Nana well she laughed out loud.
We made it to the other side and I put you down in the grass.
Out in front I followed your footsteps to a tree.
A broad oak six hundred years old.
We sat in the shade of memories and drank lemonade.
Sunlight lulled us into dozing.
I dreamt of all that could ever be.
When I woke up I was standing in the bottom of a lake.
Looking up at you walking on the water.
My heart filled with pride as I watched you stroll on by.
I took my wife by the hand and kissed her on the lips.
Momma called us home for tea.
Nana was cooking chips.
24 - 8
The vet tested Buntys eyes. They are producing no tears and infected. Heās on two lots of eye drops now but seems to be responding well.
38 - 25
War Face
There Is a Face without a trace.
No remorse, a shattered horse.
It has no eyes, tells only lies.
It has no nose, but well it knows.
War face, an utter disgrace.
A nightmare thatās unfair.
It wants your son at the setting of the sun.
It wonāt give them back, a relentless attack.
A screaming maw, a lying whore.
Bloodshed and tears, lost youth, motherās fears.
Itās calling louder than ever, never, never, never!
Built from lies, it has no eyes.
It cannot see, the misery.
A crazed dictator, to kill you greater.
Each generation, feels the desolation.
A troop train, to endless pain.
A sweetheart crying, war face lying.
When will enough be enough?
Hamas and Putin, a young boy puking.
The men in suits are in cahoots.
Not their son to go, oh no, no, no.
The blood is shed for money, sweeter than any honey.
When the call comes, think of the poor mums.
Countries in name only, stay at home Tony.
They got rid of all the borders, still shouting their orders.
No point dying, for a tattered flag flying.
It once meant so much, now it speaks only double Dutch.
Ignore the men in suits, donāt put on your boots.
Stay at home by the fire, donāt bleed out in the mire.
They sold you, they owned you.
A face that has no eyes, unseeing all its lies.
8 - 8
Bunty went on strike yesterday. 18 and a quarter years old lol. By 2.30 he was done. I went to move off the last hole but he wouldnāt move. So I left him to sleep in the mud and detected around him for twenty minutes. Then had to carry him off the field. His stamina amazes me he was acting up again a few hours later in the house. š
40 - 12
Heavenly Valentine.
I love you more today dear wife than I did yesterday.
Iāve grieved for you now longer than we were together.
Each day I grow stronger though for knowing you.
You taught me how to behave like a man.
Buster managed a full day detecting last week. Tilly bosses me about every single day.
I see you in both of them day in and day out.
I remember the day you told me Tilly went for a walk with you and Bunty for the first time.
She comes with us twice every day now.
Iām convinced sheās your eyes and ears and reports back to you.
I have a tear in my eye writing this.
I canāt decide if itās a tear of joy or sadness.
Itās warm and comforting though just like you were. Happy Valentineās Day my sweet love. Thank you for putting me on the right track in life. xxx
46 - 17
Stephen Grey , Anglo Celtic Metal Detecting. Based in the Midlands regularly traveling throughout Britain searching for Treasure and documenting my adventures. Please remember to like, comment and subscribe because that goes a long way to helping my channel. I often meet my viewers out in the fields on rallies and itās always good to see their smiling faces and their amazing finds. Iāve been searching for things my whole life. This channel is a perfect fit for me and gives me great pleasure. So itās really nice to hear that it also brings pleasure to many viewers. Best of luck to all of you and hopefully see you out in Englandās green and pleasant land soon. Thank you and good luck everyone.