My Favourite Finds

One of my most exciting discoveries I made in a field about a mile away in the next village where there used to be a lamb fayre in the middle ages but nobody knew, including the archaeologists and historians what field it was in - anyway, I found this field and found stuff from the Bronze age through to the present day. So, that confirmed where the lamb fayre was and during the course of detecting that field, I found a ring (a seal ring) which I thought was pewter. When I got it home, I brushed it gently with a toothbrush and discovered that it was, in fact, silver. On the front it had two towers of a castle, a drawbridge and a portcullis - I thought it was the front of my house at first, and at the top was a dove flying with a laurel leaf in its mouth and at the bottom it had 'SUFF' on it and on each side of the tower there was 'I W'.

I sent it off to the museum to ask if it was the front of my house - but they got back and told me that I'd found the seal of John Weniave (they used to use the 'I' for 'I' and 'J') who'd obviously come to that field for the lamb fayre. It dates 1784 and he was the High Sheriff of Suffolk and this was his seal - so that was a fantastic find.

I have also unearthed 300 coins, including a gold half- noble from 1361 and a coin minted during the reign of Harold II.