Some Thoughts on Illegal Artefact Hunting in England

Has the institution of the Portable Antiquities Scheme really reduced the looting of archaeological sites for collectables ? (see my comments on Derek Fincham’s recent article here). The Oxford Archaeology survey of the extent of this problem seems to have hit (entirely foreseeable) problems in gathering data and has seriously overrun its original deadline. Until these results are available for detailed scrutiny, discussion on the metal detecting forums around a recent news item are revealing.

The East Anglian Daily Times reports that farmer John Browning of Icklingham in Suffolk in southeastern England has had his fields targeted three times in the past five days by trespassing night time metal detectorists looking for portable antiquities. He says that over the years at least 50 people have been caught illegally metal detecting on his land and penalised but believes more than 100 incidents have gone unpunished.

“Earlier this year three men were fined for visiting the site equipped to steal. They were spotted on the site by Mr Browning who was using a special nightscope. Ricky McCabe, 34, David Miller, 38, and Alan Chapman, 37, all from Chadwell St Mary, each admitted going to a field equipped to steal. All three were ordered to pay £250 in costs, McCabe and Miller fined £250 and Chapman fined £500 when they appeared before a judge at Ipswich Crown Court in March."

Mr Browning is of course the farmer who was robbed by the metal detectorists who found the items known as the Icklingham Bronzes (now in Shelby White’s collecting in the US). The mega-bucks the stolen and illegally exported bronzes fetched on the US market mean that metal detectorists have been turning up at this site regularly. Icklingham is a scheduled site. Mr Browning is a responsible landowner, concerned about the archaeological heritage his land holds, and will not permit artefact hunting on his land anyway. So driven by self-interest, the thought of exciting discoveries and profits, some of these “unsung heroes of the UK’s heritage” go out at night without his permission. Mr Browning has taken to devoting a large amount of nocturnal time searching for these illegal metal detectorists and catching them at it, with some success. Heritage Action has suggested it is Mr Brown who is more deserving of the title ‘heritage hero’ than metal detector users.

Mr Brown’s problems with these people is however clearly the visible tip of a more insidious iceberg. As a knowledgable local metal detectorist remarked on a detecting forum:

Trouble is, it is not just Mr. Browning's farm there that has the problem. Neighbouring land, land all around that area is regularly targeted, it is not far from West Stow, Mildenhall, etc. Hawkers go all over there. It is just that Mr. Browning is on a mission with them, and is constantly trying to catch them with all sorts of equipment etc. Good on him, but that is why you hear about more convictions with him and his land. That wouldn't stop it on the surrounding fields and land all around that part of Suffolk.

This suggests that the problem is more widespread in the area. (I wonder whether she reported this to the Oxford Nighthawking survey?)

A few days ago I mentioned that Norman Smith, the organizer of the rally at which the Stixwould coins were found had on one of the forums made some additional comments on illegal metal detecting. This seems an apposite time to draw attention to them. He wrote:

MY PARTING COMMENT ON THIS SUBJECT, WHICH I MAKE IN FULL KNOWLEDGE THAT ARCHAEOLOGISTS VISIT THIS SITE, IS THAT DURING THE OXFORD ARCHAEOLOGY PROJECT ON NIGHTHAWKING I VISITED LONDON ON TWO OCCASIONS AT MY OWN EXPENSE TO DEFEND THIS WONDERFUL HOBBY OF OURS AND DURING THE DISCUSSIONS ON THE CODE OF PACTICE FOR RALLIES DID THE SAME THING, BUT WHEN I SHOUTED FROM THE ROOFTOPS THAT DISHONEST METAL DETECTING WAS ALMOST NON EXISTENT I SHOWED THE GREATEST OF NAIIVETY, AND IT IS OBVIOUS THAT, ALTHOUGH SUCH ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES HAVE DEMINISHED ON SCHEDULED SITES THE PROBLEM OF NIGHTHAWKING IS STILL A MAJOR CHALLENGE, AND THE HARDWORK OF THOUSANDS OF HONEST, GENUINE BLOKES WHO DETECT REGULARLY IS BEING UNDERMINED BY DISHONEST, IMMORAL THIEVING b******s, WHO LIVE OFF THE BACKS OF THE OF THE MAJORITY WHO ARE THE "GOOD GUYS". THE PROBLEM IS WE ALL KNOW WHO THEY ARE AND DO NOWT ABOUT IT . (punctuation and spelling original, emphasis mine)

In its comments on this article, Heritage Action points out that in numerical terms the 150 illegal detectorists which Mr Browning reports have been on his land are actually 1.5% of the 10 000 metal detectorists there are thought to be in the UK. That is just one farm in one village. The three men sentenced in March had travelled from the other side of another county to be there that night. The Suffolk lady metal detectorist says “land all around that area is regularly targeted”. We have seen that as at Icklingham, when items of value (such as Treasure) are found, trespassing illegal metal detecting is especially likely to take place (as was surmised at Stixwould). Not all of some Treasure finds are recovered by the Treasure unit in England and Wales (see the allegations about Cold Brayfield here). Each year now 600-700 Treasure items are reported in England and Wales alone. How many of those sites when they become known through the grapevine which the Oxford Nighthawking survey has shown to exist are subsequently visited at night by illegal artefact hunters trying to find more? How many of them are successful in making off with finds that could have been associated with the original, properly reported, ones? I do not know, but my feeling is that it’s a lot more than just “1,5% of all metal detector users in the united Kingdom".

So it is that as Heritage Action’s Heritage Journal notes:

Lootings from the four corners of the world end up in polished walnut cabinets in Ohio and everyone's blameless. And in the case of Britain the route leads from the criminal chapter (and the much larger unethical and conservation-blind) chapters of a hobby for heroes straight to American collecting zeroes.

(The mention of Ohio is apparently a reference to US collector John Rieske’s aggressive eaction to what Heritage Action was saying earlier about this issue). While the international antiquities market continues not only to tolerate but encourage trade in totally pedigree-less and undocumented artefacts, it will continue to act as a major motor of this looting.

see also:
Browning, J. 1995, ‘A Layman’s attempt to precipitate change in domestic and international ‘heritage’ laws’, in: TubbK.W. (eds) Antiquities Trade or Betrayed, Legal, Ethical and Conservation Issues, London (Archtype), 145-9.

Photo: REAL heritage hero John Browning, (from East Anglian Daily Times)