Treasure Hunting Holiday Firm Set up in Oswestry

A medieval silver bodkin found in a field in Shropshire has been declared treasure and prompted its finder, metal detectorist Chris Langston, from Oswestry, to launch a new business, specialising in metal detecting holidays in the area (Sue Austin, 'Unique silver find leads Oswestry man to set up metal detecting holiday firm' Shropshire Star Jul 17, 2017)

Mr Langston has been metal detecting himself for many years and has made numerous finds including coins and rings. Now he is hoping to pass his enthusiasm onto others with the launch of Metal Detecting Holidays in conjunction with local businesswoman, Louise Idoux. He said: "[...] The areas we detect, with landowners' permission, are steeped in history going back thousand of years. Our visitors will be metal detecting in areas where Bronze Age man marked out their settlements, where Roman legions marched and where the Welsh Princes' battled against the English sovereignty to reclaim the border." "History can be unearthed in one of the most fought over and heavily fortified areas of the UK and I believe this will appeal to people not only in this country but particularly in America."

No doubt. Like shooting lions in Africa does too, and little girls to sex tourists in SE Asia, a lot of money can be made if you don't actually break a law or worry too much about the underlying ethics.... And I do not expect too many UK 'metal detectorists' are losing too much sleep fretting about a little thing like that when referring to commercial exploitation of the archaeological heritage - after all, it's not mentioned in the Code of Practice for Responsible Detecting (let alone the 'shut the gates' NCMD one), is it?