Bellingham Hoard Trashers Hide From Public

Time is up for the Bellingham Hoard trashers, on the 8th October, the 14 days allowed by the Treasure Act section 8 for reporting any coin removed by finders from the vicinity of the #BellinghamHoard are now up. We were treated to  a very optimistic prognosis by a local FLO that the finds could all be gathered in for handing over and reporting to the Coroner, how well has the Treasure Process progressed in this case? I asked

Can we have some transparency please, since the PAS have assured us everything is under control now? Is it? Will we see another attempt to cover up like in the case of the Twinstead Hoard fiasco?  Whose purposes did that serve?

And, lo and behold, the tekkies directly involved in the Hoard trashing reveal what they think of public accountability  and transparency: The North Of The Tyne Detecting has now become a 'closed group'. That way, you cannot see what they are getting up to with your archaeological heritage. That too makes a mockery of the idea of responsible detecting and the 'partnership' between this group of 'finders' and public-funded archaeological outreach groups like the PAS.

The Clandestine 'Northern Tinies' Facebook page
 with its PAS-partnership logo

And I do wonder whether, in the same was as 'Scotty Bea' let on that in fact it was the FLO that suggested that it 'might' be a good idea to take down the video that so graphically showed the way PAS-partners treat archaeologicaal deposits and call it 'responsible', would one of the local FLOs also be behind the decision to make teh Facebook resource a 'closed group'? Was it? And if so why?


Vignette: Who was putting what into their pocket at Bellingham, and how will we know if what was not properly recorded being taken out of the ground 14 days ago has in fact been reported?