Iced Buns

 

Somebody called Martin Wright apparently thinks Heritage Action is me and in a reply to one of their texts on "Porkies! 5 Lies Detectorists Like to Tell", and not really cottoning on to what a conservation group actuall is and does or is concerned about, he opines (30/04/2021 at 16:59):

Perhaps if you was [sic] less aggressive towards detectorists you would earn more respect Paul, fortunately most of the new generation of archaeologists in the UK are working with detectorist instead of against them. Watch out for a new tv documentary showing the good side of metal detecting. Times have changed, its not the frowned-upon hobby that it was back in the seventies. You talk about the five porkie pies, but never a mention of the five iced buns.
1.Tens of thousands raised for deserving charities like Cancer Research, Rainbows, Hospices, Reach for a Star and so on.
2. The enjoyment the Staffordshire hoard has given to so many since being on display.
3.The benefits that metal detecting has brought to so many struggling with mental health issues.
4.The interest in history this hobby generates.
5. The chance to socialise with others from all corners of this wonderful world, including our many Polish detectorist.
I know you will never agree with the way things are in the UK, however sometimes your rants are like a record that’s got stuck.

This is the same old guff.

So-called "Charity rallies" are a scam, the value of the artefacts carried off the land in detectorists pockets is worth more than the charities get from the money raised, after the landowner and rally organisers have taken their cut. The label "charity" is just a way of dressing up heritage theft to make it look acceptable.

The Staffordshire Hoard was not visible throughout the whole of the Covid-19 Lockdown. Somehow I missed all the articles in the Daily Heil and Scum expressing outrage that this national treasure was inaccessible to gawpers. I am not sure how one measures that the Staffs Hoard gives more "joy" in a museum than the Cuerdale Hoard, the Lewis Chessmen, the sutton Hoo Treasure, the Alfred Jewel or anything else. Seems like hyperbole to me.

27000 mentally-ill people in the UK are left to their own devices and have to buy metal detectors to cope? Pull the other one.

We thought that metal detecting was a symptom of a (passionate) interest in history", and not the other way around.

The chance to socialise should not involve vandalising historical records, trashing archaeological sites or damaging any other part of the ennvironment. Big game hunts too were social occasions.

What we do note however is that four of the sixe "iced buns" (1, 3, 4, 5) are referring directly to the detecting community, rather than the good of larger society as a whole, or that of the archaeological record that the UK is rapidly losing to the depredations of artefact hunters. Most of us tend to avoid Dunkin' Donuts, and prefer more substantial forms of nutrition.