As a club we like to work closely with our local landowners to try to uncover the hidden or forgotten past which lies concealed beneath our feet. It is amazing how much can be discovered about the past of an area by the retrieval of a few lost artefacts or everyday items from yesteryear.
All historic objects found (metal or otherwise) are reported to the respective landowner, and with their permission, recorded with the portable antiquities scheme's Finds Liaison Officer. To protect the landowners confidentiality, precise find-spots, i.e. six or eight figure Grid References, are only published on a need-to-know basis and not in the broader public domain. With regard to certain copper-alloy, gold or silver objects, finders and landowners are legally obliged to comply with the Treasure Act 1996.
To protect their interest, for non-Treasure objects landowners are advised to enter into a simple, written agreement with the searcher(s), e.g. Yeovil Metal Detecting Club. A 50-50 agreement is the norm, i.e, 50% of the monetary value to the landowner and 50% to the individual finder(s). A search agreement is recommended by, among others, the NFU Country Landowner's Association, National Council for Metal Detecting and Council for British Archaeology.
Many metal artefacts are cleaned, conserved and recorded to museum standards and in order to further knowledge of our past whenever possible published.
All members of Yeovil Metal-Detecting Club agree to abide to the National Council for Metal Detecting Code of Conduct, the DCMS Code of Practice for Responsible Metal Detecting in England and Wales and the Yeovil Metal-Detecting Club rules.
Yeovil Metal Detecting Club will be pleased to meet any landowner who by agreement wishes to consider having their land searched. It should be understood that Yeovil Metal Detecting Club can provide no guarantee that a landowner's land will produce noteworthy finds.
If interested, please contact the club via the "contact us" link at the top of this page.
Click here to download our Club Rules.
Click here to download our typical Search Agreement.
