Archaeology
Bill is a keen metal detectorist, with a number of notable finds to his name. Many have pride of place in British museums and have helped add to the knowledge of historic Britain.
Bill has also created his Signature Metal Detector – a specially designed detector aimed at helping children, young adults and beginners start discovering the joy of detecting.
Bill says...
I first began to be interested in archaeology when I was living in my 15th-century manor in Suffolk when workmen discovered a 15th-century water jug in the ground while repairing underground water pipes.
I realised there must be more in the grounds here so I bought a metal detector, and I immediately found a 15th century Jetton (a counting coin).
In 1991, whilst detecting in the village field, I discovered my first Roman coins. Over the following years, I found over 200 more Roman coins, some silver, many brooches, including a Chatelaine Brooch and small items including a bronze Roman door key, a zoomorphic brooch of a lion and masses of pottery, proving that the site was a previously unknown Roman Farmstead that I dated by coin finds from 260 to 380 AD.
In local fields I found the odd gold coin, including one of Edward III (1360/61), numerous silver hammered coins from the middle ages, and a silver seal matrix belonging to the High Sheriff of Suffolk from 1784.
I have also found bronze age & Iron Age items, and over 20 Neolithic flint tools including a leaf-shaped arrowhead (c.3000 BC).
Note: Some of my finds have been exhibited at the Moyse’s Hall Museum in Bury St Edmunds.
