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.