People and Personalities

Local metal detectorist Dave Phillips has been bleeping his way across Beds, Herts and Bucks and beyond for 38 years in a hunt for history.

And the bleeps and honks of his metal detector did him proud some years ago as he uncovered a wealth of Roman artefacts that can be seen to this day at the Verulamium Museum in St Albans.

Dave Philips at work

It’s not all pot luck though, there's a fair bit of skill and no small amount of patience involved, and even though big finds don't come often, Dave's out on the hunt every day regardless.

Inspired by the recent haul of Saxon treasure in Staffordshire, where a metal detectorist found one of the most impressive hoards ever uncovered, BBC Three Counties Tim Wheeler joined Dave on Dunstable Downs, determined not to go home empty handed!

Passion

They met at Dave’s house in Dunstable where he has turned a room over to his passion, and where he explained how it has become such a massive part of his life:

“Yes, it’s been something that’s been really big in my life for 38 years, and in the last 20 years it’s really taken off because I’ve had more time” he said.

“As a working man you don’t get the time. I retired a few months ago so I get out there as often as possible and we find more things each time we go out now.”

Seven years ago, Dave and a friend found one of the richest Roman graves in Britain in St Albans, and briefly thought that this might set them up for life. While they received a decent sum of £31,000 between them, it wasn’t enough to retire on, but as Dave revealed, it’s not just about finding that one haul worth millions.

“That find was incredible, you can’t explain the joy of finding something so fantastic” he said.

“There were pots, glass, bronze, silver, arrow heads and swords, it was just unbelievable. Also recently, me and another guy found Christogram coins – the first Christian coins of the Roman Empire dating back to about 350-353 AD and there were 1470 of these beautiful coins.

“When we were interviewed afterwards, it was said that we were going to be rich pensioners but unfortunately again we’ve just had a value which was very disappointing in monetary terms.

“But at the same time it was just incredible that we were the finders, we love it. We go out there and we enjoy our hobby – not to earn money, we went to work for that! But I suppose, common sense wise, everybody would love to become rich out of it!

“But it is a hobby after all. Some people take it to lengths where it becomes obsessive but I just love doing it.”

Learning

Dave revealed that to start with, it’s all a question of learning your machine, and it takes a little bit of time to learn what each sound means and whether or not it’s worth digging.

“But it’s like anything” he said, “if you put the effort into it, hopefully you’ll get a result back. Like anything you do as a hobby or in your working life, you’ve got to learn your trade.”

As the recent Staffordshire find shows, there can be money in it, so is there competition amongst the detectorists or is it quite a supportive community?

As a detectorist, there can also be competition with the more traditional archaeologists as Dave revealed.

“With the modern day archaeologists we are on a level of understanding about history and allowing the two to work together side by side” he said.

“ But in older times, for example, Sir Mortimer Wheeler, who worked in the 1930s at Verulamium Museum in St Albans, he’d be turning in his grave today bless him if he’d seen the metal detectorists digging on his site!

“But if you go to the museums, most of the things put in museums today are all down to metal detectorists. It’s just incredible the amount – thousands and thousands of things every year.

“But I haven’t got the patience of an archaeologist, because they work so slowly” he added, “but I appreciate their skills and their knowledge.”

Dave took Tim out to a field near Dunstable where over the years many Saxon artefacts have been found. And even though detectorists have been going there for years, medieval and Roman hammered coins can still be found.

So did they find anything?