'It's a way into history': The metal detectorists digging up past treasures from beneath our feet including Vale of York and Ryedale hoards

To use the words of Mackenzie Crook, creator of the television series Detectorists, to find these things - fragments of pottery, metal coins, or jewellery perhaps - is to “time travel”. For from these precious pieces emerge stories of our ancestors, from peasants to Kings and everyone in between. Crook has written the foreword to a new book celebrating this public involvement in archaeology. With British Museum curators Michael Lewis and Ian Richardson, Beneath Our Feet recounts the stories of more than 50 finds by everyday people and delves into how the discoveries are shaping our understanding of history.

“A lot of people get excited about archaeology, the idea of discovering things and also, for a lot of people it’s a way into history,” says Lewis, Head of Portable Antiquities and Treasure at the British Museum. “Metal detecting has become quite popular because it's that tangible link with the past. You're finding these objects that have been left by people many hundreds or thousands of years ago. And then you kind of get a connection with them and you explore their world from the starting point of these objects.

“For most archaeologists they're thinking about landscapes and the objects then are evidence within those landscapes. This is a slightly different approach, but fundamentally it's just fascination in what people before us were up to and getting to know them through these objects.”

Back in January 2007, father and son metal detectorists David and Andrew Whelan came across what was described as the most significant Viking treasure to be found in Britain in more than a century. The duo were searching a ploughed field near Harrogate when they received a signal. What they uncovered after some careful digging was a container, which it later emerged was filled with precious metal objects including a gilt silver vessel, coins and complete ornaments. The Whelans didn’t unpack the objects inside themselves. Instead, they kept the find intact, reporting it to their local Finds Liaison Officer. It was later declared to be treasure and The York Museums Trust, which jointly acquired the hoard with the British Museum, says it was valued at just over £1m.

“The reason this hoard is so important is because it includes objects from all over the Viking world,” says Lewis. “So you've got coins there that were made in the Middle East, the vessel itself is from France. There's objects that seem to be reflecting a sort of Celtic origin - so from Ireland and Scotland. And then there's other objects from Scandinavia as well. So, it's almost like the whole of the Viking world, the places they went to if you like, captured in a single find.”

Also featured in the book is The Ryedale Hoard, an eclectic grouping of Roman bronze sculptures and a surveyor’s plumb bob. The hoard, the York Museums Trust says, contains some of the region’s most significant Roman objects including an 1,800-year-old bust of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. The objects were found in a field near Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, in May 2020, by metal detectorists James Spark and Mark Didlick. Before the discovery of the hoard, which is thought to have been left as part of ritual or religious activity, the presence of the Romans in this area was little known. The objects were not deemed to be treasure at the time of the find and ended up being acquired at auction. The York Museums Trust was then later supported by donors to purchase the hoard. “In the case of the Ryedale Hoard (because it wasn’t deemed to be treasure), there wasn't the process to ensure that it would go to a museum,” Lewis says. “It was sold at auction which from our perspective was a disappointment. But the good news is that a benefactor stepped in to ensure that it was acquired by the museum, who did a fantastic display. And what was good as well about that is that they did involve the finders too. So it ended up being quite a positive story.”

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, all finders of gold and silver objects, and groups of coins from the same finds, over-300 years-old, have a legal obligation to report such items under the Treasure Act 1996. The act was amended in 2023 to also include items made at least partially of metal, that are at least 200-year-old and provide exceptional insight into an aspect of national or regional history, archaeology or culture.

“The point of the Treasure Act is to have a process to enable finds to go into public collections if that's desirable basically,” explains Richardson, the Senior Treasure Registrar at the British Museum. “By law, treasure finds belong to the Crown but the Crown only claims ownership of these finds if a museum wants to (and can raise the money to) acquire them. The majority of finds aren't actually acquired by museums. Most finds get disclaimed. Because treasure is this definition that is based on the physical characteristics of a find, there are quite a few finds particularly from the medieval and post-medieval period which are really common, often in quite poor condition and which wouldn't benefit a museum's collection. So, if no museum wants it, then the Crown disclaims its ownership and it can go back to the finder or landowner… Where a museum does want something through the treasure process, then the coroner will hold a (treasure) inquest. So, it's the coroner's ultimate decision as to whether or not the find meets this legal criteria for treasure. And if they agree that it does, then the finder and land owner can claim a reward from the secretary of state which is equal to the market value of the find.”

Beneath Our Feet celebrates the work of the Treasure Act and also the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS), set up to complement the legislation and encourage people to bring forward any objects they find to add to archaeological and historical understanding. In a given year, there’s around 1,300 treasure cases and about 75,000 finds reported. “So treasure is a small proportion of the number of objects that are found or can be discovered,” Lewis explains. “When the treasure legislation came in, archaeologists said well there’s a process for dealing with what is primarily precious metal objects but not everything else. That information, as shown in this book, is useful for archaeological knowledge and needs to be recorded (which is what the PAS now does).”

With so many discoveries, Lewis and Richardson had a rather large task on their hands choosing which stories to feature in the book. Chronological balance was important - objects from different time periods - and the duo also wanted to convey both the unearthing of objects as well as what happens afterwards, how they’re recorded and how they aid understanding of the past.

They were keen also to highlight the many people involved, from the landowners, to the museums, the Finds Liaison Officers for the PAS, and, of course, the finders themselves. “When these finds hit the press, there’s a lot of acclaim for the person who found them,” Richardson says. “People get their moment but it’s very transient and really just focused on the actual discovery. What we also wanted to do is highlight that these public finds are actually contributing to our knowledge of the past. They do tie in with the rest of the archaeological work. And we want to recognise that.” With each artefact discovered, there’s an opportunity to engage with history - and there’s still so much more out there waiting to be found.

Beneath Our Feet: Everyday Discoveries Reshaping History is out on May 15 rrp £30