Artefact Studies
Since 1999, The Field Detectives have been able to record a broad range of artefacts, many of which continue to pose problems regarding their identification, purpose and date of use. Over the years, we have managed to curate a body of work that offers a unique opportunity to ‘dismantle and re-construct’ some of those frustrating artefact identification uncertainties. Towards this end, we have started to group those ‘mystery’ artefacts within a portfolio of Assemblage Studies for further interrogation to see if we can learn more about them.
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Let’s see where these new investigations take us.​​​​
New Study: Triangular Lead Weights
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Since 1999, The Field Detectives have over the years, gathered an intriguing assemblage of triangular-shaped lead weights. The ones we have recorded have a landscape association with the Grantham Canal, the River Trent and Nottingham. An association which prompts the ‘initial’ theory that these lead artefacts were originally created for use as fishing weights. Arguably, they could also have been used for some other, perhaps, industrial-related purpose during the 19th and early 20th centuries that has long since been forgotten. The truth is, that we have no idea what they were used for.
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Click here for further information ​​​​
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Tailors' Buttons
Little Buttons Telling Big Stories
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From lunatic asylums and domestic violence to love stories, success, bankruptcy and suicide, these are just a few of the stories unpicked from the small four-holed tailor's buttons The Field Detectives have found in Nottinghamshire. People and families have been brought back to life through the names and places branded on these simple buttons, which made their way onto the fields around the Grantham Canal via the Nottingham night soil collections throughout the mid-19th to early 20th centuries.
Catherine Pincott-Allen has meticulously researched each of the tailors featured, and their stories are voiced through newspaper reports, parish records and other historical documents.
Not every button found belonged to a Nottingham tailor; many of them came from as far away as Scotland and London.
Little Buttons Telling Big Stories aims to appeal to people interested in Nottingham's history and those with tailors in their ancestry. Also, any metal detecting enthusiasts who may have found one of the buttons and would like to learn more about them.
Who would think that something so small could tell such big stories?​​
The Langar Odd Balls
The very beginning of a long-term project to create an evolution of the bullet timeline. Along the way, we will be taking a closer look at the balls, bullets and bombs we are recording during our historic landscape field surveys. The lead Detective in this munitions expose, is archaeologist Justin Russell
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"Justin Russell lives in West Sussex and works as an archaeologist and illustrator with Historic Buildings Archaeology and Conservation (HBAC). His interests lie in military archaeology, particularly the study of small-arms ammunition. He helps to conserve and investigate the Steyning Rifle Range, holding an annual community excavation on the site, in conjunction with the Steyning Downland Scheme. Recent work includes the Langar Studded Shot project, (with the Field Detectives) and a study of the Manhood Peninsula Air to Ground Firing Range, near Selsey."
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Justin Russell holding the type of Staudenmayer air rifle that fired the odd shaped bullets
Click image to enlarge
The Field Detectives concluded their 6-year investigation into the mystery of the Langar Odd Balls, with a presentation of their findings at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds on Wednesday 16th October 2024. You can catch it here on YouTube
Justin’s book on these ‘little understood’ lead projectiles is now available for purchase £10. Please contact us through our contact page if you wish to buy a copy.
A poster was created to briefly summarise our research findings and you. Click here to view it
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The Hafting Challenge
In 2024, The Field Detectives presented Steph and Neil of the Prehistoric Workshop with a challenge to see if they could fashion a set of hafts for three stone artefacts that had been found in South Nottinghamshire. These amazing objects are fascinating to look at, especially when we begin to comprehend how old they actually are. What we wanted to know was how they were used and what they would have looked like before the wooden hafts that would have adorned them all those years ago had long since disappeared from view.
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Click on image to download poster
