Thank you to everyone who has responded to our Finds Day survey. We had 45 answers which has given us plenty to think about.
There were several reasons for doing this survey. The first one being that Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery is closed for a significant length of time, so one of our main venues is unavailable. Also, traditionally we used to attend metal detecting club meetings in the evenings, but as more and more clubs move online, we suspect that this option may no longer be available. So we wanted to hear your views on where and when you would be happy to meet with us to record your finds.
Venues
The Top Three venues were:
1. The Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent.
2. Museum of Cannock Chase.
3. Herbert Museum, Coventry.
Just below these were Thinktank Museum, Birmingham and The Hub, St Mary’s Lichfield. Other suggestions for venues that were made included: The Nicholson Museum, Leek and the Motorcycle Museum, Solihull.
We are liaising with both the Museum of Cannock Chase and the Herbert Museum, and both are keen for us to run Finds Days at their venues. Dates should be announced shortly.
There was a request for postal submission of finds. Unfortunately, especially at present due to Birmingham Museum being closed for rewiring and both Victoria and Teresa predominately working from home, postal submission is not recommended. We can not guarantee safe receipt of your finds.
Finds Days will be continuing at the Potteries Museum from October onwards on a bimonthly basis. Finds Days will also happen at Thinktank Museum and also at Aston Hall.
Metal Detecting Club meetings
It goes without saying, that once normal evening club meetings resume, Victoria and Teresa will return to our previous 3 monthly attendance.
The clubs we used to attend are: Dudley Metal Detecting Club; Coventry Heritage Society; Kings of Mercia Metal Detecting Society; Bloxwich Research and History Society; Tamworth and Lichfield Metal Detecting Club; Three Spires Search Society and North Staffordshire Metal Detecting club.
Requests were made for us to attend the following clubs: Secret Searchers; Congleton Metal detecting Club; Dig It Warwickshire; Go detecting Midlands; West Midlands Metal Detecting Group; Sovereign Metal Detecting Club and KC Rallies.
Congleton Club falls within the remit for Heather Beeton (Cheshire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester FLO). Likewise Dig IT Warwickshire falls within Dr Susheela Burford’s area (Worcestershire and Warwickshire) and Sovereign falls within Peter Reavill’s area (Herefordshire and Shropshire). Please contact them with regards to setting up Finds days with those clubs.
If the club leaders for the other clubs (Secret Searchers; Go Detecting Midlands; West Midlands Metal Detecting Group and KC Rallies) would like to drop Victoria or Teresa an email, we can sort out attendance at the club meetings.
Days
Unsurprisingly the most popular day requested was Saturday with Sunday being the second favourite.
We are hoping to run the Museum of Cannock Chase Finds Days and possibly the Herbert Museum Finds Days at a weekend. But Finds Days at the Potteries Museum, Thinktank and Aston Hall will remain on a weekday.
Times
60% of answers indicated that morning would be the preferred time.
When at a museum, we are limited by the hours they are open, which is often 10am to 4pm/5pm. Most Museum Finds days tend to be run all day, giving people plenty of options on what time to book in.
