How to Research Farm History for Metal Detecting

While I would never turn down the opportunity of metal detecting on any land, as nobody knows what might have been lost or buried anywhere in the past, if we habitually search sites where nothing much ever happened then usually our find bags will contain nothing much! Site research not only results in more and better quality finds but also provides some reasons as to why we find things where we do, which adds interest and a sense of history to our fascinating hobby. With this in mind, when I was invited to search a farm well outside of my usual patch I knuckled down to some simple research to make best use of my detecting time. An article titled ‘Researching Farm History’, based on this research, was published in Treasure Hunting Magazine, September 2012 and a short version is included in my book: Metal Detecting Made Easy. In the meantime there has been some material changes in some of the resources described which warrants a new edition.
If you are a detectorist who would like to hone your skills in researching the history of farms you are already metal detecting or would like to be searching (since presenting a landowner with the history of his land is likely to result in search permission) then this book is for you.