Details courtesy of Richard - There's a conservation workshop being held at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter on the 16th Feb.  Working alongside Sarah Klopf restoring some of the original coins from the Seaton Down hoard!

A letter of thanks to you all from the Devon Air Ambulance Trust.

If you came along to our August Club Meeting, Keith gave a very open and frank talk about the difficulties that ex-service men and women encounter as a result of their experiences whilst in active service.

He highlighted that the organisation that currently assists in the rehabilitation of those affected, Combat Stress, is under serious financial strain and there is a real possibility of the Welfare Officers being laid off.

There is an ongoing petition to try and rally support for the organisation and highlight their plight to the Government.  You can view it on the Change.org website here. 

A donation was made by the Club towards what we all viewed as being a very worthwhile cause.  Here's a copy of the letter that Keith received back from Combat Stress acknowledging the donation and sending their thanks.

A rare find of a  bronze age rapier sword blade, approximately 3,500 years old, was donated to Torquay Museum by two members of the Newton Abbot and District Metal Detecting Club.  The rapier sword was found locally near a site which had been inhabited for a period of at least 5,000 years,  dating back from the Neolithic period to the present day.  The nearby site had been excavated in 1958 by Exeter University where a burial site containing skeletons  and artefacts were found.  

The curator of Torquay Museum was excited about the find, as rapier sword blades are extremely rare and it was an item that the museum did not possess.  The blade itself is bent and the tip is missing.  it appears that this would have been deliberate.  It is believed that a rapier sword would have been a very important and personal item. When the owner passed away the blade would have been deliberately broken, making it unusable.  The handle would have been made either from wood or bone but this would have perished over the years.

The rapier sword blade being presented to Torquay Museum

on 12th March 2014

by Eve and Colin. 

Eve and Colin said they felt very privileged and fortunate to have been lucky enough to find such an important item.

The rapier sword blade will be displayed amongst other important finds in the area.  This includes a bronze age axe head, previously donated to the museum by another member of the Newton Abbot and District Metal Detecting Club, Alan Miller.

Here's an in-depth article on the inner workings of metal detectors.