Display of metal detectorist's finds

In October last year the Devon and Somerset Finds Liaison Officer, Lucy Shipley, commonly known as a FLO arrived at the Museum with a quite extraordinary collection of finds. There were boxes and collector’s cabinets overflowing with small metal items, buttons, buckles coins and decorative pieces of metalwork spanning thousands of years of British history. The collection was the lifetimes work of one detectorist David Martin.

Following his death, his sister has donated the bulk of his finds to the Museum, over 300 small finds many found locally but a few from farther afield. We now have the privileged task of going through this incredible collection and documenting it. Lucy Shipley visited the Museum again to use her specialist knowledge of small metal finds to help the Museum understand the assemblage. There are so many different types of metalwork represented it will be a challenge to identify them all.

A selection of the finds are now on display in the Museum’s entrance hall for a limited time, these include coins, buckles, prehistoric objects and an exceptional Anglo-Saxon handle with a dragon's head finial.