DownNDirty
Bronze Member
I recently took a two-week vacation with my wife and stepson to England to visit with my in-laws (my wife is British). My father-in-law is a retired vicar (priest in the Anglican church); he retired a little over a year ago as vicar of a very old church in a tiny village in Norfolk County. My in-laws are good friends with the owners of a huge "hall", which is basically a large mansion on an estate, that was built in the early 1600's. I received permission from the owners to metal detect on the grounds of the estate.
One day as I was detecting not far from the main entrance to the hall I got a really good signal about 8 inches deep. When I uncovered part of the target I saw a round gold object with roman numerals around a dial and I instantly knew that it was a gold pocket watch!
It's an 18 carat gold Dent pocket watch with an elaborate monogram on the back side. The case is in superb condition. Dent actually built the clock mechanism inside of Big Ben, and was the official clock/watch maker to the queen.
After cleaning the watch I took it to the owners of the estate. They took one look at the monogram and immediately recognized it as a family monogram, so it belonged to one of their ancestors. After hearing this I said, "Then it's yours." They were both astounded by the fact that I found it and very grateful to me for giving the watch to them. To me it was a no-brainer; there was no way that I would have kept a family heirloom, and besides they were very generous to let me detect on their property. It really made me feel good to return the watch to the family, where it belongs. After returning to the US I did a lot of research & found out that the watch if restored would be worth several thousand dollars. Even so I have no regrets and would have done exactly the same thing if I had known this at the time.
The case was made by James Weir of Glasgow, Scotland. His company made watch cases from 1891 to the 1920's, so that pins down the age of the watch to those years.
One day as I was detecting not far from the main entrance to the hall I got a really good signal about 8 inches deep. When I uncovered part of the target I saw a round gold object with roman numerals around a dial and I instantly knew that it was a gold pocket watch!
It's an 18 carat gold Dent pocket watch with an elaborate monogram on the back side. The case is in superb condition. Dent actually built the clock mechanism inside of Big Ben, and was the official clock/watch maker to the queen.
After cleaning the watch I took it to the owners of the estate. They took one look at the monogram and immediately recognized it as a family monogram, so it belonged to one of their ancestors. After hearing this I said, "Then it's yours." They were both astounded by the fact that I found it and very grateful to me for giving the watch to them. To me it was a no-brainer; there was no way that I would have kept a family heirloom, and besides they were very generous to let me detect on their property. It really made me feel good to return the watch to the family, where it belongs. After returning to the US I did a lot of research & found out that the watch if restored would be worth several thousand dollars. Even so I have no regrets and would have done exactly the same thing if I had known this at the time.
The case was made by James Weir of Glasgow, Scotland. His company made watch cases from 1891 to the 1920's, so that pins down the age of the watch to those years.
Based on what I found I don't think the property has ever been detected.
I cast my vote for Banner and Honorable Mention!
