Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2009 | Page 48

life

ISLAND HISTORY

Left: Terry Barrett & Frank Basford

Shining a Light on the Past
A bright summer morning, several

Article by Jan Toms

cars and a police van are parked along
the Military Road. The drivers walk
purposefully across a field to where a
human bone has been discovered.
Frank Basford, the Finds Liaison Officer
from the County Council knows that it is
ancient and will be of no interest to the
police but all human remains must be
reported to the Coroner.
Wandering back across the field,
Frank picks up some item of interest.
‘Post-Medieval pottery,’ he observes,
holding a black object that to the
uninitiated could be anything. He
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mushroomed. This is partly due to the
work of the Island metal detectorists who

identifies it as Verwood Ware from Dorset.
It is for the purpose of identifying such
artefacts that in 2003 the Island joined
the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Frank,
along with 36 colleagues across England
and Wales, was appointed as the Finds
Liaison Officer. From his base along the
Bowcombe Valley with a stunning view
of Carisbrooke Castle, he compiles a
database of finds brought to him by
members of the public.
Since the inception of the scheme
the number of reported finds has

negotiate with landowners to scan their
fields then take any items found to Frank
for identification. In turn he writes a
detailed description of each object and in
most cases the item is then returned to
the finder.
Coins are the most common discoveries
many being Roman. Other Roman
artefacts are rarer although brooches and
pins do appear. The detectorists have
identified several previously unknown
Roman sites.
The vexed question of what constitutes