They can turn over the annual income of an SME [Small and Medium sized Enterprise] in one weekend, but now one of the UK’s leading organisers of metal detecting rallies has told thePipeLine that, at least as far as the work of his own group Just Detect UK is concerned, the recent rally for five hundred metal detectorists in Lincolnshire could be the last to take place in its current form because the group is just too big and the way it is operated through nothing more complex than an informal FaceBook group is no longer sustainable.
Jason “Jay” Price is a veteran of the Royal Navy and now runs a successful and respected funeral directing business in Grantham, Lincolnshire, where he told this website that he takes great pride in the service he is able to offer people at the worst times of their lives.
Mr Price is also an enthusiastic metal detectorist and it is that aspect of his life which led to his having a conversation with thePipeLine lasting almost an hour, during the course of
which he lifted the curtain on an area of UK heritage activity which remains extremely controversial, and which is often accused by outsiders, and even some metal detectorists, of excessive secrecy giving rise to all manner of accusations of bad practice from damaging sensitive archaeology to financial irregularities, the organisation of pay to detect metal detecting rallies.
At the outset it is important to stress that in the UK metal detecting as practised by Mr Price and tens of thousands of others, remains a perfectly legal passtime as long as it is undertaken with the permission of the relevant land owner and that such legislation as does apply, principally that relating to the protection of scheduled archaeological sites and to discoveries defined as Treasure under the Treasure Act is properly observed.
However, unlike other largely rural activities which impact on the environment such as fishing and shooting, there is no specific regulation of the hobby of metal detecting, although Historic England [and equivalent bodies in the devolved administrations] maintain a watching brief on the legal aspects of metal detecting, including where metal detecting becomes a Heritage Crime, with thieves, often called “nighthawks” by the media, using metal detectors to discover and steal artefacts, often from scheduled sites where metal detecting is forbidden.
In England and Wales the Portable Antiquities Scheme {PAS], run from its head office in the British Museum, liaises with finders, mostly metal detectorists, and records finds
of archaeological artefacts which are more than 300 years old, which are discovered by the public and not as part of a formal archaeological dig.
The PAS is entirely voluntary. Detectorists are under no obligation to report finds which are not classed as “Treasure”.
To give an idea of the scale of metal detecting, the number of active metal detectorists in the UK is estimated at anywhere between twenty and forty thousand, while in England and Wales alone in 2023 the Portable Antiquities Scheme recorded 53,490 artefacts reported by their finders.
Of these 1,384 finds from England, Wales and Northern Ireland were so called “Treasure Cases” which are part of a separate process facilitated by the British Museum and which can see the finders of Treasure items in receipt of a financial award, split 50:50 between the finder and the land owner.
While most Treasure awards are relatively low, the most high profile cases can result in awards of seven figure sums. In 2012 farmer Fred Johnson and finder Terry Herbert shared a treasure award of £3.285 million in relation to the famous “Staffordshire Hoard” of over four and a half thousand items of early medieval jewellery and gold and silver artefacts.
Below the radar of the Treasure Act there is also a thriving economy of metal detected artefacts being sold on loosely regulated sales platforms such as Ebay and even by traditional auction houses and coin dealers, which are now often represented at metal detecting events of the kind organised by Mr Price.
Many metal detecting rally events operate an excess value, often one thousand pounds, below which finders are free to take home and sell artefacts with no obligation to report them, even to the landowner.
Effectively that is most artefacts.
For many critics of the hobby, and again this includes some metal detectorists, this practice has established a direct relationship between the finding of archaeological artefacts and their monetisation which is contrary to the ethics of the vast majority of archaeologists who even disclaim treasure awards in the rare cases treasure is found on a formal dig site, and contra also to the often spoken detectorists mantra, which runs, “It’s not about the money, it’s about the history”.
However, while the financial aspects of the hobby may be important to some, or at least are an added incentive, there is another aspect to metal detecting which people promoting the hobby are keen to have outsiders and critics consider. That is the potential role of the hobby as a purely social activity and in health care.
In common with many outdoor hobbies, including gardening and fishing, there is some evidence that, while not a panacea, metal detecting as an activity can promote individual health and well being and it is in connection with this aspect of the hobby that Jason Price enters the story.
In the decade preceding the Covid-19 Pandemic of 2020 an ecosystem of organisations developed in the UK heritage sector loosely connected to the Ministry of Defence’s Operation Nightingale Project.
Beginning as a pilot programme with the Rifles regiment, Operation Nightingale took mentally and physically injured serving military personnel and enabled them to participate in professionally directed archaeological activities.
One of the injured personnel involved in Operation Nightingale was a former Royal Marine Richard “Dickie” Bennett. Mr Bennett went on to take a degree in archaeology and set up a company, Breaking Ground Heritage, which in turn began to work with the Ministry of Defence, Defence Infrastructure Organisation, on Operation Nightingale Projects.
Into the orbit of The DIO’s Operation Nightingale and Breaking Ground Heritage came a third initiative, the brainchild of another service veteran Jason Massey.
While Operation Nightingale was about mentoring and empowering serving personnel and veterans like Mr Bennett through projects supported by professional archaeologists, Mr Massey, a metal detectorist, asked, what if injured veterans were to take part in metal detecting to help support their health and well being and even to help treat the debilitating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD] which affected many service personnel and others in high stress occupations such as the so called “Blue Light” services? Similar suggestions were being made also in the United States at around this time.
Both countries still had a reservoir of injured personnel, many from deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan and both countries also had communities of active metal detectorists.
The result of Mr Massey’s initiative was an organisation called Detecting for Veterans [D4V] and the person described in a Facebook post as “the Chief operating officer for all day to
day running”, was Jason Price.
Two other persons were named in the same post, David Edwards who would take charge of logistics and Ste Murphy who would handle marketing and PR.
At the outset it was stated that all the roles with Detecting for Veterans would be unpaid.
The proceeds from D4V events would go to service charities and individual veterans in need.
Mr Price’s particular role within D4V was finding land upon which to hold metal detecting events, finding “permissions” in the jargon of metal detecting and especially through his network of contacts in in rural East Anglia, he was very good at it.
“Jay’s got loads of good land,” one of his colleagues would observe later in a podcast.
By the time the Covid Pandemic closed down metal detecting events in the Spring of 2020 Detecting for Veterans had become a significant operation claiming over 5500 supporters, by no means all service veterans, all eligible to join D4V rallies as long as they joined the private Facebook Group through which D4V was administered.
Detecting for Veterans offered a series of increasingly large pay to dig rallies so that in 2017 Mr Massey had turned it into a Community Interest Company with himself as director.
A CIC is a company which, in legal terms, must show it offers community benefit, but with the advantage that it does not have to observe the added regulatory requirements of being a full blown regulated charity. Another advantage is that, unlike trustees of a charity, directors of CIC’s can receive payments for work in connection with the aims of the company.
However, in September 2021, just as the tightest lock down restrictions imposed for the Covid-19 crisis were coming to an end, Detecting for Veterans collapsed amid accusations of fraud.
A man was arrested and remains under investigation by Avon and Somerset Police.
The collapse of Detecting for Veterans came just ahead of the company’s September rally in Mr Price’s native Lincolnshire, but it is crucial to stress that there is no suggestion that
Jason Price or any of his fellow Admins and organisers, including Mr Murphy and Mr Edwards, knew anything about the actions which are now under investigation by the Police before the collapse of Mr Massey’s company.
Indeed, Mr Price and colleagues have stated that they brought the allegations to the attention of the Police and other official bodies.
Nonetheless, they were faced with an event which had not just attracted hundreds of detectorists paying £65 each, but posts on metal detecting groups suggest, also trade concessions from players in the world of metal detecting such as Treasure Hunting magazine and even the membership body which sets out to represent the interests of detectorists, and provide them with the cheap personal liability insurance which many rally groups and companies rely on to cover risks at rally events, the National Council for Metal Detecting [NCMD].
In the event Mr Price and his colleagues decided to relaunch the rally at the same venue, but the circumstances dictated that would be participants would have to register and pay for the event a second time.
This was clearly a stop gap measure and on 28 September 2021 Mr Price posted a long statement on Facebook which, as with Detecting For Veterans, would remain the main vehicle for the new group going forward.
In it he undertook to learn from the failure of Mr Massey’s company.
In particular Mr Price posted that the successor venture, soon to be known as Just Detect UK, would have a legally registered limited company structure; it would publish annual independently audited accounts; it would be a Not for Profit venture and it would have three directors, Ste Murphy, Paul Eddie Edwards and Jason Price himself. The three men would not take a wage, but the statement established that they could be paid for their time in the considerable work involved in the organisation of group events.
Almost exactly three years on from that announcement, and those undertakings, while Just Detect UK continues to exist and organise as an informal FaceBook group, none of the principle undertakings can be shown to have been carried out and there is no information available about whether any individuals have received payments relating to Just Detect UK events, although Mr Price made clear he has no need to take money in relation to JDUK.
This apparent mismatch between undertakings of three years ago and the current actuality is the reason thePipeLine came to talk to Jason Price on Friday 7 September [2024] just as this years Autumn rally was getting underway in Lincolnshire, at a rural site owned by farmer Charles Adcock and which Just Detect UK has promoted as “The Roman Valley”.
thePipeLine has been interested in the issue of metal detecting rallies in particular for some time and in the Autumn of 2023 we were shown e-mails which showed that organisers connected with rally group Just Detect UK had been offered “advice” by licencing officers from South Kestevan Council after questions were raised by a member of the public regarding whether the correct permits for a temporary event had been obtained to cover facilities for hundreds of people, including bars, food and the offering of regulated entertainment such as live bands.
Then in the early part of this year we were tipped off by a source in the metal detecting community that there was a row developing with regard to a “Recce” which had apparently been held on what the organisers claimed was the field designated for camping at the 2024 early Autumn Rally to be held by Just Detect UK. In particular some critics were asked why a “recce” required as many as fourteen people, two having allegedly travelled to East Anglia from Scotland.
There were also allegations that people asking questions of Just Detect UK regarding the Recce and other administrative matters, including asking to see accounts, were being blocked from the all important FaceBook group with no reasons given.
A “Recce” is undertaken by rally organisers to check for potential issues which might impact on the quality or safety of a rally event, such as contamination by so called Green Waste and they can be controversial because of the perception that it gives organisers and their friends, privileged access to a rally site before the paying punters turn up.
In the case of the Just Detect Roman Valley venue there is no evidence Mr Price and his team were misusing their access to the land and the controversy petered out with many people defending Mr Price as being the organiser of well run events where, unlike some rally organisers who face accusations of trying to cram onto a permission as many paying detectorists as possible, there was always a generous allocation of land per detectorist.
Nonetheless, we determined to keep an eye on the event and in August [2024] a series of increasingly outspoken allegations relating to Just Detect UK and the way it was being run began to appear on other Facebook pages.
The allegations fell into three main groups.
First it was alleged that the organisation of Just Detect UK was opaque and, particularly in terms of its financial accountability, there was no published information to allow members to check where the money raised was going and even whether the administrators of the group were behaving appropriately.
Second it was alleged that many of the group’s longstanding Administrators, including founder Administrators Ste Murphy and Paul Eddie Edwards were either standing down and walking away from the group and this year’s rally, or had even been effectively fired by Mr Price.
Finally potentially highly damaging allegations of a personal nature were also published.
thePipeLine had no interest in the personal allegations, which in any case have been denied and made the subject of a warning of potential legal action, however, we
judged that investigating the allegations regarding the administration and financial management of the Just Detect UK was in the public interest.
As a result on Friday 6 September [2024] we submitted a series of written questions to Mr Price via the chat function on Facebook Messenger.
Mr Price responded almost immediately with the offer of a conversation which we took him up on and, with a couple of short breaks on account of a less than reliable telephone signal in rural Lincolnshire, we spoke for almost an hour, covering the organisational and personal aspects of what had transpired regarding the Roman Valley event which was already underway as we spoke.
Confirming that none of the undertakings made when Just Detect UK was set up in 2021 had been put in place, Mr Price admitted that in terms of a formal structure,
“It [Just Detect UK] is just a Facebook Group.”
He explained this saying that,
“It kind of evolved as Detecting for Veterans collapsed.”
Mr Price emphasised that Just Detect UK organised its events responsibly and even had archaeologists on site, two on the day we spoke, including one who, Mr Price said, was able to input data on finds directly to the Portable Antiquities Scheme database.
While not supporting or endorsing rallies the Portable Antiquities scheme does use its website to advise rally organisers to include archaeological support at their events.
Mr Price is also proud of the record of Just Detect UK in fundraising for charities supporting current and former service personnel.
A criticism of Just Detect UK and of pretty much every other metal detecting rally company, is that, in spite of many turning over tens of thousands of pounds in a single event, they do not publish accounts. However, Mr Price told us that first rally, held in the wake of the collapse of Detecting for Veterans, had raised some £6k.
Overall, up to the start of the September 2024 event, figures given to us by Mr Price, backed up by comments made by Mr Price during appearances on two podcasts, “The Treasure and Tales” podcast and “Peaky Finders”, suggest that the group has in total donated at least £52k in the three years of its existence, often to small charities where the kind of sums donated by Just Detect UK can make a real difference as Mr Price puts it.
Challenged on the issue of financial accountability Mr Price also addressed directly the income the Roman Valley event might generate.
It is rare to see any kind of break down of the kind of money involved in a metal detecting rally, but Mr Price stated openly that he expected the three day Roman Valley event to take
around £40k directly from participants paying to attend and a further £10k raised from the sale of raffle tickets.
Of that expected total of around £50k Mr Price told us that the landowner would receive £11k and some £3k would be spent on raffle prizes. Other overheads, such as toilets and fire extinguishers for the camping field, infrastructure such as marquees and staging, and entertainment such as the hire of bands would cost a further £6k.
On those figures the event would clear a total of at least £30k to be disbursed however the organisers see fit.
Mr Price has promised to share the final totals with thePipeLine once the full financial return from the event is available.
Turning to the organisation this year’s events we asked also about the accusations that the Admin team on the FaceBook group had recently seen a high turnover of personnel, including the two founder “directors” mentioned by Mr Price in September 2021, Ste Murphy and Paul Eddie Edwards, who claimed on Social Media to have been dismissed for asking questions about the operation of Just Detect UK.
Mr Price denied they had been dismissed and said both men had walked away from the group of their own accord.
He added that he had offered other members of Just Detect UK the opportunity to take on the organisation of the group but nobody had wanted to take on the role.
Meanwhile he said of the current Admin team,
“The Admin team are fantastic, but they are not charity specialists. None of us need the accusations every single time.”
Turning to the future of Just Detect UK thePipeLine suggested that events such as the current rally, turning over tens of thousands of pounds in a weekend did not represent a sustainable business model, not least because the perceived lack of financial accountability represented an invitation to allegations of impropriety on the part of the organisers.
Perhaps surprisingly given his involvement in organising charity metal detecting dating back to 2019 Mr Price agreed immediately, stating,
“This is the very last one which will be done in this way.”
Asked why he had taken this view Mr Price said,
“I don’t have the mental capacity to continue,” adding “I never wanted the job. I don’t need the hassle.”
Mr Price also addressed directly insinuations in the critical social media posts that he had taken money from the Just Detect events stating,
“I may be a business man, but I am not an accountant,” adding “I have no need to be taking any money from it [Just Detect UK].”
Nonetheless, he told us that he had now stepped away from the financial organisation of Just Detect UK and handed it on to others.
Asked then why he thought Just Detect UK had been subjected to so many allegations in recent weeks Mr Price responded with one word,
“Jealousy.”
This was a comment which he followed up with a damning assessment of parts of the hobby of meal detecting.
“It is a vicious vicious world,” he said “In any part of the hobby there are the most ferocious people.”
As we concluded our conversation Mr Price reiterated,
“Everything is accounted for,” and that as a successful businessman he did not need to take any financial rewards from Just Detect UK events.
He added the accusations had, and would continue to, cause distress affecting his mental health.
In the context of all the rallies taking place this Autumn, including Just Detect UK’s rally in Lincolnshire, but prior to our conversation with Mr Price, thePipeLine asked Dr Michael
Lewis, the head of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, a number of questions about metal detecting rallies and the kind of organisation by FaceBook group which Just Detect UK and many other similar groups operate, which we submitted via the British Museum Press Office.
We asked, while not supporting rallies directly, was the Portable Antiquities Scheme aware of Just Detect’s rally which we understood could involve up to 500 paying participants?
We also asked, if Mr Price had ever sought the advice of the Portable Antiquities Scheme regarding any of his rallies organised since 2021, including the rally being held this weekend which was advertised as being in a valley site rich in Roman finds and which could lead to a substantial workload for FLO’s if detectorists report their finds?
On the administrative and legal aspect of metal detecting rallies we noted that Just Detect UK appears to have no recognisable legal identity, and, in spite of stating
the aim is to raise money for charity, publishes no accounts. In an article co-written with Dr Mike Heyworth for British Archaeology [Jan 2021] Dr Lewis wrote that there was a case
for metal detecting rallies to be regulated, including on financial grounds, so we asked does Dr Lewis see any reason to change that opinion and how could such regulation be achieved?
Finally we noted the model of metal detecting appears to be changing with a high proportion of metal detecting now appearing to be undertaken in the context of mass participation rallies rather than through the traditional model of permissions granted to individual or local clubs of at most a few dozen people. There are also increasing reports of land returning fewer to no finds because it has been detected repeatedly. In that context, we asked what would Dr Lewis say to anyone considering attending a rally of the type organised by Mr Price?
We received the following one line response.
Prof Michael Lewis, Head of Portable Antiquities & Treasure, British Museum, said:
“It is our view that all rallies should follow the guidance issued by the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) and those attending such events should remind themselves of
the rules and that rally organisers are following appropriate guidance.”
That guidance calls on rally organisers to have archaeologists on site which, as we have seen, Mr Price claims to have done, but even with that kind of support in place the core problem remains one of capacity.
With five hundred people or more attending just one rally, all potentially reporting finds, it is worth noting that the PAS guidance also notes that a trained and experienced Finds Liaison Officer might be expected to process just ten to twenty finds per day.
And of course, if the onsite archaeologists are busy recording finds they cannot also be in the field keeping a watch on potentially sensitive finds and archaeology as it
comes out of the ground.
In a separate issue facing the Portable Antiquities Scheme, there are increasing reports of hoards reportable under the Treasure Act, but which are excavated not by archaeologists as the Code of Practice for Responsible Metal Detecting requires, but by the finders and often reported first in not in a measured press release from the local museum or PAS Finds Liaison Officer, but in livestreams and videos on monetisable social media platforms such as YouTube.
In that context it is possible that, if this year’s September rally held by Just Detect UK in Lincolnshire is the last to be held in its current form as an informally arranged, but high
earning, product of FaceBook group, that it could mark an inflection point for metal detecting rallies.
However, it is a measure of the heritage sector politics and perceptions about metal detecting and metal detecting rallies in particular, that Mr Price is considering withdrawing
from organising such events, not because of any concerns about damage to the UK’s archaeology and a broad concern about the rise of rallies among archaeologists, or because of concerns regarding the capacity of the Portable Antiquities Scheme to record finds from his events.
Things appear to have been brought to a head because of the personal attacks and “ferocious people” within his own hobby.
And the key question remains.
Is it sustainable for events like the Just Detect UK rally, which operate like a mini Glastonbury festival with camping, food and entertainment, turning over tens of thousands of pounds and attracting commercial concessions, to continue to be be organised through nothing more complicated than private, unaccountable Facebook Groups which publish no accounts, even when operating in that most ethically challenging and legally regulated area of financial activity, charitable fundraising?
Jason Price told thePipeLine that if Just Detect UK was to cease operations it would be the charities which would suffer most if events cease and the donations dry up.
That is undoubtedly true.
Nonetheless, as things remain, Just Detect UK, and many other rally groups raising money for charity based on no more substance than a private FaceBook group, have no more legal standing or accountability than a whip round in the pub.
Except that these are whip rounds which raise tens of thousands of pounds, with no published information to explain where all that money goes.
It is a fact that a metal detectorist buying a charity Christmas card has more legal assurance and protection than when attending many charity metal detecting rallies.
It is a legal requirement at the point of sale for a charity card to name the charity being supported and how much of the cost paid will be donated to that charity.
Given the controversial nature of rallies and the questions over whether the current permissive regime regarding rallies can or should remain in place it is perhaps fair to leave the last word to Jason Price.
As we were completing our fact checking regarding Just Detect’s September Rally Mr Price told us,
“I can see regulation coming where rallies have to be within clubs with a Finds Liaison Officer on site and Archaeological attendance as well – so much is lost to irresponsible digging.”
Mr Price added,
“Just Detect UK is too big and some [other rally groups and companies] are much much bigger!!! With folk turning up simply to take away a gold coin or artefact with[out] proper thought for items being recorded.”
“Many clubs need to slim down numbers – we will be one of the first to do it.”
thePipeLine has reached out to the other two founding directors/admins of Just Detect UK, Ste Murphy and Paul Eddie Edwards who have resigned/been dismissed and asked them to comment on their experience of the operation of the group.
thePipeLine is grateful for the assistance of the Services Archaeology and Heritage Association in researching this story over several years.
Featured Image: thePipeLine
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