Beachcombing

[Richard]

Has anyone done this? I bet everyone does sometimes.
I like to go poking around as it is very relaxing to stroll along the beach on a lazy day.
Found so far:

Various Fishing lead weights
large oyster shells
driftwood (of course)
coloured bottle glass (rare here)
assorted pebbles (try to find the nearly-round ones, they are rare).

Most of the ordinary pebbles on the beach are chert nodules washed out of the chalk cliffs, i.e. from Beachy Head, but some are granite varieties from much further afield.
I see occasional metal-detector folk but I don't know if they find much really.

[Gerry Glyde]

All very good Richard, but where are the Pieces of Eight or a bag full of Saxon coins?

[Geoff]

There were some good bits to be found when the kedge anchor got uncovered in 2014. I got a couple of old glass bottles (one victorian and the other an early coke bottle).

My friend (in the photo) does metal detecting and knows all the best spots.

http://www.1066online.co.uk/gallery/bea ... dge-anchor

[Derek Jempson]

What's the legal position on taking items from the foreshore, does anyone know? At one time, everything belonged to the Crown, but local byelaws might override that perhaps.

[Richard]

Builders have been fined in the past for extracting huge quantities of gravel/sand but there may be a public right to scavenge?
I don't know if any rules control metal-detecting on beaches and certainly fossil-hunters go mad along the Jurassic Coast, but this seems tolerated and unless damage is caused to cliffs they can retrieve any items freely available on the beach.
Valuable items washed onshore from an accident at sea may be another matter entirely.

[Gerry Glyde]

During the incident of the stranded destablised Chinese containership that lost its cargo off of the Cornish coast some 10 years ago people came far and wide picking up all sorts of things such as white goods and even BMW motorbikes.

It was widely reported as theft because the ownership of the goods (buyer or manufacturer depending on the contract terms) was identifiable,but I don't know if anyone was ever prosecuted. If I remember correctly it left thousands of rubber ducks floating in the sea!

Have just found that there is a Treasure Act 1996 which defines it if anyone wants to trawl through it. The difference used to be between something that was dropped or discarded and things that were hidden away, the latter being Treasure Trove

[moonjiver]

Best thing I ever found was this great twisted piece of tree root. On the way home several people stopped me on the prom to admire the "beautiful lump of wood"! Also found countless lovely bits of different stone, small conches, a lump of green rope twisted and splayed by the sea into an artwork!

[Richard]

Type 'driftwood' into eBay, it's amazing what people are asking for bits of small wood, nothing like as good as yours MJ which seems strangely anthropomorphic.
That kind of stuff must be anyone's if it is just lying on the beach.

I have even seen folk gathering dried seaweed, by the bag load, to dig into the garden as fertilizer, but mind it can 'burn' tender plants as it is very rich in certain chemical nutrients.

Also 'sea glass' on eBay seems a quite profitable return for scavenging but we don't see much on the beach round here.

[Geoff]

Nice little display MJ. The tree root is a bit special and a worthy centre piece

[malagoo]

Found 2 bobs worth of old pennies once metal detecting on a spring tide at the end of the pier. They were only just identifiable though as they had been buried in the abrasive sand and black silt for decades. Still got them somewhere.