Detecting History Podcast

Katie is back with a solo summer catch-up packed with metal detecting news, history and channel updates. In this episode: a huge well done to the 100th episode giveaway winners and a thank you to Swing and Dig, The Etching Booth, Composite Cleaning Pencil and Regton for their brilliant prize support. If you missed the Kenneth Collard (Tales from the Foreshore) interview, Katie explains exactly why...

This week's episode is a special one as its the 100th one! Our guest is very special too....! Actor Kenneth Collard, known to this community as the Mayor from the BBC series The Detectorists, and to a wider audience from Cuckoo, House of the Dragon, The Capture and most recently Beyond Paradise. But Kenneth has been a detectorist since the early 1980s, long before any of those credits, starting ou...

Darren Searle and Rod from Gloucestershire Detectorists join Katie to tell the story of two finds that most detectorists will never experience in a lifetime of searching. The first: a scattered Roman hoard where both Darren and Rod's very first signals on a brand new field turned out to be Roman coins. What followed was multiple return visits, over 400 coins recovered, a Roman silver ring and a Ro...

Jamie and Erin from Bottles from the Deep join Katie to talk about loch larking, their unique hobby of snorkeling in Scottish lochs to find Victorian bottles, ceramics and all sorts of historical treasures. Jamie shares the story of finding a rare WWII Colt Commando revolver in a loch, discovering a scattered medieval coin hoard whilst metal detecting dating to around 1307 with coins from Alexande...

What's been happening in the world of UK metal detecting in 2026? In this solo episode, Katie rounds up the biggest stories so far this year and announces the Detecting History 100th episode giveaway competition. First up, the Melsonby Hoard goes on public display at the Yorkshire Museum from 15 May. Over 800 Iron Age objects including the first evidence of four-wheeled wagons in Britain. Then we...

UK metal detecting podcast. This week Katie is joined by Lewis from lewis_detects on Instagram, an Oxfordshire-based detectorist with seven years of experience finding hammered coins, Roman artefacts and medieval silver across the fields of southern England. Lewis talks through his best metal detecting finds: a Roman brooch, a cut half Stephen penny, and a 1636 Charles I shilling found at a histor...

This week Katie sits down with Sam Willoughby, known on Instagram as the_peaky_larker, a Kent-based mudlarker, metal detectorist and self-described archaeo-detectorist who bridges both worlds with the kind of knowledge and ethics that makes you want to get outside immediately. Sam shares how furlough in 2020 sent him to the banks of the Medway and eventually onto the Thames foreshore itself, where...

Emma Youell ( https://www.instagram.com/emloveoldstuff/ ) is back, and she has had quite a couple of years. Since her last appearance on the podcast, Emma has ticked off not one but two items from her detecting bucket list finding two Iron Age quarter staters and a potent within just a couple of months. Three Celtic coins. Extraordinary. But that's just the start. Emma has been quietly doing some...

This week Katie is joined by Wayne May, the Canadian detectorist behind the hugely popular YouTube channel Treasure Earth, which has amassed over 44,000 subscribers since Wayne relaunched it in 2022. Based in Calgary, Alberta, Wayne has deep roots in Hampshire and Wiltshire, and that connection to English soil has shaped him into one of the most well-travelled detectorists in the community. In thi...

This week on the UK's metal detecting and mudlarking podcast, Darren Booth of History Unearthed is back. We dig into his 337-coin Roman hoard now heading for a major museum display, his Henry VIII sovereign penny found in Cumbria, and the Viking gold coin recently unearthed in Norfolk with links to the Great Heathen Army. We also cover the £3.5 million Henry VIII heart pendant found in Warwickshir...

This week on the Detecting History Podcast, host Katie MacDoyle is joined by Raymond Berry from the YouTube channel Adventures in Finding Stuff . Raymond is a passionate finder of lost history whose hobbies stretch far beyond metal detecting. From mudlarking on the River Thames to magnet fishing, Victorian bottle digging and uncovering strange artefacts in the woods, Raymond and his friends are co...

In this episode of Detecting History , I’m joined by Murray Price , one of the five detectorists behind the Bearded Bleepers , detecting across the Surrey Hills . We talk about Murray’s metal detecting journey, his detector upgrades from the Garrett Ace 150 to the Vanquish 540 and now the Equinox 900 , plus the kit he relies on in the field (and why comfort and weight matter when you’re swinging a...

This midweek episode focuses on events in British history that fall between the 20th and 25th of February. We begin with the coronation of Edward VI in 1547, a nine-year-old king whose Protestant regents pushed England through its most radical religious transformation. Churches changed, rituals disappeared and devotional objects were removed, hidden or destroyed. We then move to 1570, when Elizabe...

In this episode of the Detecting History Podcast, I’m joined by John MacEachen, better known as the Scottish Detectorist. With tens of thousands of YouTube subscribers and millions of views, John has become one of the most recognisable and respected voices in the detecting community. We explore how he first got into metal detecting, the machines he’s used across 26 years in the hobby, and how tech...

This week’s midweek episode explores the deeper history of Valentine’s Day in Britain, long before cards, chocolates and commercial traditions took hold. We start with the origins of Saint Valentine, the Christian martyr whose execution on 14 February shaped the feast day, and trace how the meaning evolved through the Middle Ages. By the time of Chaucer and the Tudor court, Valentine’s Day had bec...

In this week’s episode, I’m joined by Steve Price, known on Instagram as the Dapper Detectorist, for a brilliant chat about finds, fieldcraft and why metal detecting is as much about mindset as it is about machines. Steve shares the story of his stunning medieval gold finger ring discovery, the long treasure process that followed, and what it felt like to finally have it returned. We also talk Rom...

In this midweek episode, we step back into two pivotal February moments that reshaped power in England. First, we return to early February 1014 and the sudden death of Viking king Sweyn Forkbeard, a moment that briefly restored Anglo-Saxon rule and exposed how fragile kingship was in early medieval England. Then we move forward to 8 February 1587 and the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots — one of...

This week I’m joined by Tom and Matt , the creators of the Detector Maps app, calling in from Queensland, Australia (while I’m in the UK with my steak dinner). We get into how their backgrounds in mineral exploration and gold prospecting shaped the app, what it’s like detecting in remote Aussie conditions (40°C heat, and long drives), and how that “field-first” thinking has turned into a seriously...

In this mini midweek episode of the Detecting History Podcast, we mark 1 February 1707 , the day the English Parliament formally ratified the Act of Union under the reign of Queen Anne. This moment did not yet create Great Britain, that would come later on 1 May 1707, but it was the point at which the union became irreversible. England and Scotland were now locked into a shared political, financia...

What happens when a “last walk back to the car” turns into a metal detecting day you will never forget? In this episode of the Detecting History Podcast, I am joined by Chris Phillips and Paul Gould, the detectorists behind one of the most talked-about UK finds this year: an Anglo-Saxon gold ring and a stunning gold eagle-head mount (initially thought to be a raven), revealed through the Portable...

In this midweek episode of the Detecting History Podcast , we examine one of the most shocking moments in British history. On 21 January 1649, Charles I was found guilty of treason by his own subjects. Nine days later, he was executed outside the Banqueting House , ending centuries of belief in the divine right of kings. This episode explores how England reached that point, the role of Oliver Crom...

In this week’s solo episode, Katie is back in the field for the first time in a while with not one but two digs, while her ORX coil is still with Regton for inspection. She shares what it was like returning to detecting, how quickly the hours disappear once you’re swinging, and what she is learning as she gets to grips with the NOX 800 in both noisy and quieter ground conditions. You’ll hear highl...

In this episode, we go back to January 1559 , when Elizabeth I was crowned Queen of England at Westminster Abbey. We explore how and when Elizabeth became queen, why her coronation mattered politically and religiously, and how this moment marked the beginning of one of the most transformative reigns in British history. We also look at what this period leaves behind in the ground today — from Eliza...

In this episode of the Detecting History Podcast , Katie is joined by Ellie aka Miss Detectorist to explore the realities of modern metal detecting, from unforgettable historical finds to the power of community and storytelling. Miss Detectorist shares her personal journey into metal detecting over the last three years, including the excitement of uncovering Roman artefacts, her ongoing hope of fi...

Is metal detecting about to be licensed in the UK? A major parliamentary report published in December 2025 examines metal detecting, archaeology, current laws, and whether tighter regulation or licensing could be introduced. In this Season 4 opener of the Detecting History Podcast , Katie breaks down the final report from the All-Party Parliamentary Archaeology Group (APPAG), explaining what it sa...