David Martin's Metal Detecting Finds

When: 19 March 2022 to 30 April 2022
Where: Torquay Museum Entrance Hall
Time: 10.00 am - 3.00 pm
Cost: Free
Suitable for: Any age

𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐃𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭'𝐬 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬 19 March - 30 April 2022.

In October 2021, the Devon and Somerset Finds Liaison Officer, Dr. Lucy Shipley, arrived at the Museum with a quite extraordinary collection of finds. There were boxes and collector’s cabinets overflowing with small metal items, buttons, buckles coins and decorative pieces of metalwork spanning thousands of years of British history. The collection was the lifetime's work of one detectorist David Martin. Following his death, his sister has donated the bulk of his finds to the Museum, over 300 small finds many found locally but a few from farther afield. We now have the privileged task of going through this incredible collection and documenting it. A selection of the finds are now on display in the Museum’s entrance hall for a limited time, these include coins, buckles, prehistoric objects and an exceptional Early-Medieval handle with a beast head finial.