Alex began his talk by explaining that he is one of a network of 40 Finds Liaison Officer (FLO) for England and Wales. He is responsible for reporting finds from Lancashire and Cumbria.  FLOs were established under the Portable Antiquities Scheme in 1996, in response to a huge rise in archaeological finds by metal detectorists. The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is managed by the British Museum and records archaeological finds discovered by members of the public. FLOs also have an important role in identifying and recording ‘treasure’. There’s a legal requirement to report all finds of Treasure – essentially single finds of gold and silver over 300 years old and groups (hoards) of coins and prehistoric metalwork – to the Coroner’s Court.

Portable antiquities are defined as any metal, bone or ceramic object over 300 years old that are identifiable. Once found and reported to Alex, he identifies and records them before adding them to the antiquities database at the British Museum.  Some items less than 300 years old are added to the database because of their local or national significance.

Alex then talked us through a series of slides that illustrated recent finds in Lancashire and Cumbria, with examples from each archaeological age from the Palaeolithic to the nineteenth century. Finds from the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras are mainly of worked stone tools. Few finds in the North West are of flint, but Alex showed examples of worked brown stone, chert and agate, which were more readily available than flint.

Despite its name, the Bronze Age starts to reveal pottery finds, as well as the expected copper and bronze artefacts. Examples included: axe heads, spear heads, tools, jewellery and utensils. Alex showed us similar finds from the Iron Age, but stressed that most continued to be stone, ceramic or bronze; iron was expensive to produce and was used almost exclusively for weapons. The Romans brought new technology to Britain, but not new materials, so finds from the era are identifiable largely through refinements in manufacture and becoming increasingly decorative. After the departure of the Romans, the local population continues to adopt and adapt their technology so that recent finds from the Medieval Period have included keys, pan weights (for balance scales), seals, metal horse equipment, pilgrim badges, tokens and coins. Throughout the presentation, Alex responded to members’ questions and related fascinating details of people’s lives during the passage of the eras.

He finished with some slides of ‘more modern’ finds: clay pipes, ‘trench art’ from WW1, art deco jewellery and colliery tokens from Towneley Colliery.

A most fascinating and informative afternoon.