Beach detecting gets unusal reward

Not quite what I expected

By: Chris Wheeler

Having decided to take our holiday at St Austell, Cornwall, I safely packed my Minelab X-Terra 50 amongst the clothes in my suitcase.

Choosing a dry day (we did have some) I went to Pentewan Sands, a short distance from St Austell.

I soon had a good signal – something large about a foot down in the sand. Having thoughts of buried treasure, I quickly dug down. I soon found two long pieces of rusting metal. What they turned out to be was the continuation of the old narrow gauge railway track once used to bring china clay down to cargo ships. Pentewan used to be an important harbour before it got silted up.

Undeterred I pressed on with my detecting. Another good signal raised my hopes. About 8 inches down I discovered a very nice stainless steel Seiko Chronograph divers watch – still in working order!

Although I did not find anything else, I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to the beach – a bit of local history and, though not an artefact, still a nice souvenir

PS I handed in the watch to the St Austell police station and as it was not claimed, now have it in my possession.