In April 2026, members of the Midweek Searchers were given a rare privilege; the club was invited by James Brown, the National Trust’s South East Region Archaeologist, to take part in a fully sanctioned three day metal detecting survey at the historic Petworth House. The MWS team joined forces with a small cohort of detectorists who had previous experience of working with the National Trust (NT) on smaller scale projects.
The objective set by James was to conduct a wide-area survey of topsoil across areas slated for groundwork intended to restore the grazing quality for the park’s deer herd. Over 40 members attended across the three days, coming together not simply for the chance of finding history, but for the opportunity to search land of such enormous historical importance.
Being granted permission to detect on NT land is exceptionally rare, and to be trusted with access to a site as prestigious as Petworth House was both an honour and a responsibility, which every member took seriously from the outset.
In the words of the National Trust
“It was a great experience to invite MWS to Petworth and see their passion for detecting and how they rose to the task of surveying the challenging anthill landscape in hot weather, without losing their smiles and camaraderie. The team were a huge asset in not only helping us to cover a large area of investigation, but also in how they engaged with NT staff and the visitors. Though we are still working on the mapping and visualisation of the results and themes, I know already that we have been successful in the objective of identifying areas for further research, once the ground management has been completed.”
James Brown, National Trust South East Region Archaeologist
We very much hope that this collaboration between MWS and the NT can be continued and expanded to include future projects.