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BBC Radio 4 - 92 to 94 FM and 198 Long Wave

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OPEN COUNTRY

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	PROGRAMME INFO

	Saturday 6.10-6.35am Repeated Thursday 1.30-2.00pm


	From Shetland to the Scilly Isles, Open Country travels the UK in search of the stories, the people and the wildlife that make our countryside such a vibrant place. Each week we visit a new area to hear how local people are growing the crops, protecting the environment, maintaining the traditions and cooking the food that makes their corner of rural Britain unique. Email: [email protected] Postal address: Open Country, BBC Radio 4, Birmingham, B5 7QQ.


	LISTEN AGAIN


	Listen to Open Country for 1 January 2005


	PRESENTERS

	HELEN MARK and RICHARD URIDGE



	More about Helen Mark




	More about Richard Uridge


	PROGRAMME DETAILS

	Saturday 1 January 2005
Hidden Treasures Ever wondered why some houses you walk into make you feel uneasy? Do you believe the use of two sticks can actually find the reason why? And did you know metal detecting and farming go hand in hand? This week Richard Uridge is looking at finding hidden treasures underground ... from pure water to real treasure ... and even peace of mind. The most commonly known method of finding underground water or minerals is dowsing. Using everything from twigs, bent metal rods and pendulums, dowsers reckon they can amplify the subtle signals of these underground treasures. At Stancombe in Gloucestershire, Richard meets traditional dowser Peter Golding. Peter's been dowsing for 27 years and uses metal rods simply bent at one end ... or even a "W" shaped device made of packing tape ... to dowse. You can only ask questions with a "yes" or "no" answer ... if the rods move inwards - it's yes. If they move outwards, it's no. If they move in a diagonal direction, you have asked the rods the wrong question. He demonstrates how he can not only find water, but tell you how far down it is and how pure it is. The landowner, Alan Evans, is a blacksmith and tells Richard how he has no mains water, but a dowser found an underground spring to supply his cottage. And of course, Richard has a go at finding water himself. Then it's back home to Richard's house in Shropshire. Here, Christopher and Veronika Strong, who have been dowsing for 25 years, demonstrate how they can dowse both a person's energy field and their house for negative influences. They dowse a subterranean water source under the house which could drain energy from the inhabitants. But the Strongs say they have brought dowsing into the 21st century and can synchronize the house by changing the electromagnetic energy to a harmonious frequency with an electrified crystal. Richard however says he and his house haven't felt any different. A way of looking for buried treasure that's simpler to explain scientifically is metal detecting, and Richard travels to Meriden in the West Midlands to meet members of the local Metal Detecting club. The club provides farmers with a free service in return for being able to use their land. If the farmer loses equipment, he can call on a metal detectorist to come and find it. Local farmer Lawrie Arnold explains how grateful he was when the club found some missing linkage off his combine harvester which saved him a couple of otherwise lost days. Detectorists Bob Baldock and Pam Finch talk about how there's more to metal detecting than just looking for lost jewellery. They have been part of a team which has been charting local history - they've logged hundreds of finds from this one site alone. Bob has found a Bronze Age axe head, the oldest find. Pam's found a Henry VIIIth groat, and a Roman brooch called a fibula. A lottery grant meant the club could buy digital cameras and laptops to help record their finds in a professional way - all the farmers are given a book of all the finds over the year. And of course, it's every detectorist's dream to find real buried treasure. Richard travels to Seend in Wiltshire to meet Martin Elliot. Martin found the largest hoard of Roman silver denarii found in Britain - it was worth £265,000! Mind you, it had to be split three ways, but it enabled Martin to buy his council house and so transformed his life. There were 9,000 coins in the hoard and they're now on display in Taunton museum. Martin's been fascinated with old things since a child, and was given his first metal detector at the age of eight. Now he's convinced there's another hoard out there somewhere, waiting to be found. Just one more step, one more step ... Email Open Country: [email protected] The BBC is not responsible for external web sites

	RELATED LINKS Dowsing Christopher and Veronika Strong Metal Detecting BBC Holiday Category BBC Country file