Back in 2021, amid post-Christmas Covid restrictions, maths teacher Mike Burke made a discovery that would cast a new light on history. He was doing a sweep of the front garden of his home in St Just, Cornwall, with the metal detector his wife had given him a year before. So far, he had turned up nothing significant, but what he found that day was truly exciting – an intaglio ring, thought to be Roman, from the 1st or 2nd century AD, with an image of the goddess Ceres engraved into a chalcedony gemstone. “I still get shivers,” Mr Burke told the press as he waited for authentication, which would challenge the belief that the Romans never reached west Cornwall.
Like many people, the Burkes were fans of BBC 4’s gentle comedy , credited with driving a boom in popularity of the hobby. Others took it up to escape the boredom of
