Last Friday I went to meet James Purnell who is the Secretary for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). I had arranged this meeting after Dr. Brian Iddon (MP for Bolton South East) visited an event in Bolton during National Archaeology Week. This led him to ask Mr Purnell a question about the funding of PAS during questions in parliament. As Mr. Purnell is the MP for Hyde and Staleybridge, which comes under my area, I decided to ask for a meeting with him to talk about the PAS and the work it does, particularly in the Greater Manchester Area.

On the day, one of the metal detectorists I work with, Glen Lister from the North West club came along and brought some of his best finds to show the minister.  Roger Bland (head of the scheme) also accompanied us to help us drive home the message about our funding issues. We had about half an hour to discuss the PAS with Mr Purnell and show him the good work we have been doing. Glen brought along some Medieval and Roman coins and a Bronze Age axe for Mr Purnell to see. He was very interested in the finds and was amazed at the condition of them considering their age. I had brought with me the Kraftig Profilierte brooch which is mentioned in my blog previously, as this is a great example of how recording the location of stray finds can be so important to our understanding of the past.

We then got around to the nitty gritty of the meeting and started explaining to Mr Purnell the effects of reducing funding for the scheme. He seemed sympathetic but gave a very typical Politician’s answer of not committing to anything!

However the meeting was a good opportunity to show someone who has a say in the future of the Scheme, exactly what we do.

My thanks to Glen for coming along and talking about dealing with the Scheme from the view of a detectorist.