GIRLS ROCK Meet the female treasure hunters making metal detecting cool – but who face resistance from its ‘cut-throat’ underbelly
Metal detecting isn't just for relics - as proven by the rising number of young women in Britain and America who love nothing more than pulling on their wellies and scanning for buried treasure
By George Harrison
8th January 2018, 12:15 pmUpdated: 8th January 2018, 1:18 pm
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WHEN you think about your typical metal detectorist, you'd be forgiven for picturing an old man shuffling around a field in an anorak.
But metal detecting isn't just for relics - as proven by the rising number of young women in Britain and America who love nothing more than pulling on their wellies and scanning for buried treasure.
Jocelyn Elizabeth runs a popular YouTube channel for metal detecting enthusiastsYOUTUBE/RELIC RECOVERIST
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Jocelyn Elizabeth runs a popular YouTube channel for metal detecting enthusiasts
That's right, metal detecting is (kind of) trendy, and amateur Brit treasure hunters are riding a wave of popularity after the success of metal detecting comedy Detectorists last year.
The Bafta-award winning show helped a whole new generation discover the hobby, leading to a gradual shift in the profile of your average detectorist.
And online, a tight-knit community of female treasure hunters have shaped themselves into YouTube personalities with tens of thousands of dedicated subscribers.
Among them is Pennsylvania-based Jocelyn Elizabeth, whose 20,000 YouTube subscribers know her as Relic Recoverist.
The detectorist says it's not always easy for women in the male-dominated hobbyYOUTUBE/RELIC RECOVERIST
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The detectorist says it's not always easy for women in the male-dominated hobby
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Female metal detectorist Relic Recoverist takes to YouTube looking for treasure
She told the Sun Online that although metal detecting is moving into the 21st century, women can still face push-back from the dedicated treasure hunting community.
Jocelyn said: "I was hesitant to start metal detecting. I was twenty-six years old and far from your typical hobbyist. Most people envision a man in his sixties sweeping the beach for spare change.
"For the most part, the detecting community is helpful and inviting to newcomers. But once you're submersed into the hobby, you catch a glimpse of the uglier side. There's a lot of competition and the hobby can be cut-throat at times.
"It's especially rough being a woman - I feel like I have to prove myself even more, because everyone is so focused on what I'm wearing or what colour my hair is."
Jocelyn says there's a 'cut-throat' aspect to metal detecting which can make it harder for women to succeedYOUTUBE/RELIC RECOVERIST
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Jocelyn says there's a 'cut-throat' aspect to metal detecting which can make it harder for women to succeed
Diggin Britt has amassed nearly 100,000 subscribers to her YouTube metal detecting videosYOUTUBE/DIGGIN BRITT
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Diggin Britt has amassed nearly 100,000 subscribers to her YouTube metal detecting videos
Treasure in the English countryside
Detectorists in England have found all sorts of gems lurking beneath our green and pleasant land.Back in 2008, Michael Darke and Keith Lewis found 840 Iron Age gold coins in a Hampshire field, earning them £79,000 apiece.A 2010 find in a field in Somerset earned Dave Crisp £231,000 for the hoarde of 50,000 coins.In 2014, student Tom Lucking found a piece of Anglo-Saxon jewellery in East Anglia which was so rare and elaborate it was deemed a find of "national significance."The same year, Derek McLennan found a trove of 10th-century Viking relics valued at around £2 million while scanning near Dumfries.A year later, peniless Paul Coleman unearthed a haul of 5,000 Anglo-Saxon silver coins in Buckinghamshire, earning him £500,000 after splitting the find with the landowner.
But even if she does face criticism from some of the men in the community, Jocelyn has found a legion of fans online, where her YouTube videos have earned her a sponsorship to travel around the world with her camera and metal detector.
Her clips, often vlogs of her hunts for treasure, are filmed all over America and Britain, where young detectorists are flocking for a chance to dig up their own piece of our rich history.
And Jocelyn isn't the only young woman who has realised that the most lucrative treasure is lurking online.
One of the most successful detecting channels on YouTube belongs to Texas-based Diggin Britt, a light-hearted treasure hunter who boasts 98,000 subscribers and her own line of Diggin Britt merch.
The rise of female detectorists on YouTube reflects a growing number of women taking part offlineYOUTUBE/DIGGIN BRITT
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The rise of female detectorists on YouTube reflects a growing number of women taking part offline
Britt's clips see her travelling across the States and abroad in search of treasureYOUTUBE/DIGGIN BRITT
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Britt's clips see her travelling across the States and abroad in search of treasure
The YouTube star even has her own range of merchandise outYOUTUBE/DIGGIN BRITT
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The YouTube star even has her own range of merchandise out
Meanwhile, Digger Dawn, a detectorist who combs the English countryside in her vlogs, runs a channel with 6,000 subscribers, and is among hundreds of smaller - but growing - channels like NRCR Diggers, all run by female treasure hunters.
Elsewhere, regulars on detectorist blogs are starting to uncover more women talking about their finds, and offline you're more likely to bump into a woman combing a field for coins than ever before.
Harry Bain, editor of Searcher magazine, estimates that at least 30,000 Brits are involved in the hobby, with an increasing number of women among them.
She said: "You’re seeing more and more women out in the field and the women are often better than the men – they are more meticulous.”
Maybe they're jealous of the women's successes in the field, but the blokes aren't always that accommodating.
Digger Dawn is another woman who is taking on the formerly male-dominated communityYOUTUBE/DIGGER DAWN
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Digger Dawn is another woman who is taking on the formerly male-dominated community
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Female metal detector goes treasure hunting for her YouTube fans
"They seem to think that wearing camo makes it easier to sneak up on the relics.
"But I've noticed a lot more females joining the hobby. They reach out to me because I think they feel a certain connection. We are the minority and we have to stick together."
