John Smith is the 72-year-old chairman of the Torbay Metal Detectors' Club. This one time Naval man, turned fruit machine manufacturer then farmer, lives in retirement between Moretonhampstead and Chagford.

He took up metal detecting seven years ago as a means of getting his son, brain damaged in a road accident, out in the fresh air.

'You're swearing at me,' John said when I mentioned the word history.

'It bored me to tears at school because it was paper and I couldn't relate to it. Now I can handle the artefacts and go back in time, that gives me a tremendous thrill.'