Magnet fishermen ‘hooked’ on hobby find wartime relics as well as knives and ‘criminal dumping grounds’ in rivers

Two magnet fishermen from Somerset have “become hooked” on their pastime of using professional magnets to trawl riverbeds, finding a dagger from the Second World War and a grapeshot canon ball from the Civil War.

They have also restored discarded BMX bikes for local children, and “help the wildlife” by removing scrap metal from the water.

Dean Bartlett, 47, and Chris Rogers, 35, who goes by the name of Hecter, started magnet fishing six and seven years ago respectively, and they have gained a following on Facebook under their page titled Dean and Hecter’s Magging Adventures, sharing their finds on social media.

The duo have both purchased professional “high-powered magnets” with a weight pull of anywhere between 600 to 1600 kilos, which they attach to abseiling rope, in order to pull objects of weight from the riverbed.

Over the years, they have collected several items of historical value, such as a wartime dagger and grapeshot canon ball from the Civil War, as well as a motorbike, BMX bikes, an office chair, scooters, knives, a machete and other pieces of discarded scrap metal.

Once retrieved, the pair will gather the unwanted items until they have collected around 700 kilos, which is then disposed at their local scrapyard.

The pair operate mostly from the River Frome in Somerset, but they are hoping to travel further around the UK, as well as visiting Germany in future to magnet fish in rivers with connections to the Second World War.

“To start with, we were just looking for interesting items – stuff people may have lost, or historical items,” Mr Bartlett, a father-of-10 from Frome, told PA Real Life.

“It sort of progressed from there.

“We like looking for interesting things, but we’re actually enjoying helping the environment at the same time.”

Mr Rogers, a father-of-one from Radstock, Somerset, said: “It’s mainly being intrigued and not knowing what’s in there that makes us want to know.

“I’m a carp fisherman as well, and I’m constantly walking past waterworks and waterways, looking in ponds and lakes thinking, ‘I wonder what’s in there apart from fish?’

“That’s why I started, it’s just curiosity I guess.”

Mr Bartlett added that he “became hooked” on the activity after trying magnet fishing for the first time around six years ago.

“I just got a bit intrigued by it and I bought a cheap magnet,” he said.

“I chucked it down a few times, pulled a few bits out, and then I became hooked.”

Mr Bartlett said the amount of people that commend the duo as they pass by for “cleaning up the water” is “crazy”.

“We do it for historical reasons, looking for historical items, but also helping the environment and the wildlife at the same time,” he said.

“The amount of people that compliment us for cleaning up the water is crazy.

“We’re not doing it for praise, we’re purely doing it because we love finding things that you wouldn’t expect to find.”

He added that they often get their children involved, which is “nice” because they “get all excited when they pull out a bottle cap or something”.

“But that one bottle cap is one less bit of rubbish in the water,” Mr Bartlett said.

“They’re getting excited, they’re staying out of trouble, they’re enjoying themselves – my kids enjoy it – and it’s doing the environment a favour at the same time.”

Mr Bartlett and Mr Rogers mainly magnet fish in the River Frome, but they have also travelled to Devises in Wiltshire, Bradford-upon-Avon, and Dundas in Bath.

The pair said they have pulled several items of historical value from the water over the years, including shotgun barrels, the dagger from the Second World War, and the canon ball from the Civil War.

“I keep the historical stuff that I find, I just find it interesting,” Mr Bartlett, who is medically retired, said.

“I’ve had a World War Two dagger – there wasn’t much left of it – but I researched it and that was from World War Two.

“I found a grapeshot from the English Civil War, it’s just a big lump of steel, but it was used as ammunition in the Civil War.

“The area where I found it, not far from there, there was a troop station.

“It could have come from there, so that’s like 400 years old.”

Mr Rogers, a full-time single father, added that they have also found “countless railway parts”, including a cast-iron plaque from a train engineering company dating back to the late 1800s, as well as other railway-related items dating back to the 1920s.

However, some of the rivers they fish in have become “criminal dumping grounds” and they have retrieved “loads of knives and a machete”, as well as “chopped up motorbike frames” and “car parts”.

“You tend to get a lot of criminal dumping grounds,” Mr Bartlett said.

“We’ve actually fished and pulled out a load of motorbike frames that were chopped up, car parts, and various other things.

“A lot of the stuff that’s in there – scooters and bikes – is just local kids stealing bikes and getting rid of it by chucking it in the river.

“We’ve found loads of knives, a machete.

“It’s just stuff that’s been discarded over the years.”

Mr Bartlett and Mr Rogers will often restore some of the items they pull from the river, including BMX bikes which they give to the local children.

“I love restoring things,” Mr Bartlett said.

“I’ve restored BMX bikes that we’ve pulled out and just given them to the local kids – there’s all sorts of things you can do.”

The pair explained that the money they make from taking objects to the scrap yard, which they said “is not a lot at all”, goes towards the petrol costs of their next “magging adventure”.

“If we make a little bit extra, we buy some lunch as well, but it’s rare,” Mr Bartlett said.

They are hoping to plan trips to Minehead in Somerset and Basingstoke in Hampshire, as well as to Germany in the future to try rivers near known historical sites connected to the Second World War.

“We do want to travel about, it’s just the financial side of things at the moment, we can’t afford the fuel,” Mr Bartlett explained.

“I’m retired due to an accident I had, plus my wife is disabled, so I’m at home most of the time.”

Mr Rogers added: “I’m a full-time single dad as well, so my time is very limited.”

Despite their schedules, they still try to magnet fish together once or twice a week, with Tuesday being their “magging day”.

“When we go fishing, we have a proper laugh – it makes my day going fishing with Chris,” Mr Bartlett said.

“We’re just constantly laughing the whole time we’re there.

“We help each other if we hit something really big, it’s just nice.

“Members of the public come and chat to us, we have a bit of a giggle with them, it’s just good fun, we love it.”