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Buried treasure

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  • Sounds like a case for the Sweeney!
  • TopbirdTopbird Posts: 8,352

    In my first garden (victorian country cottage) I uncovered the original rubbish heap (pre council refuse collection). Lots of broken pottery, a few coins, some lovely, intact, local earthenware ginger beer bottles and some unusual glass bottles.

    In my previous garden (converted farm buildings) I found lots of bits from the old farm horses (horse shoes, one horse brass, bits of harness etc).

    In my current garden (20 year old build on site of a 1930's bungalow) I have found several breeze blocks, large lumps of mortar, a concrete lintel at least 4' long (still there - couldn't dig it out) and a large buried roll of roofing felt and lots and lots of broken brick image

    Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
  • Autumn dhAutumn dh Posts: 51

    I've found loads and loads of half clothespins. All pink and blue plastic. A hessian bag, loads of concrete rubble. A pvc pipe that leads from the middle of the lawn under the house to who knows where, and a rusted vertical pipe that goes so far down we don't know where it goes or why it is there. Also, one tea saucer, broken. We are sittting on top of an old roman settlement though. I bet there is something down there if we dig further.

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445

    My garden, site of gravel diggings from the horse and cart days, was used as a dump for years before our arrival. We have, on the down side, lots of agricultural plastic sacks and metal containers (dread to think what they contained), glass, plastic, bits of asbestos, carpet, rusting metal, a fridge. On the plus side, large lumps of concrete, big enough to build a good solid set of steps and a 'rock face', and some lovely old hand made bricks, enough for a summerhouse wall. Still to find, the Reliant Robin my neighbour dumped there.image



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • LG_LG_ Posts: 4,353

    In this garden, lots of nice paving bricks (not enough for a path but maybe a small seating area) and various rocks, lumps of concrete and broken paving slabs. This is a 40s house with an Edwardian footprint (flattened in WW2).

    In our previous garden - Edwardian house - we dug out the concrete footings for an Anderson shelter and enough glass for a whole greenhouse, but in thousands of small pieces (sieved the lot). More interestingly, a flat iron, quite a few nice old bottles and bits of pottery, and a pottery light / blind pull with the name of the town glazed on it.

    'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
    - Cicero
  • Zoomer44Zoomer44 Posts: 3,267

    My allotment was like an 'Aladin's cave' and at sometime quite lovely cared for because when digging out all the brambles and weeds came across a net work of brick paths, just a few inches below the surface, all locally sourced from a brick works nearby. I did  dig up the end of a clay pipe one day.

    A home made shed had an old sign used in it's build, the shed has since been knocked down but I've kept the wooden sign, not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, it's about 6ft by 2ft.   

  • wow,i could read this all day,youve found great finds,so far,ive found pottery,and,a little doll,nothing exciting.but iam going out side,to repaint,my potting shed.forest green.read more of your exciting finds later,image

  • We've lived in this late thirties house for around ten years and have found some prettily pattern broken china (which are used for drainage in the bottom of flower pots), a sack barrow, two chair legs (!), several yards of rusty wire, numerous bed springs and pieces of iron, bits of scaffolding, some music cassettes, a coffee mug, a few manky old batteries, some cosmetics and the base of a 70s table lamp and lots of burnt, unrecognisable things, mostly plastic. The chap who lived here before us was a second hand goods dealer and when he passed on and the house was cleared, his sons burnt the rubbish, spread it out over the back garden and buried it a few inches down in the back garden - wow, thanks, guys!  

    We often dig up bits of bricks and roofing tiles from the farm building that used to stand here. I'found a couple of enormous rusty nails, various unidentifiable tins, broken glass, animal bones and two sheets of rusted corrugated iron, probably parts of an Anderson shelter which was used to form part of the fencing at the bottom of the garden.  

    Most interesting find was a fibre glass boat buried in the back garden six feet from the back door.  Seems that the owner before us used it as a garden pond and it was drained by his sons and filled in. We also found parts of a fountain and some water plant baskets in there.  On the plus side, there were also several rows of vegetables - potatoes, cabbages, onions, lettuces, horse radish, some rhubarb and a couple of outdoor tomatoes and we thoroughly enjoyed them.   

    We're always finding something in the back garden. Now, if I can just persuade my husband to dig up the front lawn...

  • Lou12Lou12 Posts: 1,149

    Don't even go there, if ONLY I had found any lovely Elizabethan coins. I live in a 1930's house too and I have dug up and reburied with much pomp and ceremony at least 20 of somebodys beloved cats and dogs including what looked like a great dane in a carpet roll, we took it out of the carpet and buried him/her properly on a carpet of leaves surrounded by flowers.

    There used to be a glass factory at the end of the garden and there is a mass of buried glass, you have to be so careful and never plunge your hands into the soil. I've dug loads of glass up and got rid of it but still it keeps coming.

    My garden was also a rubbish repository for every inhabitant of this house it seems I've cleaned a ton of old junk including  a buried mini, I kid you not!!!! When they were digging the foundations for our extension the builders could not believe someone had gone to all the trouble of burying a car! Luckily there were no skeletons in it image

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