We’ve been in our house 30+ years but it was a new build when we bought it. My undergardener as he likes to be called was gardening with a pick as we had to. Anyway he calls me to come down to the bottom of our patch of compactedearth. He said he’d swong the pitch again but it had bounced back. We scrambled about and unearthed a dress ( crimpalene) for those of a certain age. Honestly we thought we’d found a buried body. I was marginally pleased as I thought the police would have to come and dig it over. Anyway further investigation showed it was an old hold-all filled with old clothes. Later in the gardening with a pinch process we unearthed carrier bags of Playboy and Penthouse magazines, classed as naughty back then. We discovered our garden had been the builders dump and any one with rubbish had chucked it on there. All the builders did at the end of the build was level it. Over the years we dug up enough bricks and concrete to build another house! No interesting finds though.
The potential in my garden is major as the whole property lies directly on a Roman road. Sadly the bit of garden I look after was completely redone with shipped in soil in the 70's so no finds there at all. The remainder is a small bit of woodland but it's very rocky. We do regularly find worked sandstone which historically rolled down the hill about 50 yards from a 13th Century quarry which was used to build the nearby Vale Royal Abbey.
I found what we think was a whole asbestos garage in my brothers garden. It was buried a couple of feet down and we only found it as we were digging a wildlife pond. Luckily we had a friend who deals with asbestos so we got rid of it. I also found when planting a tree, what we think was an old boiler. It was hard to tell as it was just twisted metal and rusted circuit boards. Various other electrical items have been discovered ands well.
Down our allotment we must have had a tip at one point because I've found enough carpet to redo Buckingham palace, enough boot polish to buff the grenadier guards boots and enough animal bones (mostly pig we think) to feed them.
Our back garden in comparison is a bit boring as we only found parts of a bomb that was dropped in ww2. I don't know how many hit our local area but this one was well known because it blew up the back fence, landing between two anderson shelters.
@Biglad mm hmm Our place was a barn when we bought it and the remains of the original farmhouse are in what's now our garden. We find old shiphams paste jars quite often. Someone clearly had a bit of a 'thing' for the stuff. We found bones in what is now our pond - either a pony or a short cow, like a Dexter. In our last house, also an old farmhouse, we found the remains of three bicycles, a lot of metal buckets, two sheepdogs (with little grave stones) and a lawnmower. Here it's mostly baler twine and broken gates
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
It could be 17th century but probably more likely to be WW1 - but I am only going by the pictures. I have no specialist knowledge.
After I found it I googled lots of things as I didn’t really know what to call it, I came across one that looked similar and that lead me to the Portable Antiquities Scheme.
I emailed our local officer for the East Midlands, she said it was a double swan head strap fitting. I have no idea, there are hundreds on there site if you google Portable Antiquities Scheme s-shaped fastenings.
I’m really pleased with it, it doesn’t matter how old it is and I no it’s not much but it’s my treasure I found. I was happy with the late Victorian half penny till I found this. I just don’t know how I haven’t dug it up all the years before.
It's a lovely thing to have. I take it you aren't going to wear it @SherwoodArrow?
I’d probably end up breaking it or worse losing it (like it’s original owner). I don’t think it would “work” well with my jeans, t-shirt and cardigan either
When we had our stone wall built, I asked the mason what interesting things he’d found in walls he had rebuilt. The answer was very disappointing, nothing more exciting than Coca Cola bottles. That’s one reason we put into the wall a time capsule with enough material to open a small local history museum when it eventually re-surfaces.
I found a decomposing tin of (1940s vintage) flares under the boundary hedge (which is a few hundred years old itself) a couple of decades ago. In the same general area, there were a couple of 6ft lengths of track (same shape as railway track, but only a couple of inches tall and wide) buried. Have also found several very heavy lumps of what look like bloom, or slag from small-scale iron smelting, which could be Roman or even Iron age (I don't believe they can be dated.) Either is as likely as the other around here.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
It could be 17th century but probably more likely to be WW1 - but I am only going by the pictures. I have no specialist knowledge.
After I found it I googled lots of things as I didn’t really know what to call it, I came across one that looked similar and that lead me to the Portable Antiquities Scheme.
I emailed our local officer for the East Midlands, she said it was a double swan head strap fitting. I have no idea, there are hundreds on there site if you google Portable Antiquities Scheme s-shaped fastenings.
I’m really pleased with it, it doesn’t matter how old it is and I no it’s not much but it’s my treasure I found. I was happy with the late Victorian half penny till I found this. I just don’t know how I haven’t dug it up all the years before.
It's a lovely thing to have. I take it you aren't going to wear it @SherwoodArrow?
I’d probably end up breaking it or worse losing it (like it’s original owner). I don’t think it would “work” well with my jeans, t-shirt and cardigan either
I think it'd lovely as a manly "brooch" on a lapel.
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I also found when planting a tree, what we think was an old boiler. It was hard to tell as it was just twisted metal and rusted circuit boards. Various other electrical items have been discovered ands well.
Down our allotment we must have had a tip at one point because I've found enough carpet to redo Buckingham palace, enough boot polish to buff the grenadier guards boots and enough animal bones (mostly pig we think) to feed them.
Our back garden in comparison is a bit boring as we only found parts of a bomb that was dropped in ww2. I don't know how many hit our local area but this one was well known because it blew up the back fence, landing between two anderson shelters.
Our place was a barn when we bought it and the remains of the original farmhouse are in what's now our garden. We find old shiphams paste jars quite often. Someone clearly had a bit of a 'thing' for the stuff. We found bones in what is now our pond - either a pony or a short cow, like a Dexter.
In our last house, also an old farmhouse, we found the remains of three bicycles, a lot of metal buckets, two sheepdogs (with little grave stones) and a lawnmower.
Here it's mostly baler twine and broken gates
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
After I found it I googled lots of things as I didn’t really know what to call it, I came across one that looked similar and that lead me to the Portable Antiquities Scheme.
I emailed our local officer for the East Midlands, she said it was a double swan head strap fitting. I have no idea, there are hundreds on there site if you google Portable Antiquities Scheme s-shaped fastenings.
I’m really pleased with it, it doesn’t matter how old it is and I no it’s not much but it’s my treasure I found. I was happy with the late Victorian half penny till I found this.
I just don’t know how I haven’t dug it up all the years before.
I’d probably end up breaking it or worse losing it (like it’s original owner).
I don’t think it would “work” well with my jeans, t-shirt and cardigan either
Failure is always an option.