I have so far found several pieces of clay pipes, lots of blue and white pottery plus quite a bit of random pottery, one small shard of what I think might be medieval pottery, several tiny poison bottles of varying shapes and sizes plus a beer bottle from a long gone private brewer, worth £12.00 according to Dr. Google. A rusty horseshoe and a couple of metal heel trims from work boots complete my hoard so far. As the land my cottage is built on is on the edge of clay pit country my mind works overtime when I think of the families who worked in the pits and dryers, living locally, possibly in my cottage. The deeds to my cottage only go back to the 1800s, records weren't kept before then for workers' accommodation.
Love that @Joyce Goldenlily! Census records might list the workers, some of my family lived in an outbuilding next to the pub in the 1800s, they're all on the censuses.
There is a records office in Redruth but I haven't got around to going down there yet. I was stopped at our polling station one year by a man who overheard my address. He told me he used to play in the fields around where I am when he was a small boy, he and the children living here went to the same school. The walls of the cottages are cob built and 2/3 ft thick, mine was a typical 2 up and 2 down, no indoor toilet or bathroom, no mains gas, still not on mains supply, septic tank disposal, plenty of damp spots on walls although my cottage seems to have been well tanked so not too much of a problem. The 3 cottages are built of rough-hewn lumps of granite, not the nicely dressed granite blocks used to build Master's cottages, such as my daughter's house, with a stone with a date hewn into it, over the front door. On my deeds, the first registered owners were obviously well-heeled gentlemen living in London, a consortium of 5 Esquires living in Berkley Square, etc. The property went through a few hands before ending up being owned by Imerys who finally sold it to the sitting tenant, Imerys still hold the rights to mine minerals anytime they want. Very common down here.
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As the land my cottage is built on is on the edge of clay pit country my mind works overtime when I think of the families who worked in the pits and dryers, living locally, possibly in my cottage. The deeds to my cottage only go back to the 1800s, records weren't kept before then for workers' accommodation.
Census records might list the workers, some of my family lived in an outbuilding next to the pub in the 1800s, they're all on the censuses.
I was stopped at our polling station one year by a man who overheard my address. He told me he used to play in the fields around where I am when he was a small boy, he and the children living here went to the same school.
The walls of the cottages are cob built and 2/3 ft thick, mine was a typical 2 up and 2 down, no indoor toilet or bathroom, no mains gas, still not on mains supply, septic tank disposal, plenty of damp spots on walls although my cottage seems to have been well tanked so not too much of a problem. The 3 cottages are built of rough-hewn lumps of granite, not the nicely dressed granite blocks used to build Master's cottages, such as my daughter's house, with a stone with a date hewn into it, over the front door.
On my deeds, the first registered owners were obviously well-heeled gentlemen living in London, a consortium of 5 Esquires living in Berkley Square, etc. The property went through a few hands before ending up being owned by Imerys who finally sold it to the sitting tenant, Imerys still hold the rights to mine minerals anytime they want. Very common down here.