crockery monsters!

[robgil]

How is it that when you dig gardens around old houses you find lots and lots of broken crockery fragments?
Ive found some quite old earthen ware type bits deep down in the clay but in the top soil i always find tiny bits of broken crockery , usually always blue and white thin type stuff , like bits of posh tea cups.
Is it just me?

 

[christianb]

No, it's not just you. And while digging a soakaway recently I ploughed through an inch-deep layer of Oyster shells.

It's all quite fascinating, really. You never know what you're going to "unearth"!

 

[Juju]

I've got loads of broken crockery and clay pipes from my garden. Funnily enough, I rediscovered the stash yesterday and was planning to wash it and do something creative with it ie cover a pot or do a little mosaic. Yet another creative project that probably won't get finished...

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Pottery - check.
Clay pipes - check.
Lots of small, brown, fragile animal bones - check, check, check.

A veritable midden heap.

 

[philpjuk100]

When digging a veg patch from where I removed a greenhouse I found lots of clay pipe bits,broken pot,musket balls,coins and a digital watch!all about 24" down,Makes you wonder about dating layers by the artifacts found there.phil.

 

[skier-hughes]

Apparently when our drive was made the farmer buried his old morris 1000 in the hardcore

 

[philpjuk100]

If it has number plates on it could be useful for dating the drive!

 

[JohnB]

I keep uncovering bits of broken glass when I dig up my garden :evil:.

 

[Flyfisher]

Yep, all of the above (except a Morris Minor!) when digging varous trenches for services and drains.

My theory is that they are small rubbish dumps. One area I dug through contained broken pottery, animal bones, a bent spoon, small bones and various burnt things. In the days before dustbin men, I reckon people would dig a pit and burn a lot of their household rubbish, then fill it all in and dig another pit.

 

[skier-hughes]

We know when the drive was built as they had planning permission, it was 1973, when the farmer had a farm shop and made a way in drive and a way out drive for customers.

 

[JohnB]

Apparently when our drive was made the farmer buried his old morris 1000 in the hardcore

Apparently I've got three cars, a digger, the remains of an old barn, and the brick bases of two huge greenhouses buried in my field. As well as what appears to be some of the greenhouse glass!

 

[Pford75]

Our home was commandeered by the RAF in the second World War as a spotting point (due to it originally having a large flat roof terrace). I'm sure the RAF also fancied the rather luxurious digs in comparison to what else was on offer. The appear to have used one of our fields for target practice as we have found large numbers of shell casings, bullets, shrapnel etc. Makes for hazardous digging!

 

[Penners]

How is it that when you dig gardens around old houses you find lots and lots of broken crockery fragments?
Ive found some quite old earthen ware type bits deep down in the clay but in the top soil i always find tiny bits of broken crockery , usually always blue and white thin type stuff , like bits of posh tea cups.
Is it just me?

I've found stuff like that in abundance, buried at virtually every one of our period properties - broken crockery, oyster shells, bits of clay pipe, animal bones, glass shards, shoe soles... even a bronze candlestick, a silver George IV coin and a piece of truck*.

You have to bear in mind that council rubbish collections are a relatively new idea. Prior to this innovation, every household had to get rid of its own rubbish. So most had a midden, tip, pit or whatever they chose as a place to dump busted stuff, food leftovers, and so on.


*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truck_system

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Whilst in the Holy Land we dug two enormous holes, about 6ft down, not a treasure to be found, We found oystershells and charcoal, that's all!

 

[MdB]

The story goes that a leg was found buried in our back garden - a human leg...


Apparently is caused quite a lot of fuss until it was identified as Grandma's old false leg. (I've no idea how true this story is)

 

[Flyfisher]

. . . and a piece of truck*.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truck_system

Interesting. I knew about the practice, which was quite common as the industrial revolution got going, but had never heard it associated with the term 'truck' though - which seems a bit surprising after reading that wiki link and seeing how widely the term was used.

I must have dozed off in class as that particular bit was explained.

 

[Penners]

Truck was finally outlawed by the Truck Acts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truck_Acts

 

[JoceAndChris]

The best things that have been found here are the huge and lovely old stone troughs - cattle drinkers? But we have the regular amount of detritus, along with some nice things like stone mullions and the remnants of the diamond shaped flags for the hall floor. I like finding a sensible use for all these things, and am using all the fragments of abbey or whatever it is for stopping weeds growing up the electric fence.

But Chris seems to find it amusing to decorate the cottage with what he finds, I'm currently bashing into a monster chain every time I go to the freezer, and there is a strange barrow thing in the upper scullery.

I wonder what people will say about our rubbish in a hundred years!

 

[robgil]

so what was with all the shells then? ive found a few of these under the concrete floor in the living room buried in the clay.

 

[worms]

so what was with all the shells then?

Lunch!?

Whenever we have mussels (which isn't often), I always put the shells in the compost - amazing how many mussel shells there are now in the garden!