I found an 18th century stash.

[robgil]

Up ontop of a beam that supports a king joist in the cross entrance, i was removing some cracked and crumbling daub to re-mix and put back, only a small panel about 10 inches square and from in behind it some where came three clay pipes. All have broken stems but the bowls were still in undamaged condition. Two are decorated , one with roses and one a face and the third is an older plain design with a larger bowl to stem angle.
I know they are the cigarette buts of the past and very common but why would someone hide/stash the bowls like that after the stems broke off?

 

[christinawoodward]

Hi again,
Quick reply before I log off. You were lucky to find nice decorative things like that. Clearly special to someone. They must've been significant objects. I found a largish piece of cloth buried in the back wall of the fireplace when I was re-pointing it (see photo I posted earlier tonight). It had what looked like a blood stain on it with some very fair blonde hairs. Looked like baby hair. Sounds horrible doesn't it. I put it back. I've heard the idea was to divert the attention of bad spirits coming down the chimney, away from the inhabitants. I can see the logic. There's probably some logic to the clay pipes too, just need to work it out.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

I've said it before, I'll say it again - please, please report your finds
http://www.apotropaios.co.uk/

 

[CliffordPope]

I found the skeleton of a domestic cat buried in the wall of my cottage. I think they did it to ward off evil spirits. I put it back.

 

[Penners]

Broken clay pipes crop up a great deal in old buildings. In the C15th cottage that was my first project, I found literally dozens of them - inside walls, underneath floors... everywhere. When I dug out the floors for greater headroom, we also found hundreds of oyster shells (oysters having been, in days of yore, the food of the poor). Presumably somebody was too idle to take them outside to the midden.

 

[Penners]

I found the skeleton of a domestic cat buried in the wall of my cottage. I think they did it to ward off evil spirits. I put it back.

It works, too! I bet you haven't seen any evil spirits.

 

[robgil]

Ive found a few shells as well. I think i will put the pipes back, somebody a long time ago put them there and they dont belong to me so there they shall stay.
Brass buttons are another thing ive found here and there , and odd bits of cloth.

 

[AMc]

We found the more modern equivalent when we were working on our place.
The builder had finished the packet before he dropped it between the ceiling and the floorboards above

View attachment 1

I had family who worked in the John Player factory in Nottingham so there is a tenuous connection.
I've not found a way to date the packaging so I don't know if my Great Auntie or Uncle could have made the packet or the fags that were inside it.

We also found a massive rat skeleton with a tiny rat skeleton on top of it - very creepy and I doubt that was put there on purpose. I'll spare you the pictures but it only just fitted on the shovel.

 

[Penners]

We found an identical fag packet, AMc. It was inside a relatively new partition wall, and had (I assume)the builder's name and date written on it. I can't find where Mrs P has "tidied" it to right now, but I think the date was 1932.

We also found a rather strange coin, which a local archaeologist identified as a piece of truck from Sudbury, Suffolk. And under the pamment floor we discovered a bronze candlestick that the same archaeologist believed might pre-date the C15th house.

 

[philpjuk100]

Found bronze rings in a crack in a beam,not sure of age but v crude and small!

 

[robgil]

I have just reported my pipes to the guy in Gareths link, apparently its not uncommon to find quantity's of pipes hidden like this. It could be something to do with an old story about the devil not being able to catch smoke rings. Interesting stuff.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oh, I'm so jealous. I fear my house is too modern for such superstition. Lovely find, Rob - and good for you reporting it to atropo popo wotsit.

 

[robgil]

He sounds like a really well informed bloke too Joce, i have to send him some photos and a rough description of where the pipes are hidden so once i get my camera talking to my computer again i should hopefully be able to find out a bit more, but to be fair i think the pipes might be there for one of many possible reasons but the story about the devil does sound nice.

 

[middi]

During the many restoration projects I have worked on I must have come across Countless types oa artifacts, inscriptions, marks, signs, rings, claypipes, buried animals (in walls and footings), shells, painted goats head, witches circless, money, (never enough to retire on), bullets, bones and so on.

the most stisfying thing I learned is when I was doing a restoratn job on a very old cottage in Epping,essex.
I found a small triangular hole in the lower part of the base timber wall, It had a sliding internal small shutter and above this old english text warding off witches. The whole lot had been preserved as it was covered by lap boards and hard render.
According to waltham abbey museum, whilst hardly any of these opening still exist in tye Epping area, these were quite common in houses in that neck of the woods. Apparently during the various "bouts" of the plague in the centuries past, all the unfortunate people living in the London more crowded environment were put on a cart and "shipped" out in the Epping forest area and left to fender for themselves. These poor souls would have had no choise but to go begging in the surrounding scarsely populated area, as locals would have been very reluctant to invite them in these " holes" in cottages served to hand out some food ( or chuck out food) .
I also learned why on the old London road as it enters Epping there is the hamlet called " bell common". The locals used to ring a bell situated there to warn people that another load of the unfortunates had arrived in a cart from London.
I found these kind of history lessons one of the more rewarding aspects of restoration
Middi

 

[Alex]

We found a clay pipe and a mouse skeleton here in the chimney last year, I'm pleased that it wasn't a cat, I think that would have upset me. I know that dog skeletons have been found buried in the ground, in the entrance of iron age round houses, it seems to have gone on for thousands of years and then stopped.

Alex

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Oh, I'm so jealous. I fear my house is too modern for such superstition.

I've seen boot and shoe outlines cut deeply into a lead roof and dated 1843, and on a church roof which was renewed at least as late as the 1880s. I've heard of written curses left as late as the 1920s, and a workman's welly was deliberately buried in a shopping centre in York in 1982. But something I read about the practice of concealing shoes and clothes suggests it's men who are most reluctant to remove such finds, so nothing to worry a ladies' head about.

 

[Flyfisher]

I'm beginning to feel a little remorseful that I've not been leaving a trail of hidden artifacts during my various bits of work for future occupants to discover. I've been scrawling my name and the date but nothing else.

I'm not too bothered about any atropo po po thingummies (to coin a phrase from Joce) but things more of a 'time capsule' nature. What would be appropriate and interesting I wonder? A few old DVDs? A computer hard drive? A few lumps of coal to remind future historians what fossil fuels looked like? A small box of fishing flies perhaps?

Any suggestions?

 

[DaveBrigg]

Last summer we found a quantity of hidden objects beneath the stairs, in a space that had been bricked up but disturbed in the 1970's. There were six shoes, all odd and including one from a very small child, about 20 clay pipes, all broken, and assorted bits of metal, glass, bone and wood. The local museum suggested that I take them to Lincoln University, who run a 1 year post grad course in conservation. All the pieces were duly delivered in a crate, damp and filthy.

Ten months later I picked them up all beautifully preserved, catalogued and mounted in boxes where they could be kept safely but displayed for visitors. The shoes were all worn, with signs of repair, and one had the remains of newspaper in the toe. The metal pieces were identified as an iron hammer and the pipes had been repaired and traced as being made in Brigg in the 1850's. They were also given a piece of course cloth which we found at the back of the fireplace, which turned out to be the seat of a pair of woollen trousers. There is no doubt that most, if not all of the objects had been left deliberately, because one shoe had been built into the base of the wall, and remains there still. Some pieces of the clay pipe were inside the shoes. The hammer may have been left because iron objects were thought to ward off evil spirits (iron nails have been found in 'witches' bottles). The bones were more likely to have been left there by the rats, whose crumbling holes were also under the stairs. The university were delighted to have such a range of objects in 'as found' condition, which made a change from the ceramics they are usually given. I was delighted to have the items preserved to museum standards, free of charge.

If anyone else has things they have found that need proper preservation I would advise getting in touch. Search for 'Lincoln University conservation of historic objects'

 

[Penners]

Any suggestions?

Bury a 5-gallon drum of petrol. By the time your grandchildren dig it up, it'll be worth an absolute fortune.

 

[middi]

Any suggestions?

Bury a 5-gallon drum of petrol. By the time your grandchildren dig it up, it'll be worth an absolute fortune.

you don't miss a trick do you Mr P

Middi