In search of Codd =^-^= Bottledigging

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Eutow_Intermedium
Posts: 1011
Joined: Sat Jul 13, 2013 8:24 pm
Location: South London baybee !

Churchfields the Shutdown Aug 2014

Post by Eutow_Intermedium »

This day I filled in the Bell pit with the spoil that I had taken out.

This took less time than I had imagined. So I used the time to go back to the previous dig under the larger topple tree , to explore an awkward corner that i hadn't searched yet.

I found some nice items again. But here the ash layer was much thinner , and the way the tree itself had toppled over. Where I was iggin deep under the left hand side of the stump. It was clear that the impact of the falling tree had broken up most of the items just under where it had tipped.

I kept raking soil back out of the way so I could get into the hole and crouch down and get under the capping , but the further I went back the Bottle filled layer was getting thinner and thinner. In the end I used a fork to collapse the edge of the hole around and another Cream glazed Grate polish jug tumbled out.

Subsequently that excavation too now is shut down.

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Thinking about returning some day to plant a tree in the middle of the Bell Pit that I backfilled , to replace the tree that came down last winter gone.

From now on if I want to continue looking for items on that site, I will have to clear some Ivy off the surface and dig an entirely new hole. No overturned stump required.

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=^-^=

And here are my final last finds that I copped before shutting down my workings. Again a nice collection of items. Bit of a theme of blue going on here.

Image

Two big pickle jars , Meat paste jars , Perume bottles , Milk of Magnesia again , Marmite and Bovril , two blue Glue pots , a Crosse and Blackwell jr on the far right , tiny Masons OK Sauce bottle front right , even smaller one to the middle left. Cream glazed Grate polish just with some nice rusty cracking on the surface . And a really nice blue glazed pot . My score of the day

Aaand a Teapot Lid :mrgreen:

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And luckily for you

Thats it

=^-^=

I hope you enjoy all my Bottledigging pics and shenanigans while I am without cacti flowers.

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Regds & peace

Eutow_Intermedium*

Jonathan
Eutow_Intermedium
Posts: 1011
Joined: Sat Jul 13, 2013 8:24 pm
Location: South London baybee !

Re: In search of Codd =^-^= Bottledigging

Post by Eutow_Intermedium »

Brunãozinho wrote:Hey Eutow, as a kid, did you plan on being an archaeologist or something similar? Amazing marble and a quite good looking shell that you found there.
When I was younger I always wanted to be a Geologist , I also wanted to be a Train Driver . But neither of those happened and I ended up being a Horticulturalist , greener and Grounds maintenance contractor as well as Schools and Private gardens . But then I always loved being outdoors.

I missed out of Bottle digging when I was a kid . It was all the rage from the 1960's to the 1980's . I grew up in the 1980's.

Have only just started to gather all my bits up that I should have done when I was younger. But maybe it's just as well I have started doing it now. I can appreciate the finds more now than I probably could then , when I was younger. I have passed 33 of my 99 years now . So I have already live a lifetime in my opinion.

Now I start all the Nostalgia capture :mrgreen:
Eutow_Intermedium
Posts: 1011
Joined: Sat Jul 13, 2013 8:24 pm
Location: South London baybee !

Re: In search of Codd =^-^= Bottledigging

Post by Eutow_Intermedium »

My first Bottle Digging video clips for the You Tube

Featuring the GF ( Kim )

You win some , you lose some , you win again .

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With the converted Double buggy . Setting up tools for first dig.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4otxgQ ... wbFut_bFqQ

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Second video clip . Some finds , and back the day after to have another go , with the ( 2011 ) Ridgeback momentum and Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqHoFZ6 ... Q&index=19

Regds

=^-^=

Enjoy
Onzuka
Posts: 491
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2012 12:32 pm
Location: God's own county of Yorkshire

Re: In search of Codd =^-^= Bottledigging

Post by Onzuka »

Good to see you back on the Forum, Johnathon. I like to read about your bottle hunting and guerilla gardening.

Steve
Eutow_Intermedium
Posts: 1011
Joined: Sat Jul 13, 2013 8:24 pm
Location: South London baybee !

Re: In search of Codd =^-^= Bottledigging

Post by Eutow_Intermedium »

Need to start a new Photobucket account for this seasons Cacti Flowers or try and get into my Old ( new ) one . I just been so busy.

The new Cacti growing season has been going for at least a month here now. I have had a few interesting flowers so far.

But I am struggling to keep up with my own lifestyle. Been super busy in recent weeks.

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Since late March I have been going out of area to look for Bottles , since my local tip You Tube : / Red Robin Bottle Tip has been flooded from Dec 2014 to mid May 2015 . Only last week , the water level at Red Robin Bottle tip finaly dropped below sub soil level . Under the Clay and pebbles.

On May 17th I payed a visit to the Nearby Allotments Society on their open day. I done quite a bit of walking around the site and my attention was by no means biased towards Bottle Digging , as I have an allotment myself , and am interested in all that is green and the outdoors . Sipping Teas , Pop can's , eating cake and a Burger off the BBQ. I even bought a couple of trays of Runner beans and some Bedding Begonia's . The beans have already gone in on my proper allotment. And the Begonia's are finaly starting to go into hanging baskets and pots at ( Nash's garden ) Barbara's house.

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As I said I have been moving out of area in my search of other bottle digging sites.

One I dug at least four test pits on , went first down onto Winkles , which I thought was a good indicator . But they all ended up on Broken Brick , Slate , Roof tile , tile , window glass and some remnants of Wood remains. I later researched this particular Gravel pit on line and found it to have been infilled with the remains of Bombed out homes just after WW2 , and it was sealed in 1948.

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In March this year I chanced up a Spring behind a Lodge in Addington Village . I was with the Girlfriend the second time and seeing signs of Native British Bluebell's coming up, in between Sycamore's , I couldn't bear to leave all the litter strewn around that small section of woodland , between Corkscrew Hill and the nearby Golf Course. I returned the next time with the Girlfriend and holding Litter pickers we removed no less than five Black bags full of rubbish from parts of the woods.

The Spring rises and tumbles down a gravel slope , before promptly disappearing underground , just after a small pond. Now I know what they called it Spout Hill !

On looking around the area behind the small lower pond and spout. I noticed remains of old Embossed Beer bottles and local Salt Glazed stoneware with W . Sharp Croydon on it and the imprint of the Park Hill Water Tower on it. A dig resulted in relatively few finds , just several small bottles and a Patterson's ESS Camp coffee bottle.

Another visit on my own saw me move a further four black bags of Rubbish including Bottles, cans and shoe's from the small wooded area.

On my last visit I removed another one bag of junk. But I also went to town digging a hole behind what appeared to be a hillock covered in Brambles. A sign of more substantial soil compared to the Poor draining Gravel slopes that the Bluebells were now in full bloom on. There was a distinct two or three inch capping later of Clay and stones. But the copious amounts of earth I excavated and moved yielded very few bottles , just hunks of metal and the base of a busted Stoneware that for a couple of minutes , had me excited.

What I did find was the bottom two courses of a wall and the chalky fill of a foundation and a few flints. I guess dated this at Pre 1900 . I don't know how old the Lodge is , but I haven't seen an out building in this location on old maps of the area . So this could even be an older previously lost building. That may date to the 18th Cent or even before . But I couldn't tell how thick the bricks were , but they were smooth topped and Red in colour.

I gave up digging the big hole and had another look on top of the Hillock behind the small pond and spout. various large tree trunks laying around . Who knows , some may date to the Hurricane of 1987.

Was fortunate enough to find a Veno's Lightning Cough Cure bottle on the surface of the soil , hindered by many dead Blackberry stems. I managed to beat back some of them and with much hardship with the Litterpicker . Corktop and in very good condition. I'd say 1920's or before.

What I could not explain was the presence of Bottle remains on the surface on the hillock and not inside the clearly Capped said hillock or possible tip , that has produced limited finds. My guess is that the Bottles in fact come from further S and slightly down hill from the location I was digging. Trees must have been cleared and a small bulldozer pushed the logs upwards and around the edge and the top of the hillock . The place where I think the items possibly came from , is a sea of Blackberry's again . Which will make it very hard to look for anything . There is also a Golf Tee nearby .

Clearly behind the lodge there is bottles , and they could date to 1920 and pre . Maybe as early as 1890 . but finding them won't be easy.

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Using old maps I visited various former Chalk and Gravel Pits . Most were inaccessible on private late or now on Golf Courses :(

But on one particular day I visited a small long supposedly Gravel pit next to a fast main road in a rural location nr Addington Village. On having a look around with the Girlfriend in tow , I discovered a piece of metal face down and part buried in the soil surface. I scraped around the end and turned it over to find out with much surprise , that it was a Pre War royal blue and white R.Whites Lime Juice and Soda 1D ( Enamel Sign ) with London Manchester and Birmingham on it. :o

Condition could be better . The critical parts of the sign are pretty good , but it's quite tatty compared to the ones you see on the Preserved Railway's . But it's only my second Enamel sign that I have found . The last being a small Pre War royal blue and white News of The World sign that was in two pieces , and likely went on the top of an old Sandwich board back in the day , outside a shop. I found this at Coney Hall bout 1998 and gave that to a Railway Preservation Society.

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I also took a bus from Bomley to the Biggin Hill area and visited a Chalk Quarry of a small size . Again I was with the Girlfriend . The location yielded finds and bottles from the 1960's to Early 70's including a vehicle registration plate that dates to 1969-70 . The deepest part of the quarry has been filled in with Silt over the years , after a pipe has been diverted from a nearby road into it . 60's 70's items were on the surface , so there could be older stuff buried below that road silt .

Nearby in the same small quarry was a small upturned tree with much moss covering pieces of chalk and also much older bottles that could be 1920 and pre . Well worth going back for another look. Unfortunately this particular Chalk quarry is quite out of the way , and i'd have to make a day of it .

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Then within the last month or two I notice that a local town green had small trenches dug to created a place for laying an Electric cable between two new Street lights . To this day they still haven't complete the job. and I had a snoop around the Skanska contractor works . To my surprise there was fragments of broken Crockery and glass on the surface :) . I picked up a nice little Shear top bottle with a slightly broken top , but on cleaning it tuned out to have very attractive coloured ( rough ) glass with many internal bubbles. I also found a 1oZ Bovril jar that to me , looked to be one of the very earliest types. Unfortunately it had silver chips off here and there. The smashed base of a plain Salt Glazed item was found , and I managed to find enough parts of it that I was able to glue it back together with Loctite Glue .

A second visit resulted on me pulling out a completely mint 2oZ Bovril jar :D . Of which I estimate dating pre 1920 for sure. Also from a pile of Contractor excavated earth , the base of a White glazed stoneware ( cold cream ) pot , complete and undamaged.

On further visits I became a bit more cheeky on the local town green and put the Three pronged cultivator to the insides of the Contractors holes. I was safe as they hadn't actually fed the electric cables in up to now . A very nice Dinneford's Magnesia bottle came out shortly after the top of the lid of the Cold cream pot ( plain ) , that I had already found the base of previously on the surface. The busted remnants of two Emerald Green ( internal stopper ) R.White & Son's Ltd bottles came out . I managed to salvage a Complete R.White stopper still in the opening and busted off neck . I have used that to marry with one of two other R.White bottles that I have found relatively recently.

Then another day another nice Shear top bottle came out ( old ) with nice glass and internal bubbling . This one bigger than the earlier one I found and a different shape, and had remnants of a printed label on the sides. The day ended with me finding a very interesting little pre 1920 bottle just as two of the local Constabulary walked up on me. :roll: . For some reason they found it all very fascinating , instead of booking me and telling me to leave the area and Electric Cable excavation hole alone ? !

That bottle was a Congreve's Celebrated Balsamic Elixir for Cough's Hooping Cough and Asthma . As in good a condition as the Dinneford's Magnesia and 2oZ Bovril.

And my conclusion.

Not long after the Large Villa's started being constructed around the town green , a trench was dug to house an old Victorian/Edwardian ( brown glazed ) water pipe . This was left open to the elements for a time and Locals started putting items into the trench. Later they finaly filled in the old trench , and it was lost to the eye until only recently. Considering the items I have found so far and their condition . I know that there are certainly some Gem's under there in that hidden Victorian/Edwardian pipe infill. Problem is , can I bring myself to be cheeky enough to dig a proper inspection pit a foot , to two foot away from the current new Cable trench. I don't know.

It's clear the local Police find it very interesting . But do I really want to take the piss and push my luck on a Town green ? [-(

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Last month I joined an Italian lady of who normally does Mudlarking to a site on the Medway River in Kent. She is secondary in Bottle Digging or Collecting in her interest. But the visit to Lower Halstow was most fruitful . And the best finds being a smaller sized R.W&S Ltd, R.White and Sons Limited internal screw stopper bottle . Then I found a larger example of the same bottle further up the estuary or former Brick Works wharf , just sitting there on the surface , staring at me in the face . Complete with no chips and not to sickly looking either. I married the Town Green stopper with the Larger bottle from Lower Halstow.

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Then about a week ago I went to Wimbledon for a Pasty ( lunch ) . On the way back it was my intentention to visit Mitcham to scout a site then go to Ikea and then on to visit my grandpa Rex at the Old Peoples home. Unfortunately I only got as far as Mitcham . I arrived at the site after having a good feeling passing the site on the tram on various occasions. Turned out to be a Playing Field , which had similar echoes to me of Red Robin Bottle Tip , of which is also a Playing field now. A piece of land turned into a playing field must have been made that for a good reason. Possibly because they couldn't use the land of building uses .

I made my way along the grass towards the ( rough ) . A sea of Cow parsley , nettles and ground hugging Hops would you believe it , lay before me ! ?

A now overgrown Woodchip path extended a curve into seemingly Nowhere . And at the end of this path about four or five metres away a big hole in the ground . I looked over the side to see instantly " Bottles " . I jumped in and started to scrape around at the soil with broken crockery and slate . various finds dating to the 1920's Early 30's were found and I started to make a small pile . I had been dodging thunder showers pretty much all day , and when it came to gathering my jacket and bits and leaving for my next destination , I found I was missing my Phone !%?* :cry: . So everything went out of the window thereafter. I had a quick shift around in the soft earth but nothing.

So I was forced to make a hasty exit and boarded the tram at Mitcham for Sandilands, where I got off and walked down to my Parents flat. Unannounced and only having seeing my Mother earlier that day I begged her to let me borrow her phone so I could call my own lost one, in the hole at Mitcham . Her charge at about 55% I took that and her charger on the bus back to my Gaff to get my Cut down rake and some tools to help my search for my buried phone . Mumsy's phone didn't get much charge time as I couldn't waste a moment . Rush hour was under way and I couldn't rely on the weather and Clouds blocking light now this time of evening. By now it was at least 6.00pm when I got the tram back to Mitcham .

The weather held out and it in fact warmed up as I used Mumsy's phone to call my own , and instantly pretty much heard it ringing under my feet. All that Tuesday's plans were shot by then . The first time the phone rang off , so I tried again and with Three pronged cultivator in hand I got closer to the ground with my ear , and found it buried about one or two inches down. #-o

Bailed out this time , a lucky man.

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I then with the pressure off , spent a little while excavating a corner in the hole in the ground. Using the cultivator and cut down rake. Yes more 1920's finds , milk glass and a White glazed Blacking or Grate Polish pot. Strangely enough most items were coming up still with much of their original labels remaining intact .

Well worth another further look on this site another day . Could turn out to be a Bottle ( gold mine ) . Don't even know how old and deep it goes .

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The water level at Red Robin Bottle Tip is finaly down to below the sub soil . So I have started digging there again within the last week. Found another ( brown glass ) Lysol bottle and my first complete Pre 1930's Willow Pattern ( saucer ) or complete Willow Pattern anything. Although I had to find both half and Loctite glue it back together . The most recent find was a Large Clear Aqua/Blue ( hexagonal ) Poison bottle with the words Not to be taken embossed on it. My first clear ( hexagonal ) of it's type I have found on RRBT . And my first , so strait into the collection. Also several Toothbrushes , a small brown glazed Cream pot and various other items .

I best end it there , it's 3.30 am :mrgreen:

Update and possibly pics later.

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Hopefully Cacti pics too :lol:
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K.W.
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Re: In search of Codd =^-^= Bottledigging

Post by K.W. »

Hello Eutow,

hope you live and it goes well!

Congratulations on your birthday!!!

What are the bottles? . . .


Best wishes

K.W.
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
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