In search of Codd =^-^= Bottledigging

[Eutow_Intermedium]

Thought I would put up a link to a video on the choob about Bottle digging.

While my collection of cacti sleeps, occasionally I have been here and there locally doing a spot of this.

I have yet to find a complete bottle of what is called a Codd, it would be nice to have a complete one but I am not desperate.

As you can see the man in this Fly on the wall documentary is a complete maniac ! How he doe'snt smash what he's digging up I will never know. He spends most of his time going like a train.

http://youtu.be/5rE65D9RZLM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Enjoy . . . .

=^-^=

Eutow_Int*

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Not all Bottledigging is limited to UK/GB soil. There are video's of such men in the USA doing the same thing.

But it seems Blobs are very popular over the pond.

[Eutow_Intermedium]

A few days ago the Girlfriend and I put on our wellies and took a walk in the river beyond the the footbridge at Churchfields main sub between Elmers End and Clock House.

The sun was starting to get low in the sky and with the sun behind us it was pretty hard to see nothing below the waterline. I made a return in the same section with the sun ahed of me , and it was much easier to see things below the surface. And using couple of three pronged cultivators we romped the worst of the rubbish that we could find.

What we found most of were Milk bottles.

RACS ( Royal arsenal cooperative society )
. CO OP ( kent ) , SSCS, one half pint and one 1/3 pint
United Dairies 1 pt CTG ( probly 1970's )
An SMA milk bottle ( safety milk association ) which turned out to be damaged on cleaning and was put into the recycle.
A meat paste jr, that was cleaned and received the same fate.
Plus a med to large clear glass jar that could be good for Kim the gf to put some pens in at some point.

So all in all a reasonable days river bottle search. No more CAUTION signs i'm afraid from the old power station that used to be on the no UKPN Churchfields main sub site. national Grid still own the land around the current sub. The brought it bulldozers and mechanical tree shredders last year and completely flattened the site, which was sad. Never mind the Slow Worms.

A Batey and Co ltd london Ginger Beer bottle with a Carbonite stopper facility ( 50's ) ? This was found on an early occasion, the other side of the concrete foot bridge. We also walked up the river that side of the bridge and found some of the above.

[Eutow_Intermedium]

About a week ago I found my first Brown glass Virol jar.

The morning before I had bad nights sleep, and kept having to throw the cat off me all night, as I couldn't handle her weight on my legs. My Knees and ankle's were bad enough as it was.

I finally got some hours sleep to wake up with a pain in my kidneys. Maybe it was something I had drunk the night before ?

Took the Camaro GT ( bricross ) light touring racer to Gary's snack shack, and then on the way back I decide to pay visit to the Norwood Country park in daylight , trackside next to the Visitor centre. I propped up the Camro GT nd took a walk down and scoured the surface where they had dug a trench and just buried a small electric cable.

I found a multi sided jar about 3 in high ( pickles ? )
Small paste jar
Another small Marmite jar
Another small Bovril jar
Small clear glass bottle/jar that would have had a cork or glass stopper at some point.
A small and attractive moulded glass Thingy me bob.
And the best find was my first Virol jar ( brown glass )
Also a ^_^' weeny moulded Terracotta gnome about an inch and a half tall.

[Eutow_Intermedium]

Recently while the Cow Parsley has been dying down and dried out. I thought I would have a sniff around one of the local spots and have a scratch around some foxholes for old bottles.

It started with a pretty Bog standard moulded meat past jar of V Good condition.

But today I had a quick look at a small raised area of soil in my ends, not far from Gary's Snack shack. Using a three prong cultivator to disturb the surface I managed to find the very smallest of Bovril jars ( brown glass ) . I don't have a jar that small so that was a good find. It is on the yellow side of brown too , so it could be very early one. I also found what I can only describe as being piece of steel that would have gone on the lower back of the frame of a bicycle, a fixture that would have been used to protect the exterior part of the gears on the rear hub. I'm unsure of it's age. It's in good condition and there is a small chance I might be able to use it meself.

After finishing a Chicken Bacon and Salad stick at Gary's Snack. I took the opportunity to pop by Norwood Country Park again with a Three pronged cultivator , to have another scratch around the old Fox holes.

The first old entrance I made a good effort but didn't find all that much. Managed to dig out a visibly damaged square sided OK sauce bottle , of which I discarded. Oddly there were very small traces of Cobalt blue powder in there ?

Finally I came upon what looked to be an intact saucer , it looked pretty simple and took bit of digging from below to remove it from the clay capping layer above. I eventually pulled it free to ring it was pretty well crammed in there and even though shallow, it was still full of compacted dirt, and yes strangely more cobalt blue powder ?

Eventualy after celebrating with a can of Cream soda and having one more small dig around I left that Fox hole at that and moved on to another nearby.

Very shortly after starting I immediately uncovered the top and neck of a clear glass bottle. I don't know why but agin I had a good feeling bout this item, and I got me phone out to Instagram it. After scraping around it a bit more and giving it a tug , I found it to be a clear glass Boots cash chemist ( Perfume ) bottle about 3 inches high. I was well Chuffed

It even had the remains of the original cork stopper with the hole through the centre in the top.

On cleaning it up at home it looked a treat and that fills a good gap in the collection . A wish list item that I hadn't even thought about. Not that i have wish list anyway.

Also I took the opportunity to pick up some of the wild Plums that have been falling on the slopes of the hill nearby. I hope to make more jam out of these tonite.

=^-^=

Eutow_Int*

[Eutow_Intermedium]

Went to Churchfields Rec today to do a spot of Bottle digging. I was between a river and the school boundary , nearby there is a concrete bridge over the river , but it goes to nowhere now . If there was a gate there at some time in the past , it's gone now . School playing field the other side of the partly downed chain link fence and scrubby tree growth.

I started digging a hole. Had a fork and border spade with me today , but to cut to the chase . I soon came up on a Water tank. And on digging around it and reaching the back , I noticed that that one was in turn leaning on yet another .

So my objective changed as always . From then on I started to dig out a Mock up of a WW1 foxhole , and if I could get the Water tank out of the hole , I would use it to place in a strategic position as to act like defensive bunker or a retreat behind.

Was having a hard time getting round this Behemoth so I decided to go to LEB and hunt down a heavy duty Pneumatic Drill attachment in order to use it to Crow , move it in the hole.

Shortly before that I had found an interesting embossed Milk bottle .

Using the Drill attachment and levering against the other Water tank behind. I managed to tip it over with much hardship to find it was not an open water tank but one with a circular hole with bolts around the outside. I managed to turn it on it's side and began by hand emptying the soil out of the inside.

Eventualy after rocking it back and dislodging more internal soil and taking it out, I managed to make it just light enough for me to struggle/haul it out of the fox hole. Once out of the hole and turned it on it's side, I was lucky enough to find some more bottles inside that were obviously stuck in one internal corner.

A meat paste jar , Heinz Co jar , another milk bottle in not such good condition and a larger clear glass jar . Maybe jam or pickles. Plus earlier I found a diddy little rectangular bottle with a round opening that was only an inch high . That was a good find. The meat paste jar turned out to be a moulding that I haven't got already , so that was good.

I then moved the Water tank and turned it upside down and put it to one side of the fox hole , before using the spade to dig some more soil out of the bottom and mound up around the tank and the sides of the dugout.

I left the second water tank in the hole. I'd been through enough already and it stayed in the trench as extra armour .

Managed to secure a piece of chalk and start writing on the tank, WW1 bunker , Bullet Proof Bunker and on the side of the other tank in the hole I wrote , Bridge --> Defend with big stick

The bottles I found at the end of the day were pretty normal . The Milk bottles date to around the 1960's 50's maybe and the other items may be slightly earlier , but not old old.

But my objective was reached to create a mock up WW1 bunker that local kids can jump in and let their imaginations run riot. There is a small Concrete bridge and small river very close . So they can pretend they are stopping Kaiser Bill from crossing that bridge.

I also found a corroded Brass plaque with four screwholes with the name T.White on it. Naturaly the back is better, and also shows traces of paint from the door it was once on.

At the end I located a random pile of concrete blocks. I used these to add more effect to the spoil around the now Defensive position.

[Eutow_Intermedium]

Ok

Today was a pretty awesome day

The Girlfriend and I went to Gary's snack shack to get some lunch. I had the Ridgeback Momentum and trailer wit a Watering can , wells and a plastic container with some hopefully viable wild flower seed inside. Plus my Dunlop bag with two three prong cultivators in.

After we were done she followed me to Churchfields rec on the Blue Postie bike with Caution on the front. I cast the seed on the spoil around the hole I created while digging out that water tank and ended up making a Mock up WW1 foxhole. I then watered the seed in and then went over it again later with another can. Probabaly washing all the seed away as you do

Kim went for a walk in wells Westwards up the river in wells , holding the smaller of the three prong cultivators , while I has a sniff around again between the river and the chain link fence. Didn't find much , just a small Daddies sauce bottle and a small possibly tomato sauce bottle.

I met up with Kim after noticing there was a section of No mans land between the chain link behind the river, where these is a small area of scrubby woodland . Where I came upon the boundary of the Churchfields Primary school fence. I did little more than scratch around a patch of ground in no mans land thinking it would be a good place to dig a hole or test pit. but I left the area to look out for the bikes and go find the Girlfriend.

We decided to wrap up in that area and loaded up the trailer again

I decided that while on the way out I would visit a spot nearby in the woods on the way out that I had found signs of broken glass and crockery before. An upturned tree that came down last winter in high winds.

We both sat down and started scratching at the soil between the fallen trees roots.

It wasn't long before the first item emerged and it got pretty excited indeed and we ended up staying there for up to an hour.

I almost went dotty when I pulled out a Brown glazed earthenware Lovett & lovett Ink pourer . Then other finds started emerging , such as a JC & S liquid cleaner bottle with a metal doodah inside with a rotten sponge on the end , in fact the whole inside was black. A J. Sainsbury's moulded glass Meat paste jar then emerged , followed by a large Hexagonal brown glass bottle with Milton underneath. that was well stuck in and if the tree had have been upright it would have been laying horizontal underground pretty much. various other meat paste jars ( basic )

A Marmite brown glass jar ( relatively modern I should imagine ) 30's to 60's. And then believe it or not a whole and undamaged Wm P Hartley's jam pot , earthenware and white glazed and complete with no damage.

I thought what is going on here ?

This is too good to be true. I'm pulling out all these goodies and they are mainly all in one piece apart from the plates and a pressed glass, what looked to be a fruit bowl , shame it was broken

Also a Furmoto solitaire brown glass screwtop Shoe polish jar from Brixton ( london ) it seems I saw online . Probably 1940's to 50's

=^-^=

So I know where I will be going bottle digging from now on. Not Norwood Country Park , but a place in the woods nearby at Elmers End .



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I probably should put some pics up..

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Eutow_Int*

[Eutow_Intermedium]

August 2014

Norwood Country Park

Something pokes it's head out from the soil . Probably dragged onto the surface by Fox's after they dug it out of their den.



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What emerged was pretty exciting for me

A Boots Cash Chemists ( perfume ) bottle



I was pretty chuffed about this find. Fills a big gap in the collection. Not that it was on a Wishlist or there was a gap to put it in.

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Then this plate emerged side on just under the Clay capping layer



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It turned out to be a very basic saucer dating to the 1880's



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I got very excited when I saw a familiar flash of Royal Blue and white right in the middle of the beaten entrance way to the Plum slope at the back of the hill at Norwood Country park. basically it was just under the surface and footfall had revealed it to the surface.

Despite it's horrific condition, there is just enough left for it to be identified as either very small basic Rowntree's sign or a much longer and thinner Enamel sign that had the product to one end , or maybe even both.



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Churchfields Rec between the river and chain link fence.

I started digging and what should I find but another ruddy Water tank . I continued to dig round it with a Border spade and a hand trowel , only discover as I dug further back that this one was leaning up against yet another . I retrieved a heavy duty Pneumatic drill attachment from the entrance to where I get into LEB or Churchfields 33kV main sub wastelands and meadow . On then using this was I able to move it around the hole , using the second Water tank to lever it around.

I managed to tilt it with much effort and discovered it was full of soil of which I had to empty before I could make it just light enough for me to Struggle/Haul it out of the hole.



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By then plans had changed drastically , I would not be filling the hole up again and decided to turn it into a Mock up 1914 WW1 defensive position . After all there was a concrete bridge over a river nearby that needs protecting from Kaiser Bill and his infantry. I managed to locate a piece of chalk and scrawl the said letters onto the upturned Water tank , of which I installed as a refuge for oncoming fire. As you can see there are two pretty big shell holes up top No doubt that side of tank was facing the German Guns before " Boom boom boom ! "



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Looking into the foxhole I wrote the positions objective . Defend at all cost with Big sticks , in Kaiser Bill turns up . Knock him on the head or have him play dead.



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And my self created fortificated post by the River and Bridge , with a few small hunks of concrete about for extra affect. Or would this be a Ricochet liability for troops within ?



WW1 Bunker

It all started with Bottledigging and ended up me creating this feature

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What I found that day in the hole and items that were inside the Water tank itself.



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Then today 13 , 08 , 2014

It all came good not far away in the woods with this gathering of lovelies. I could never have dreamed of finding this kind of stuff all in one day , and all in such good condition.

The dark bottle in the middle back was full of a dried up black substance and in all the four internal corners at the bottom of the bottle . Inside was a short piece of metal with there remains of a rotten sponge stained with yet more black stuff. I later found out when I got home that this was in fact Black Ink , and I poured some water into the bottle and gave it a good internal working with a small bottle brush . I then poured it out into a small saucepan and reduced it enough that the Ink would then fit into a small clear glass Hexagonal ( shear top ) Ink well that I found at Wandle Park in 1999 . I have since managed to find a parker pen ( high school type ) and dipped it enough that I was able to write a random Diary entry in a blank paged hard back book I bought at Ikea a year or so ago.



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I practically went nuts when using a three pronged cultivator I pulled out the Lovett & Lovett Brown glazed Earthenware Ink pourer. This was followed by various basic Meat paste jars . Then the big Hexagonal brown glass ( poison ) style bottle. A very light but nicely moulded Decanter top . A nicer J. Sainsbury's Meat paste jar . A small brown glass Furmoto solitaire shoe polish bottle from ( Brixton ) london . Marmite jar . Then at the end a complete Wm P Hartley's earthenware White glazed jam pot came out , pristine with no damage. As was everything else.

So I know now where I will be going in the future for my Bottle Digging adventures.



This could well be a previously unknown small scale domestic tip dating from the 20's 50's with older objects in the mix . I could truly be onto something here.



=^_~=

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Enjoy

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Eutow_Intermedium

[Bruce]

Great reading your adventures, Eutow. But I'm beginning to wonder if, between England's bedrock and topsoil, there isn't a solid layer of old bottles...

[Eutow_Intermedium]

I'm not sure about that , but if you know where to look there are still old Victorian/ Edwardian and later Bottle and rubbish tips.

I went back to the Churchfields location today and spent all afternoon and some of the evening going through the area under the back of the fallen tree's rootball. I got truly filthy.

Found quite few old but not that old Wine or Champagne bottle , I have found the remains of quite few shoes and even a couple of white enamelled metal items.

But it was the old glass bottles I went looking for , and again I wasn't disappointed . It seems that there is a thin rusty and stony slag filled layer that bottles are present in, under that is possibly Bedrock clay layer ( London Clay ) that I have found some lager bottles almost pushed into or laying directly onto it. above that is about 5 or six inches of soil that may have items in too.

I filled a recycle bin with broken Crockery mainly and some broken glass , need too sort this out , wash it , rebuild some partly , take pics. But ultimately throw most of it away.

The Dunlop Bag literally got filled with bottles and weighed quite a bit.

What with all my tools too , i'm surprised the trailer got back to my gaff in one piece.

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But again a very successful day Bottledigging. Need to start washing my finds now. There re a few gems in there , but most of the bottles are pretty average or screw topped. I'll probably wash and recycle most of them.

=^-^=

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Eutow_Int*

[Eutow_Intermedium]

Over the past couple of weeks while without a profusion of cacti flowers, I have been catching up with Bottledigging on a Mystery 1900 to 1930 dump I found by accident that is just 3/4 mile from my flat.

As of yesterday I have now shut down the Bell pit , and after a last scratch around the original large toppled Tree stump hole , I also shut that dig down.

In that time I have found some really nice stuff. Some of the finds going back to the edwardian Era , but most dating around the 1920's to 30's

I have also filled in a few more gaps in my collection too which is good.

Here are some updated pics of my Churchfields finds at the close of my Excavations.

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It may not look much from here . A wide public path , woodland margin and a vast playing field to the right. But there is Bottles in the woods. As you can see , from the path the grass slopes down and into the small pocket of woods. At the other side of the small woody patch is a dog legged ditch and a boundary with an allotments. Under my feet at the ditch is probably a section of a small river piped up underground.

That section of river may or may not have been piped before the Bottle and other items dump started to happen. But it makes sense really. Behind me in this picture is the entrance to the park from between two houses. People have walked in and before the trees had grown there on the left, it soon became a rubbish tip.

I have found all kinds there including shoes and even a ladies tight. The most disturbing item being a piece of bone with a pecs of metal hanging off one side They only thing I could think of was Hip Replacement

About two and a half feet down is natural ( london clay ) . For that reason any metal that was dumped back in the early days have mainly rusted to nothing , just leaving some larger hand sized pieces and the remains of any metal compacted into the oldest orange layer just above the clay. Then there's a layer of ash up to 6 inches thick that has Bottles in. In some spots there is a second rusty layer above, and then above that are the slightly more modern items. But then I could be wrong. it could all be the same age, but the patches of metal rich area's could be spread out around the small site. then there's about 5 or 6 inches of topsoil.



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This is how I lug my tools , dunlop bag to the Bottle rich area. My 2011 Ridgeback momentum and Rickety old Koolstop Wilderbeast trailer 2002



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One of my best early finds before I started the Bell pit was this 2 Inch high Hexagonal green Poison bottle Sweet !



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At the end of one of the earliest digging sessions , this was my haul from the large upturned tree root dig. The Dunlop bag was literally 3/4 full of items



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And the collection of items after much tiresome washing up and wrinkly hands. What a gathering of goodies this is.

What can you see in the mix ?

[Eutow_Intermedium]

So this is the new spot I decided to dig next after I had finished in the area around the much larger fallen tree stump.

This much smaller toppled tree from winter storms just gone 2013/14.

Already there are signs of rust in the soil



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A close up of the surface with a small shard of pottery coming out. Nothing worth keeping i'm afraid.



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My very first find from the Bell pit was this Blue Milk of Magnesia bottle . No great age to it , probably 1920's to 1940's , but it's a new one for my collection , what a find



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Then a Cream glazed earthenware item decided to show it's face and I began to get a bit excited



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This turned out to be a nice Grate polish jug . So tactile in the hand , felt really smooth in the hand when finally cleaned .



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Next this scallop shell began to emerge. One thing I have noticed is the completeness of scallop shells that I have found here , always in Very good condition



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And in all of it's glory , with some additional colouring from iron in the ground.



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This turned out to be my very first beefex jar



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An overall view of the Bottle - Bell pit I was excavating

By now I was not far away from the Parent clay, say 3/4 the way there.



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Then right at the bottom sitting on top of the clay was this Lyptrol Disinfectant bottle ( Harrow ) , it still had most of it's label when it came out of the ground. But once it came out it soon began to deteriorate . So I hate to get this picture first. dates before 1928



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A portrait view of my legs

As you can see here we are right down to the clay now. By now I realised with all the rounded grey flint pebbles in the mottled clay , this wasn't in fact the London clay like there is near by , but the Blackheath Beds junction with the London Clay. I do like my Geology

I called it a do for the day here. Next time I start the Bell part



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The excavation area by the end of the day and tools all around .



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All that days items in the Dunlop bag =^-^=



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I dropped off the gathered Crockery and Broken glass waste at my flat , before making my way with just the Dunlop bag full of finds to the House at Nash's Garden. I started cleaning up the best of that days finds , and then what should Barbie produce out of a Pharmacy bag , but a modern bottle of Milk of Magnesia . interesting to compare the two.



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That days best of the bag cleaned up at the House at Nash's garden.

Earlier on the way there I had notice while passing through the Railway Park that Jedi and Dash had done two new full colour Graffiti art pieces under the bridge.

[Eutow_Intermedium]

Another effort of hours digging resulted in me digging up this fabulous of Marble. It was a little battered , so I had to spray it with WD40 to fill in the scuffs, and then take a picture of it on my Leather camera case. This is by no means any normal marble . This is an old one indeed , and you can tell it is by the unique swirling and the mesh twist in the centre.



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Another productive day and some great finds again. Nice J.Mills and Sons bottle . Another Cream glazed jam pot in excellent condition. A fine machine cut glass perfume bottle and various Meat paste jars among other items.



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A close up of that pretty little Perfume bottle



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After several dig I managed to gather all the bit's for a Churchfields Ink Well . I found a Glass stopper with the cork lining still round it preserved . It took some effort to get the cork into the Ink Well I had just found , and once I had taken the stopper out and put it back in a couple more times, the action worked a lot better.

I subsequently bought a Parker pen with an Ink syringe in the top. I don't often write much because of my hands , but I thought I should make an effort after finding all the parts to create an ink Well.



=^_~=

[Brunãozinho]

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.

[Eutow_Intermedium]

Another visit resulted in me starting work in the hole , but grinding to a halt due to my height and being unable to get in properly. So the Girlfriend of who was with me on this occasion took over.

Her name is Kimberley , so I guess she belongs in a big hole in the ground. Didn't find any diamonds unfortunately. Also , never seen her smile and get so excited. I'm sure there's something wrong with this woman. Shouldn't she be surrounding herself with Girlfriends, pink , giggling , waving her hands around and randomly screaming for no apparent reason at all ? !

I must be onto a winner here if she doesn't mind getting down and dirty



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A newt Kim dug up while in the hole



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Getting stuck in with the Three pronged cultivator .



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Did I say about us not finding any diamonds ! Well Kim certainly had beginners luck this day. Four bottles in and what does she uncover and pull out , but a Cobalt Blue poison bottle . jammie sod ! But then I did find one earlier in the session when I first started this days dig . Was a two inch high rectangular version. This one here she found must be all of 5 1/2 inches high . She continued to get Excited , flustered and smile .



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And that days haul in the Dunlop bag .



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Those items cleaned up and sitting outside my gaff . Apart from the big Sealed milk bottle at the back , I still haven't cleaned it even now . I really don't know wether to keep it or not . know I recycled the Brown hip flask. I couldn't clean it inside to save my life , and it was frankly a bit dull . Screw top made it worse. Nice big Marmite jar and a couple more Perfume bottles .



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This mystery bottle still had the contents still in it , I don't know what they are other than they are balls swimming in a small amount of liquid. I had to glue part of the stopper back together as it had snapped off during excavation. That stopper isn't coming out , it's jammed it.

My only guess is that it is possibly some kind of primitive bottled moth ball jar =^~^=

A very interesting find though .



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[Eutow_Intermedium]

The penultimate dig started with a morning breakfast at Gary's snack shack . The Graffiti writer SPAT 's girlfriend in attendance. Elisha is the glamourous assistant at the Snack Shack now. Aparentlyly she is fam with Gary. Talk about small world.

Spat is one of Londons finest Ginger graffiti artists , along with Dowta of course.





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Two digs plus the penultimate Churchfields bell pit excavation , all the items together.



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=^-^= Found a second Old skool marble . I had actually found one before this but it was in awful condition, and if I put pressure on it with my Fingers and thumbs I could actually break it . It looked as bad as a rotten chert or flint almost.

In this one you can again see the familiar twist in the middle , like there was in the first smaller Green and yellow one.

This second marble is slightly bigger than the first and a different colour , again I used WD40 to bring the colours out. I also found another marble. Very strange it was . Made of China or porcelain .



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