The bottle digging thread

[Retro6]

I thought I would start a bottle digging thread which isn't just limited to bottle digging but can include mudlarking as well.

I've been finding a lot of nice things... there are about 5 Victorian/Edwardian tips in my local area of course I can't give details to where they are but they aren't hard to find in general.

 

[Retro6]

long, long ago when I was a kid a mates dad was into his and I went along a few times, used to get a few of the bottles with the marble in the neck but apparently a lot of the valuable stuff was ink jars and cream pots

They would be Codd bottles the ones with the marbles in the neck. Victorian children used to break them to get the marble out. Often you'd find a lot of codd bottle marbles in old tips. A lot of ink wells they are very common but some are valuable or a rare collector type. Generally Codd bottles aren't worth much but if they have a particular name embossed to on them like a local brewery then some can be quite desirable. The colored Codds are rare and are worth hundreds to thousands. The cream pots are nice, I don't find a whole lot of cream pots in this neck of the woods tho. Ginger beer bottles are my favorite and flagons plus bisque dolls heads and handmade German marbles.

 

[Retro6]

Some households had small tips at the ends of there gardens. Back in those days, there was no proper rubbish disposal so people would have a hole in the ground pre-dug and they'd empty there rubbish into and they would cover it up. Many woodlands and green spaces "recreational grounds" were used as old rubbish dumps.

If your house is older 1870 1880 and you see shards of pottery/glass in your garden then you may very well have a small tip.

 

[Retro6]

It is a bottle manufactured in Maidstone

/thread

There are quite a few Maidstone bottles made for the Maidstone brewery's. I'm guessing they were made in Maidstone... I'm also interested in Kent bottles in general as the area is local to me.

There was a huge tip in Maidstone just a few years ago full of stunning London, Kent bottles among other things, it was like a bottle diggers paradise but the land belonged to a farmer who got very angry because bottle diggers left huge holes all over the place and one of the farmers tractors had fallen into a hole, they made a right mess of his land. Probably still plenty more there although its a well known tip but I'd be careful not to cross paths with the farmer lol.

 

[Retro6]

What do you do with the bottles you did up?

Display them, sell them, give others away... I'm mostly interested in Local bottles, I will display some, others I would pack away rapped in newspaper, if I have some common bottles or too many of something then I'd either donate some to charity or sell some. When you start digging bottles you end up accumulating so many of them very quickly.

 

[Retro6]

Pretty cool, people kept doing it on the town moor near me where it's illegal though.

so make sure your not breaking any law.

I always like seeing Bricks with local are names on, it's a shame local manufacturing disappeared and plastic replaced real bottles

Me and a few of my mates got caught bottle digging once, somebody called the police and I remember crapping myself wondering what was going to happen but after asking us all some questions the police left us to get on with it. We filled in the hole we dug and tidied up leaving the place neat.

 

[Retro6]

brilliant images there...... it is really good to see what is otherwise junk becoming somones treasure.... It is a shame those irresponsible few who do not make good afterwards spoil it for all...

my niece does magnet fishing which if done properly is a public service as it gets crap (well not the literal stuff deposited by the water companies) out of our water ways....... but those who do not dispose of the junk and clean up after themselves gives them a bad name.

I did magnet fishing for a little while but all's I found was modern tools and scrap metal. All the good stuff isn't magnetic like gold, brass silver copper. Its good for scrap metal people because they hit two birds with one stone cleaning out the waterways and making some money on the scrap. If I had a van to hull away the scrap metal I'd help out. I pretty much gave up with magnet fishing. I just do Mudlarking, Bottle Digging, Metal Detecting and Thrifting... as well as checking out carboot sales.