Digging up some strange stuff

[KittyColdNose]

I just read an article about a woman who dug up a WWII bomb and threw it on the rubbish pile thinking it was part of an exhaust.

What strange things have you dug up? My garden is on a new building plot so all I found was a rock that was heavier than it looked. About the size of a watermelon but the two of us couldn't lift it. Not that interesting really in the grand scheme of things

[Feral007]

We live on a farm so really mostly rusty bits of things, old horse nails and shoes. Bits of glass. And ants nests.

[veggiechicken]

Once I dug up something I've never seen before - or since. A straight carrot

[Aberdeenplotter]

most recent was a lead model of a ww2 spifire aeroplane. I could have kept it but gave it to the owner of the garden I was working in. Some wee boy must have really missed it when he lost it.

[Madasafish]

Bits of coal (we live near the end of a coal outcrop which was surface mined in the 17th century) lumps of cast iron railings which were buried under approx 0.5 meters of clay, glass, an old sink, parts of foundations of old outbuildings, the skeleton of a pet cat (previous owners?), a clay pipe (broken) and some really old corroded iron nails...

[Jeanied]

A pair of scissors, a teaspoon, a table knife, glass stopper for a bottle, a doorknob, a door catch - and in a former garden, lots and lots of bits of clay pipes!

[bubblewrap]

Nine pence three farthings in old money.(about 4p)

[bubblewrap]

Nine pence three farthings in old money.(about 4p)

But this is since September 2005 when I acquired my allotment.

[kathycam]

I wasn't able to get it all out, as it went under where my shed is, but I'm pretty sure I got 2 sides out a shopping trolley out. I'd put my shed on this bit that was a bit scrappy and I realised I could squeeze a veg bed next to it. I only had half a plot, so was taking advantage of this newly aquired shed bit.

One of the stories I head was someone had an underground celler there before, but it got infested with rats and was knocked down. Anyway I was digging out all sorts including the shopping trolley, old tools, lots of broken tiles and glass, massive lumps of concrete, a sack of concrete that had gone solid, old taps, a saw, jars of medicine and more!

[Bren In Pots]

Here's the list we've dug up out of our garden over the years

armchair
roll of carpet
bits of smoking clay pipe
stone lintels
stone slabs
quarry tiles from 2 rooms
found a coal seam when digging the pond
plus assorted bits of broken tools and toys

[alldigging]

Tons of interesting little bits of stuff.

A child's gold ring, broken though.
About 6 £coins, another quid easily in spendable coinage.
Old coins - from 1/2p to big round pennys.
Spoons - plated once with something
Two pen knives - the one in the photo and then a lump of really rusted metal.
Tons of pretty bits of pottery -
A huge chunk of really thick glass someone reckons might be from an airplane windscreen.
Some tags off meter things. (They're the things that look like tickets)
Number 2 off a door.
4 door keys.
The clay pipes were from someone else's plot.

And about a million beer bottles, cans and bits of rubbish.

[zazen999]

I used to work in civil engineering and we were always digging up strange things; on one occasion there was a skeleton right in the way of a new road so the job had to be put on hold for 18 months as we discovered an ancient burial site.

One of my particular faves was a site in Yalding, Kent; we were digging trial pits and 3-4 metres underground we were finding a system of pipes all over the place. Completely flummoxed us. So we went to the pub for lunch and asked the barman what was on site; and it turns out it was a pub years back and he used to brew moonshine in the cellar. It had been bombed and of course the cellar just filled with bricks and mud over the years. It's now a housing estate.

We were always finding those bottles with the balls in them; we had shelves and shelves of them back at the laboratory.

[veggiechicken]

When I find old bottles and pottery I find out more about them - where they were made, the date, what were they used for. In other words, I treat my garden as an archaeological dig - which is my "Unearthly" hobby that VVG has mentioned cryptically elsewhere
Clay pipes are invaluable for dating as the design changed constantly. If you've found some see if you can date them. - Clay Pipe Gallery

[Glutton4...]

My Dad found a 'Beumb' in the garden, years ago. We found loads of plastic toys, mainly chewed and broken, in our old garden. The previous tenants had two small children, who were obviously very destructive! I don't think they ever binned anything, they just buried it!

[Two_Sheds]

What strange things have you dug up?

On this lotty, an ironing board and a curtain track. Thrown over the fence by a lazy neighbour, who denied doing it, even when presented with a sack full of rubbish that had her name & address in it, on old mail.