Author Topic: Cool finds buried in the wall and yard  (Read 4854 times)

Oceans64

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Cool finds buried in the wall and yard
« on: October 16, 2010, 09:24:05 am »
Just for fun…  Would love to know what you have found in your older home.  I found these buried in a wall in my c1910 home while replacing some wiring.  I know they aren’t worth anything but I think they are cool.  Also found a mummified rat (ugh).  He got thrown out – unceremoniously I might add!!

Two I found while digging down about 2 feet to level an area for a deck.  One of those is marked 3-in one-oil (precursor to WD-40). I just read this AM that it dates to about 1895!!  Also found an old Mason Jar but it’s currently full of applesauce :) btw… applesauce does not look good in a blue jar.

Anyone found any treasures in their walls?

Cantrell Cochrane bottle – Think it was for Ginger Ale (heavy)





Other Glass




"In times like these, it is helpful to remember that there have always been times like these." — Paul Harvey

mariok54

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Re: Cool finds buried in the wall and yard
« Reply #1 on: October 16, 2010, 09:49:27 am »
Hi Oceans,

When I moved in and started to return the garden to a cottage garden, I found quite a few bottles, ginger beer, beer and so on, and some still in very nice condition. Probably the same as over there, before they had refuse collections everything got either burned or buried!! We've amassed quite a collection over the years. The strangest, and funniest, was when I decided to rip up and replace the floorboards in an upstairs room. After lifting the tatty carpet by the chimney breast I saw what I took to be a large asbestos section recessed into the floor where the open fire would once have been. You can imagine that I felt a little panic overcome me. However, after donning more protective clothing than a Chernobyl worker, and pasting plastic sheets over the offending 'asbestos' I cut the boards around it and lifted the whole thing out. The first indication that it perhaps wasn't asbestos was the sheer weight.  It turned out to be a large slab of stone, almost resembling a headstone, with Wm. Stone and the name of the village engraved on it. A bit of research showed that three Stone brothers, one called William, lived in the village back in the 1850's roughly about the time when that part of the building was added. Absolutely no monetary value to the thing but it was a sort of link to the past. I perhaps should have replaced it when I put down the new boards, but it has found a nice home in the garden.

talesofthesevenseas

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Re: Cool finds buried in the wall and yard
« Reply #2 on: October 16, 2010, 09:54:48 am »
VERY cool finds both of you! Actually I think the garden is the perfect place for such a stone to be appreciated and enjoyed. You gave it a second life!

My house is a 1935 mountain cottage that was expanded in the 1950's. Under the house we found a set of British motorcycle wrenches and a book from the early 1900's called "What Every Boy Should Know About Electricity". This book tells about the hottest technology of the day- like enormous wooden-frame X-ray machines and lightbulbs!
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KC

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Re: Cool finds buried in the wall and yard
« Reply #3 on: October 16, 2010, 11:15:54 am »
markok54 post a pic of your stone!  How adventurous.

I absolutely love the program "If Walls Could Talk" where people have bought older homes (some abandoned, some not) and find so many secrets to the past owners!!!!!!  Thrill!!!!!!
I'm from the South - but please don't mistake my Southern Manners/Accent/Charm as a weakness!

mariok54

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Re: Cool finds buried in the wall and yard
« Reply #4 on: October 16, 2010, 11:48:01 am »
Hi KC

Took a photo as I put the hens to bed for the night. It's had a couple of planters on it (its new lease of life!), hence the moss-free areas :)
« Last Edit: November 20, 2010, 02:40:56 am by mariok54 »

mariok54

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Re: Cool finds buried in the wall and yard
« Reply #5 on: October 16, 2010, 01:04:52 pm »
VERY cool finds both of you! Actually I think the garden is the perfect place for such a stone to be appreciated and enjoyed. You gave it a second life!

My house is a 1935 mountain cottage that was expanded in the 1950's. Under the house we found a set of British motorcycle wrenches and a book from the early 1900's called "What Every Boy Should Know About Electricity". This book tells about the hottest technology of the day- like enormous wooden-frame X-ray machines and lightbulbs!

Lightbulbs!!! Probably seen as the Devil's invention back then!! I suppose it would have made more sense had the book been a BSA workshop manual .. That's the beauty of these eclectic finds :)

Oceans64

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Re: Cool finds buried in the wall and yard
« Reply #6 on: October 16, 2010, 02:30:20 pm »
Mario...  Very COOL stone!!!

LOL Tales...  I probably could have used a book like that when I was tring to figure out my wiring. 
"In times like these, it is helpful to remember that there have always been times like these." — Paul Harvey

talesofthesevenseas

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Re: Cool finds buried in the wall and yard
« Reply #7 on: October 16, 2010, 06:28:41 pm »
GREAT stone Mariok54!

This book is pretty scary. Wonder how many boys got zapped trying their hand at becoming inventors?!
Antiqueaholic in recovery

mariok54

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Re: Cool finds buried in the wall and yard
« Reply #8 on: November 06, 2010, 10:34:41 am »
Hi,
As promised here are some of the bottles and stoppers excavated from the garden, plus a couple of marbles that probably came from Codd-neck bottles, unfortunately none of those seem to have survived. What is interesting is that two of them come from breweries in East Anglia, some 80 odd miles away, which would have been some distance in those days.

KC

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Re: Cool finds buried in the wall and yard
« Reply #9 on: November 06, 2010, 06:20:51 pm »
Nice stone!  Do you have it displayed?

Wow....to dream of finds...........
I'm from the South - but please don't mistake my Southern Manners/Accent/Charm as a weakness!

talesofthesevenseas

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Re: Cool finds buried in the wall and yard
« Reply #10 on: November 06, 2010, 11:46:49 pm »
Very cool!! ;D
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mariok54

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Re: Cool finds buried in the wall and yard
« Reply #11 on: November 07, 2010, 01:49:47 am »
Nice stone!  Do you have it displayed?

Wow....to dream of finds...........

Hi KC, I built an arch with a sort of 'kissing gate' going down the garden, and it rests in there with a couple of planters on it.

marcylove

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Re: Cool finds buried in the wall and yard
« Reply #12 on: November 07, 2010, 11:13:23 am »
VERY cool!   ;D

KC

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Re: Cool finds buried in the wall and yard
« Reply #13 on: November 08, 2010, 06:03:31 pm »
Nice way to commemorate!!!!!
I'm from the South - but please don't mistake my Southern Manners/Accent/Charm as a weakness!

tmerrifield

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Re: Cool finds buried in the wall and yard
« Reply #14 on: November 09, 2010, 04:30:19 am »
fun,   Haven't found anything in the walls of my 1850 farmhouse, but did find a bottle dump under the floor of the attached shed.  Nice clay jar, ink well and alot of nice bottles.