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| deepbluedigger |
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  Registered Member #28 Joined: Thu Jul 19 2007, 02:08Posts: 43 | Thought there might be some interest in a British digging story ... especially as it's about a site that was only found after 17 years of searching! Got them diggin' blues: A dig in the east of England From the late 1860s to the first ten years of the 20th century several hundred British patents were filed describing often complex and sometimes bizarre internally-stoppered bottles designed to keep the fizz in drinks. The best known of these today is probably Codds patent marble stoppered bottle, incorporating a rubber washer in the lip of the bottle. Codds patent was the first really commercially successful type, and provided the basis for numerous later variations. Close behind the codd bottle in terms of abundance in dumps, is the ‘bullet stopper’ or Lamont, where the rubber sealing washer is incorporated into an elongated stopper, which seals against a ledge formed on the inside of the lip of the bottle. Rare patents are sought after by collectors, and can change hands for large amounts, but because the great majority of soda bottles of all types were made in aqua glass it is rare colours that are top of the pops in terms of desirability. And top of the list of sought-after colours is blue. Blue is an extremely rare colour for soda bottles of any type in Britain. There are very few companies that used blue glass, and most of those only ordered a small minority of their bottles in that colour. Fewer than two dozen British companies are known to have used blue marble stoppered bottles, and only TWO are known (and a third rumoured) to have used blue Lamont, or ‘bullet stopper’ types. With that bit of background out of the way, on with the story: A lucky break. In the spring of 2006 my digging buddy Darren and I had the kind of lucky break that we had previously dreamed of but never thought would happen. It started with a phone call from a friend who owns a construction company. While clearing a site where we had, with his permission, dug a small dump in 2005, he had found ‘a load of broken blue bottles’. Did we want to go along and check it out? The answer was obvious and included questions about the religion of the Pope, places where bears do their business, and so on. When we arrived at the site, on the edge of a small market town called Market Rasen, we saw that the (already dug) shallow surface dump had been almost completely removed, leaving the whole area three or four feet below the previous ground level. With the surface dump removed it was very obvious that it had originally been used as a dump site to raise the level of a low-lying strip of ground, at the bottom of a slope along one edge of the site. [ image disabled ] Above The view when we arrived: the surface dump, dating to about 1918 – 1920, almost completely removed. It hadn’t produced much when we dug it except for common local beer bottles. Otherwise, it was mostly full of oyster shells, broken crockery, and enamelled kitchen ware. The place was a mess, but there were hundreds of pieces of blue glass scattered around, and several very early broken aqua ‘square’ base codds. All of the blue glass was from bullet stoppers from the local firm of W (William) Holgate. We had not found a single fragment of these bottles when digging the surface dump, so where they had come from was a bit of a mystery. Way back in late 1989, while I was on Christmas vacation from Uni, I had found the bases of three Holgate blues in a very small dump in a filled in pond. That chance find led to years of searching (and researching) in the Market Rasen area for a dump containing this kind of bottle. Until that first visit to this construction site not a single fragment had come my way in those intervening 17 years. We had to wait three more days, until the site was closed at the weekend, before we were able to find out where the source of the blue glass lay. Digging. When we were let into the site on the Sunday we spent half an hour walking over every inch of the freshly exposed ground, after which we both had ‘a feeling’ about one particular spot. Darren started digging a serious (i.e. large enough to stand in) test hole there, while I started doing lots of smaller, not-so-serious, test pits in the other areas where most of the blue glass was visible. I found nothing but a surface scatter wherever I dug, but after a couple of hours Darren had got almost 5 feet down in his hole, going through old building rubble, layers of clay, and lumps of clinker. I’d started to get very frustrated with empty test hole after empty test hole when Darren's head bobbed up above the edge of his hole twenty yards away and he shouted out to me. The conversation went something like this: Darren: Jerry, come and check this out. I’ve got a blue’. Me: “OMG Is it whole? Can you get it out??!” Darren: “It’s whole, but I can’t get it out yet” Me: (Hurdling bulldozers, pallets of bricks, etc, at high speed) “Why not????” Darren: “Because there’s another one on top of it, but I can’t get that one out yet either. There’s a third one on top of that!” Me: “[expletives deleted]” Long story short: It turned out to be A Good Day’s Digging. Over the next four or five hours that one hole produced more unbroken Holgate blue bullet stoppers than were previously known to exist IN TOTAL. We went home with a dozen of the things, all of them in the larger size large (10oz capacity), and in three different shades of blue ranging from turquoise (copper blue) to quite dark cobalt. Below: A sight to warm the cockles of any diggers heart: The first three blue bullet stoppers waiting to be pulled out of the ground after roughly 130 years. [ image disabled ] Below: Two of them after a rinse. A bit cloudy, but hardly a scratch on them otherwise. The top one is the darkest type, and the bottom one the copper blue type. [ image disabled ] Over the next two Sundays (we were only allowed onto the site on Sundays, fret, fret, fret, worry, worry, fret the whole week through) we dug two more holes (it wasn't easy digging, so one decent sized hole per day was the going rate) which showed that the dump was a drainage ditch about 5 feet deep and six or seven feet wide, running along the lowest boundary of the site. It had been filled in during the 1870s and 1880s. It had then been capped with a foot or more of clay and soil, and then a few decades later had been covered over again by the surface dump. There was almost nothing in the ditch apart from building rubble, clinker, huge piles of rusted-together scrap iron (everything from clusters of 8 foot sections of drainpipe to entire lawn mowers), and soda bottles. The bottles were almost all in the bottom two feet, and the bottom foot was flooded. It turned out that the first hole was a bit of a fluke: we had dropped down right on top of the main concentration of unbroken blues. The holes either side of the first hole each turned up several undamaged blues, but further along there were very few unbroken ones, and only three or four came out of the whole of the rest of the ditch. Below: The seam was heaving with glass, especially the flooded bottom foot. These pics show a typical fork load just after being pulled out of the water. A 6oz ‘square’ base narrow neck codd minus the lip*. ‘Narrow necks’ are another characteristic of early codd bottles, but continued a little longer, through to the early 1880s), the neck of a blue bullet stopper, and a dozen other fragments of large and small narrow neck codds. All on one fork load. *The ‘square’ base style on codd bottles is very early, only being made from about 1873 to 1876. Later types have rounded edges at the base, a stronger shape that reduced breakages and increased the working life of the bottles. [ image disabled ] The majority of bottles in the site were from just two companies: W. Holgate (probably the most difficult of all Market Rasen bottles to find) and J. Peatfield (the commonest Rasen mineral water bottles!). There was a scattering of bottles from other companies and other towns, but very few. Below: A relatively early codd bottle (from a different digging site), dating to about 1876. The slight narrowing of the neck to create a noticeable ‘shoulder’ is a characteristic of earlier examples. The rubber sealing washer has survived in good condition in this one, and is visible sitting in a groove around the inside of the lip. [ image disabled ] Below: The spoil heap just as we start to get down into the seam in one of the later holes on the site (spot the water in the bottom of the hole). Codds, codds, and more codds. This was one of the holes which didn’t even have any broken blues in it. Just hundreds of codds. Every.............single.............one.............broken :( [ image disabled ] Below: From time to time a bottle or two turned up in the top few feet. This 10oz mid cobalt bullet stopper was only two or three feet down. [ image disabled ] Below: Stoneware as well as glass. A stoneware porter bottle and an aqua glass bullet stopper side by side, just above water level. The porter turned out to be plain, the bullet stopper was a very rare early bottle used by Benjamin Lamb of the town of Gainsborough, 20 miles from Market Rasen. [ image disabled ] Below: Ta Daaaah!!!! The last whole bottle to surface was one of the biggest surprises of the whole dig: A dark blue 10oz bottle complete with original contents. It’s probably the only existing UK blue mineral water bottle with original contents. [ image disabled ] [ image disabled ] The ditch was only about 30 metres long but it took several months to finish digging because of the one-day-a-week access. Plus, other commitments meant we couldn’t get there every week, so some months we only managed one or two days of digging. Luckily the building work didn't cause any problems for us (apart from Sunday-only digging) because the ditch was off to one side and so it wasn’t directly affected by the construction until very late (an access road was eventually laid over the top of it. A sad sight but at least we’d managed to dig every square inch of the ditch, some of it twice just to be sure!). Including broken bottles there were so many Holgate and Peatfield bottles, and so few others, that we think the ditch was used as a dumping site by William Holgate for waste from his shop and small soda water factory, and then a little later by John Peatfield (see the brief history of these companies below). The majority of the whole blue bullet stoppers came from just three or four holes in the centre of the ditch, and probably got there as a result of a single clear-out. Below: There are at least four different shades of blue in the large bottles, but only two different colours of small bottles (the colour in the picture, and a very pale type). However much I try I can’t get photographs that do justice to the range of colour. [ image disabled ] The lists below show the totals of whole and broken bottles found. We counted every blue bullet stopper base as a way to keep track of numbers. Unfortunately we didn't think to count the other early broken bottles in the same way until it was too late, so the numbers of those are rough estimates. 1. Whole bottles found: - 19 10oz and 9 6oz blue bullet stoppers. - 1 very early ‘square’ base 10oz Holgate codd. Codds patent 4 to rear (a very early Rylands bottle) - 2 later ‘normal’ style codds from Holgate, 1 10oz and 1 6oz. Rylands & Codd makers mark. - Several codds from J. Peatfield, various patents (original, Acme, Reliance) in 6oz and 10oz sizes. - 4 impressed porters, two from Scott (Rasen), one early salt glazed bottle from Favill & Taylor (Rasen) and one pretty boring bottle from Burkitt & Son (Louth). - 1 earlyish Schweppes hamilton (probably 1850s or 60s). - About 30 bullet stoppers and codds from Brigg, Caistor, Lincoln, Gainsborough, including narrow necks from B. Lamb (Gainsboro) and Straker (Brigg). 2. Broken bottles found: - 294 10oz and 115 6oz blue bullet stoppers. 409 in total. Crazy. That is roughly 50x the previously known total of these bottles. - Between 1,500 and 2,000 early ‘square’ base narrow neck 10oz Codds patent 4 bottles from W. Holgate (1 whole :( ). These very early codds bottles are an incredibly rare type of bottle, nationally. - More than 500 ‘square’ base narrow neck 6oz Codds patent 4s from W. Holgate (all broken). - About 1,000 later style 10oz and 6oz ‘Codds patent 4’ codds from Holgate (one 10oz and one 6oz whole). - About 50 Chapmans rubber ball patents from Holgate (all broken). - Over 1,000 broken 10oz and 6oz codds from Peatfield (eight whole, including Reliance patents). None of the Peatfield bottles are narrow necks. - About 500 broken codds and hamiltons from other towns including Boston, Brigg, Caistor, Cleethorpes, Gainsboro, Grimsby, Horncastle, Lincoln, Louth, & Retford. So we found between 2.500 and 3,500 broken Holgate codds. And only three whole ones, of which only one was an early type. :( There were more whole bottles from other towns than there were from Rasen. Most of these ‘foreign’ bottles were clustered together at one end of the ditch. They were probably bottles that accumulated in Holgates / Peatfields works over the years when accidentally returned to the wrong place. Eventually they were all cleared out in one go when someone decided there was no longer any point in keeping them. WHO WAS WILLIAM HOLGATE? William Holgate was originally from Louth, a market town a few miles from Rasen. He established a chemist and druggist business in Rasen in the late 1860s, or maybe as late as 1870. He started selling his own mineral waters in 1872 or 1873 and continued until 1879 when he sold the drinks side of his business to John Peatfield. He seems to have also sold the chemists business at the same time. John Peatfield ran the mineral water business for 40 years. He died in 1919, and at that time the business closed down. Three things help explain why the blue bullet stoppers of William Holgate are so rare: 1. The very short time that he was in business as a mineral water maker (a maximum of six years, from 1873 to 1879). As internal stoppers go, they are quite early. 2. The early date that he sold up. Finding 1870s dumps is very difficult (it took us 17 years of searching in the Rasen area to find one of the right date), and when they do turn up they are usually very heavily scavenged so they contain very few bottles. 3. Most of the bottles Holgate used were codds, not bullet stoppers. Including broken bottles there were about 6 times as many Holgate codds in the dump as there were Holgate bullet stoppers. We think the unbroken blues were probably dumped by John Peatfield, possibly in 1879 or 1880 soon after he bought the business from Holgate. There are no known Peatfield bullet stoppers, but Peatfield codds are the most common codds in the Market Rasen area – at least on the seven or eight sites we have dug there over the years. Peatfield probably continued to use the codds left by Holgate (which would explain why we found so few whole Holgate codds) but threw away the whole bullet stoppers because he had no use for them. We didn't finish digging the place until March 2007 because we kept going back, and probably re-dug at least a quarter of the site ‘just to be sure’. We also dug and probed every square inch of the rest of the area without finding anything else. By the end of June 2007 the whole area was capped to bring it level with the rest of the development and a road was put across the top of it. The whole development has now been finished for the best part of a year and the houses are occupied, so we can finally tell the story! [ image disabled ] It’s not very likely that we’ll find a site as good as this one again. But maybe, maybe ....... The end. [ Edited Fri Mar 13 2009, 11:36 ] Digging in the UK | ||
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| andy g. |
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  Registered Member #9 Joined: Thu Apr 26 2007, 10:46Posts: 113 | Jerry -- A truly stupefying story for any bottle digger and collector. This is a remarkable digging tale that one has to reread at least thrice to capture everything and let it sink into one's brain. Your adventure was a confluence of any digger's wonderland: Rare bottles? Yeah! Beautiful glass? Oh yeah! Incredible story of perseverence? Absolutely. Thank you for posting this amazing tale of blue. It is inspiring to say the least. This is the stuff that legends are made of, and that bottle diggers and collectors alike dream about. Now I will return to my desk job ... andy g. As a wise, old privydigger once told me: May your shovel be light and may you find many colored pontils. | ||
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| Guntherhess |
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 Registered Member #83 Joined: Thu May 01 2008, 09:32Posts: 48 | Great story. Why didnt the USA never really go through a codd phase? Was it a patent issue? Or maybe just different international tastes in packaging? http://www.antiquemedicines.com/bottles.htm | ||
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| chosi |
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  Registered Member #4 Joined: Mon Apr 23 2007, 07:55Posts: 156 | Not only a good story, but I learned a thing or two about Codds & Bullet stoppers. Thanks for posting it. - Chosi | ||
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| ddelph |
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 Registered Member #11 Joined: Tue May 08 2007, 10:38Posts: 60 | Now I know the meaning of "deepbluedigger"! Talk about a self fulfilling prophecy. Maybe I should change my handle? The accout of your digging adventure is awesome. Thanks for sharing it. Can you post some photos of your personal collection? That would be a treat to see. Looking forward to your next digging post. Dodd | ||
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| deepbluedigger |
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| Registered Member #28 Joined: Thu Jul 19 2007, 02:08Posts: 43 | Thanks for the comments people. Yup, it was a great dig: I've been digging for 32 years and have never had a dig that came close to this one for quality and excitement before. It was kind of nerve racking keeping it quiet from the 'wrecking crew' of night diggers over here for so long, but it worked out in the end. I can post some more pics in the enxt few days. Incredibly the site produced two pot lids as well. Both from one hole, and either of them would by itself have been the best lid I have ever dug! There were two other broken lids and one very badly damaged in the same hole, all also of the same rarity and quality. Unreal. [ image disabled ] The five lids: Two very broken Shaving Soap lids (black print probably 1830s, blue print 1840s - 50s). Tiny flat top Circassian Cream missing most of the rear flange, and badly stained. Bears grease from Patey & Co of Lombard Street (mint condition) and the only known example of the earliest known Jewsbury & Brown toothpaste lid. Dates 1842-ish. [ image disabled ] Close up of the Jewsbury & Brown. Early address, AND missing the edge marbling. Much smaller and more finely potted than the more common types. [ image disabled ] The bears grease just after coming out of the ground. The only unbroken bear lid I've ever found. This was towards the end of the digging and I was there by myself that day. Not a single internal stopper soda bottle broken or whole turned up, and this small patch of rubbish was off to one side, and probably dated to the 1850s or 1860s (there were several broken pontilled medicines as well as the lids, including a Dicey & Co cylinder). Probably a pre-Holgate chemists shop clear-out. Yes, I can post some photos of my collection if that would be interesting to people. Always happy to share pics and stories! Darren and I also have a website at http://www.diggersdiary.co.uk, that has collection photos and more digging stories. Jerry [ Edited Mon Nov 24 2008, 05:08 ] Digging in the UK | ||
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| andy g. |
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| Registered Member #9 Joined: Thu Apr 26 2007, 10:46Posts: 113 | Wow. Those are some awesome pot lids. Yes, I do like the colored Holgates but those early pot lids really get me fired up. We dug a pre-1855 privy in New York City with a bunch of broken and badly chipped bear's greases and only one intact example. I will post the pictures when I get a chance to see what you think. Thanks again for a great post! andy g. As a wise, old privydigger once told me: May your shovel be light and may you find many colored pontils. | ||
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| deepbluedigger |
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| Registered Member #28 Joined: Thu Jul 19 2007, 02:08Posts: 43 | I've moved that reply to the 'chit chat' forum, as this thread is getting long and image-heavy, and the reply was more general, and not about digging! Jerry [ Edited Wed Nov 26 2008, 01:08 ] Digging in the UK | ||
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| andy g. |
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| Registered Member #9 Joined: Thu Apr 26 2007, 10:46Posts: 113 | Found the old images with the English lids from a digathon in 2004, which was a fun time digging out three privies dating back to the 1820s-30s. The Bear's Grease pot lids came from an 1840s-50s layer in our last privy of the week. Only one pot lid was perfect but we got four others that glued together without missing any pieces. Any information for us on this lid? [ image disabled ] [ image disabled ] As an aside, a good time was had by all and this is a story that should, and will be, told. However, at this time, the story is on the table as Scott and I keep adding another pit from that block every year or so -- we have now dug 5 pits in a row on this block and are aiming for a few more. Once we are out of pits to dig, it is my goal to tell the tale of the block. Until then, enjoy these pics ... andy g. As a wise, old privydigger once told me: May your shovel be light and may you find many colored pontils. | ||
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| deepbluedigger |
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| Registered Member #28 Joined: Thu Jul 19 2007, 02:08Posts: 43 | Quite amazing that those Atkinsons lids turned up in the States Andy. I've only ever heard of them being dug in Britain and Australia before now. They are the least rare of the British bears lids, but even so I've only found one broken example in 30 years. Atkinson was one of the very long-lived companies, from the 1840s or 50s (I need to check the start date) right through to about the 1920s, and the design of the lids changed very little in that time. I'll see if I can find the start and end dates for the company. I think they also changed address a couple of times, which will help narrow down the dates. Look forward to hearing more of the story of that block: could be fascinating, seeing how different houses in the same neighbourhood differed in their preferences in that period! Digging in the UK | ||
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