Darren.
I have been digging and collecting since my late teens (23 years ago!) but it would have been longer if I had recognised the signs earlier.
In the early 1970’s I lived in the small Nottinghamshire village of Beckingham, in the English midlands. A typical village childhood spent falling out of trees, building dens, and exploring. One of the best places to play was at a friends farm on the outskirts of the village. Just as you got to it was a small brook, where we lined up the old bottles pulled out of the stream bed to chuck stones at, seeing who was the best shot. Memory is fading now but I'm pretty sure that at least a few Codds got smashed. Little did I know ...
Another pointer was the girl at primary school who would put on displays of bottles. I remember being interested in looking at them, but probably just told her about the ones I smashed. It was at about this time that I had my first real bottle-finding experience. My Dad uncovered an old well in our garden, dropped a ladder down it and sent ME down to explore. I came back up with a couple of stoneware flagons. These ended up in the conservatory until knocked over and broken. The well is still there, but now covered over and with a garage sitting on top of it. Damn: there are Beckingham slab sealed porters (I once had one), so I don't like to think what could still be down there!!!
Life moved on, teenage years of music, beer and girls. Not a thought of old bottles until at a friends who had a few flagons. I recounted the story of the flagons in the well, and ended up going home with one of his. It sat in my bedroom for a couple of years, but I still had no real interest until a holiday in Scarborough. Going round the shops I ended up in a junk shop. Seeing a box of bottles on the floor I pulled a couple out and found myself buying them!!!! Inks, for £1.50 each.
What are they? What were they used for? Looking back it feels like things fell into place at that point. Back home the hunt was on. Local antique shops became a second home, if I had a few quid spare I would buy something, even though still not knowing anything about them.
While on one of my walks around Gainsborough (by this time my home town) I spotted a row of bottles in the window of a house. Oh well, a knock at the door, a mumbled explanation about being interested, and I was invited in. What I saw took my passion for antique bottles a step further: row upon row of them, on every surface. I spent several hours being shown and told all about them. And then I was invited on a dig. "A dig? Whats that? You mean you can dig them up for free??!!". Off to the Lincoln Cow Paddle we went, and I loved it. After this I borrowed loads of magazines and books and read and read. And dug and dug.
The next few years followed a path that is familiar to many collectors of bottles. I dug whenever I could. Usually this meant a trip to the Cowpaddle: A large tip but it never produced anything really exciting for me. Other tips came a went, again with little joy. One of the best was a site in Retford. It was a 1920s site and, being quite late, most diggers gave it a miss after a couple of digs, but I carried on and got some good items over the years. A mint condition stoneware whiskey jug, a pictorial pot lid, local flagons and stacks of railway pottery. Plus other bits that just about covered the petrol money.
Early days, 80s hair: Allan Robinson and me on the Cow Paddle in Lincoln in 1987. Allan is holding a slab sealed flagon from "Brailsford / The Lion & Snake / Lincoln". I'm showing off a newly dug pictorial ginger beer from Arnold & Co of Lincoln.
My collecting by this time was focussed on, firstly, local items (from Gainsborough, Retford and Lincoln) and, secondly, early stoneware (which at that time most other collectors seemed to ignore). I had a thing for earlier items that had some history to them which could be traced via the pottery marks. Over the years I put together a large collection of early ginger beers, blacking bottles, etc, as well as a large collection of early preserve jars from Hoffmann, Cooper, Gunter, and other companies.
1991, after a day on the Coal Drops in Retford: a cobalt blue 'American Cloth Cleaner', and a half pint green London Warners, both in sparkling condition.
Research has always been a large part of my collecting. I need to know company historys to bring the item alive. A local codd is just a Codd until I know all I can about the retailer. Then it becomes a piece of history, rather than just a 'thing' sitting on a shelf.
I still collect local items, but have narrowed it down a bit. It has to be something that appeals on several levels: style, history, etc. Something a bit special, but not necessarily rare.
Since teaming up with Jerry, I've developed more of an eye for whether or not I like an item on those multiple levels. When digging together we always pool our finds, and then find it easy to come to an agreement on the division of the finds at the end of the dig. If I like an item, I keep it. Rare or common. That’s collecting.
Jerry will have covered our teaming up in his story. All I can say it has been and will continue to be a complete joy. Some times we can pull in different directions but we get there in the end. He will learn not to wince at my “car crash” digging style.
I hope this site shows that there is still digging out there and there is more to it than just bottles on a shelf. In time we hope to add lots of research on items we recover. Hope you enjoy ... !
2007: Not yet fully trained
for bottle digging, but the potential is there: Squeak the cat.
© D. Gray 2007
