I had another little visit to the quarry tip yesterday , this time with a little more of a deeper investigation and my hunch that this is indeed a village tip for domestic use is beginning to show signs that my guesswork seems to be coming true .So far the date ranges from early 1900s but I am sure there may be earlier stuff deeper down but for now my gentle easing my self back into it approach is producing some interesting stuff which is enough to keep me occupied .
The bottle probe proved a waste of time as you can see from the photograph , there was a heavy chalk capping about 18 inches down and this stuff is a nightmare to dig through but I wanted to get through it just to see what I am going to have to contend with and whether its worth pursuing on my own . The other thing is underneath the capping is usually some good stuff in the seam .
The photo may look deceptive but it isnt deep , about four feet down and as we are in the wet season you can see the water table gurgling up so KI may well have to leave this quarry for the time being and return in the height of the summer and hopefully the water table will have dropped .
The landowner assures me that in summertime the quarry is bone dry and that may well prove to be the better time to dig it and hopefully hit in some earlier stuff .
Once again the ever common Steward and Patteson ginger beer bottle rears hits head but despite being one of the most common stonewares this one is an early version with the straight 1d logo , the later ones are slanted so again , promising for some earlier pieces .
So far it is proving to be domestic and mostly ink related with ink bottles as well as the stoneware ink pourers , the pourers were found while caving in the hole and refilling and to be honest it was cold and I couldnt be asked to lay them out with the other bottles
Not bad for a few hours and most of this stuff will go in my bulk boxes to be sold on to a contact . The little perfume bottles were nice especially the decorative one but again not my thing but my Daughter asked if I could keep them for her art classes .
I think with the way the weather is this tip is a summer visit and hopefully will prove to be a worthwhile one to dig .
