DetectingWales.com

as we all have other hobbies and talking to COLEGGWENT yesterday about his other hobby of bottle digging and looking at some off COLEGGWENT bottles he as found and very nice old ones as well , always wondered what it would be like to do this hobby of bottle digging so i will put a link on here for us who are intrested and to see this fascinating hobby, i think a few other D.W.members on here do it as well ,by the way COLEGGWENT went out today bottle digging wonder how he got on ??? ::), hope you let us know MR CCCCOOOGGGLLLEEEE ;D
  ( the photo is just a example what can be found );D

http://www.diggersdiary.co.uk/Diggingmainpage.htm (http://www.diggersdiary.co.uk/Diggingmainpage.htm)

Strange that Kev, i also used to do Bottle Digging, spent hours at it, and moved tons of ash over the years. Made up quite a collection too. Don't do it know though to much hard work on the old shoulders and back  :D.
Eventually sold 99% of my collection, including Ginger beers, Pot Lids etc,etc. as they took so much room.
Good fun though mate, the same thrill as metal detecting, you never know what you'll dig up  ???
Ace  ;)

hi  me too, moved tons of earth looking for them, old maps of victorian tips is a must for the seriouse diggers, my best find was a cheery blossom boot polish lid with coloured cherries on it, long gone but have heard they are very rare?? still have some bottles, gave some away not long ago. same as detecting once you start.. you have had it  good post thanks  mickycoin   mick

Yep been there got the T shirt  many moons ago with my brother,  come to think about it theres a cracking old tip
not far from me i should pay it a visit  theres bottles n jars every where you walk.

me too  :) love a bit of bottle digging and bottles are only the tip of the iceberg of what you can find when you get in to a rich vain   :)

I'd love to go boittle digging. Dont think I'd be able to walk for a month though with my spinal athritis :-[.  I  got a Victorian dump on one of my farms maybe we can sort something out one day to incorporate using it.

Rob i would be well up for that but not till i had my back op ;)

I thought Most detectorists where either fisherman or where fishermen at one time.
turns out your all mostly bottle diggers

Few years ago during a very dry summer I went detecing the woods near the Upper Neuadd Reservoir in the Brecon Beacons when i noticed complete bottles sticking out of the mud at the sides of the dry reservoir.
I collected up 20/30 bottles mostly with turned necks or the class marble stopper type
I think they could have been left by the navvies working on the reservoir
some were maked Birmingham and Bradford
Might be worth a trip if your into collecting
all the best
phil

still got 2 buckets of bottles found by myself and kids from a site near where i live. amongst the debris the kids also found a pair of false teeth !, unfortunatley no gold fillings tho  :(
a couple of nice old perfume bottles but nothing of any value i dont think. a freind found an old LLANELLY bee bottle with glass marble in which he sold for £15.
never done it more than the once tho, land was cleared for new homes.
was good fun while it lasted tho and gave my kids a " taste" of archeaology.

 :) :) :) :) :) not for the guys with bad backs it will kill you thats for sure  :-\ just a bit of advice guys alot of guys have died doing it the best stuff is allways on the bottom and the bottom can be 12ft down so so be very carefull if your not when you under mine the sides it can cave in on you thats the end of that (brown bread) its not earth as the guys have said in there posts its black ash from the old fires and dont compact very well but its a great hobby and i love it my wife hates me going on my own she knows the risks here today gone tomorrow i say  :D

Hey Phil, that actually happened to my son-in-law a few years ago now. We were digging away on top of a banking, waist deep lucky enough,  when all of a sudden the ash give way.
I managed to jump out of the way, but my son-in-law, was stuck fast from the waist down :o .
Sounds awefull i know, but i PMSL ;D ;D, could'nt help him, the more he struggled the more i laughed ;D.
After i cooled down , had a smoke and a cup of tea, my son and i dug him out, and thats a true story  :) :D :D ;D ;D
Ace  ;)

yes ace it do happen and some are not so lucky i know five guys that got killed from it  :-\ but i love it so if you dont dig any more and know for some tips i would be more that gratefull if you would give me some infow on them allways looking for new tips  ;)

Phil, as i said its been years now mate, both of the main tips i used to dig on, one is under a factory site now, and the other has a housing estate built on it.
But on my travels, i'll have a good look for you , to see if there are any tips still around the borough, there's bound to be some still around,  if i find any mate, , i will let you know of them straight away.
you got me racking my old swede now ;D
Cheers Ace  ;)

Been interested in bottles since the 70s, when I discovered a load of old bottles that a farmer had uncovered on his land. Never done the really deep hole-digging myself, but would like to have a go if a good site turned up.

I still have a small collection of GBs and commoner patents packed away in boxes. I lived in the village of Nelson at the time and I have a few GBs from the local firms of EM Jones, EM Peters and Peters & Osborne. Anyone seen any of these on their travels?

I remember years ago when I was a kid a few mates and myself found a load of old square glass bottles of various sizes.....some looked like they were medicine bottles or summit. Being young and not very bright we did what would make any die hard bottle collector  burn us at the stake  and smashed the lot !! oh if i could only go back in time !!! ::)

yeah, if only we knew then what we know now hey lol
 i once found a black bag full of old post cards from the early 1900s,  i took them home and stored then in the outhouse, i liked them
 but when i got married my mother threw them all out dohh,   each worth over £1  some £2 or £3 each,   and there were over 100 in there,  women hey,

Theres a row of old cottages near me, which used to empty their rubbish at the edge of the woods at the bottom of thier gardens.Its been dug a few times years ago,but there all still plenty of things there.The place is littered with pieces of pot,bottle and china.Still heaps to find, from the late 1700`s onwards.

I have seen some of Phil,s bottles and he has a Hell of a good collection - some really lovely pieces. He told me an interesting fact about when the ground collapses and someone gets trapped in a hole not to move a person immediately due to compression issues.

The only ones I have ever found have been detecting - I've posted them before. Nice to find though.

Neil

I have found quite a few in my time mainly from working on building sites. We built a school right behind my house (Abercanaid) on an old playground, anyway various items begun surfacing like little jars and old shoes/boots. Turns out that they had levelled the playground/field with the debris from aberfan. The little jars were inkwells. Still upsets me now.

wow, a bit of History to those ones then Liza / Paul.  worth hanging on to, collectors items i would have thought,  with a bit more value to them,
 yeah,  a sad reminder though,  just to think,  those poor little kids proberbly used them,
 Alan

all i want to know now is CCOOGLEEEEEEEEEE when will you take me m8 ;)

                  here you are COOOOOOOOOOOGGGGLLLLEEEE M8 ;D :D ;)

Lets see some photos Phil. you have some cracking bottles.

Cheers
Neil

bump for coleggwent

as some of you know i like a bit of bottle digging its just like detecting but a bit more digging ive put this thread on for some of you guys that like bottles as i know there are a few and a few of my bottles that i dug hope you injoy

that was the poisons bottles

very nice PHIL hope the invite is still on for me sometime ;)

next up is the cream pots

and of corse what we all dig for the ginger beers

up next is some pot lids and a ointmet pot

and then some old milk bottles which i love  by the way 1920 --1930

and then last but not least the black and green beers

ho sorry one i missed was the hair restorer in colbut blue a smashing little bottle or should i say smashing  :-\






i hope you have injoyed this guys

Phil my mate found a beer bottle, made of thick glass with the words LLANELLY (Llanelli spelt with a Y) BREWERY on. have you seen any or are they rare?

not that rare kev they spelt like that on all things the rare bears are colbut blue some are worth more than others  ;)

of corse kev when the weather gets better ;)

i dug up a beer bottle the one with the ball in from my garden when i first moved in 12 yrs ago
debs

hi phil the tops of them mike bottles were cardboard disc which fitted inside the rim and debs the bottle you found was a pop aley or cod bottle with a marble in the top hope this helps  ;)

I HAVE ENJOYED IT PHIL.
I LIKE THE SOUND OF BOTTLE DIGGING.
SOUND.S VERY INTERESTING A BIT DIFFERENT TO DETECTING.
KEEP IT PHIL.
WELLDONE BUT.
RAY

i think theres are what you are on about the white one is later the ribed one is what we call a sheartop which are early 1900s and got two pen rests on them and the last one is a blue which is worth the most for the colour there are rare ones as well

Hey Phil, them bottles are looking great mate, love the pot lids, only ever had 1 colour, all the others were black and white, also loved the milk bottles, poisons and Ginger beers.
My favorites were Hamilton's, most of which i found in a riverbank dump, along with a number of excellent ginger beers. That dump was sadly built over before i could finish getting the good stuff out, they were making new flood defensive walls.
Also loved collecting at the time, sheer lip ink wells, had them in the shapes of bells, cottages, etc, i'm stopping now Phil, in tears mate, wish i had them now  :-\
Keep them bottles coming Phil
Ace  ;)

great hobby bottle digging used to be some great tips in cardiff used to go to leckwith ,llandaff and colchester avenue sainsburys is on  top of that one now .sold my collection years ago would be worth a fortune now if i would have kept it gutted  :'(

hi willow i dug at leckworth tip that was a good tip mate very rich indeed tips in cardiff are good tips  ;)

Phil if you ever find any full bottles of beer give me a shout mate, I'll help you get rid of 'em. ;D ;D

i bet there would knock your head off rich at that age  :o lol out tomoss to a tip will take camra with me and take some pics of the size and how deep the hole is should be intresting not for the faint hearted this tip is 14 foot deep to the bottom a very deep tip indeed  :)

Phil you dig 'em mate and I'll drink 'em, I'd drink soapy water if I thought there was alcohol in it. ;D ;D

Lookin forward to the piccies. :) :)

ok guys im nackerd back home now up at 5 this morning left at 6.30 still dark when i got there  ::) sat in car for hour before getting changed right off we go blinking cold or what brrrrrrrrrrr first pic is from the car  :)

that hole is 10ft deep keep you fit if nout else  :D the next pic is the hole at 12ft got a job to chuck the ash out now getting to much like hard work

and these are the bottles two pop arleys one ginger beer a plan green beer ink and a oxo bottle and last a broken pot lid which is a shame but it do happen  :'(

and the next

and all together  :)

YOU FOUND SOME BOTTLES PHIL.
I DONT NOW WEATHER IM RIGHT BUT YOU HAVE.NT BEEN DOING IT LONG PHIL HAVE YOU BUTTY.
THATS A CRACKING COLLECTION.
WELLDONE PHIL KEEP GOING OUT THERE THEY.RE NICE BUTTY.
RAY.

its just like detecting mate hit or miss finding the right tip and the right age helps theres bottles in most tips the latewr the tips are then they go to screwtop ive been doing it for about 2years ray  :)

Heres something to get your excitement going Phil

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eOZ5QOjAKw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eOZ5QOjAKw)

thats what you call a tip 4ft deep and full of gingers same go,s for the tips in england they are much richer than welsh tips  :-\ if only i could find a tip like that one  >:(

nice one simon.now thats what i call bottle digging. ;D ;D ;D