Button fields , whats your theory ?

[simon c]

Allthough i would agree with the Dunage theory,i can't understand why they left the buttons on,especially during the Georgian war periods when copper was in demand,seems strange that so many copper buttons turn up when they must of had a scrap value ?,another theory on some old house sites I've detected is that the ladies of the houses may have taken in sowing to supplement their income and kept a large selection of buttons to replace missing ones,on some sites I've found as many as 2-3 hundred buttons and hardly any are the same, some of them are plain but many are very fancy such as livery buttons,could be they kept them in a jar then when the house was abandoned and fell down anything left just got ploughed around the site,they do seem to turn up in larger numbers in small area's.

[bobkoi]

I RECKON THE FARMER PLANTED THEM HOPING TO HAVE BUTTON TREES. WHAT YOU SEW  YOU REAP

[benny]

I agree with this "dunage" theory but round my way(Herefordshire)it was known as "shoddy". I can remember when I was a kid I used to go hop tie-ing with my mum and used to see shredded up rags rotting down in the soil and yes they did still have buttons attached. That was the purpose of a rag and bone man-rags "shoddy" and bones "bonemeal" for fertilizing the crops. Maybe this is also where the term shoddy as in a poor quality job comes from.

[mole]

No doubt the dumping of centuries worth of rubbish on fields as contributed greatly to the large quantitys of buttons detected every year pity they emptied the pockets first