What have I excavated?

[johnpsanderson]

Because nothing says Festive Break like digging up the garden . I ve got a few days off work so am pulling out an old patio and so have worked down through a layer of sand; seemingly a second, earlier patio, and now hit what looks to the corner of some sort of manhole cover or something .

Last remaining section of the Original patio:


What might a second , earlier, patio or possibly an old garden path that was patio d (is that a verb?) over


Possibly a bit more second patio:


And then next to that, what looks to be some sort of purposefully placed casting which seems to have had a lid put on it at some point.



The house was built in 1955 and I believe the site was just an empty field before then .

Edited by johnpsanderson on Tuesday 30th December 17:08

[johnpsanderson]

The ‘lid’ seems to be a sheet of poured concrete like material about 2 inches thick, but there’s no aggregate in it like I can see, I almost looks like flint where it’s broken. And it smells a bit like thinners/solvents, which is a bit weird!

[J6542]

Stop before you go any further!!

Get yourself a lamp on a stick and a mate called Dave to give you a hand.



Seriously though could be a lid to an old cess pit or similar. Possible footings to a wall.

[thetapeworm]

I also instantly thought "light bulb on a stick"

Following with interest, order some holy water and find a young priest and an old priest just in case.

[johnpsanderson]

Cess pit was my first guess but I think the house has always been on mains sewerage. This is in the corner of the garden furthest from the road (where the sewer is), footings is a good shout perhaps for a shed of some sort…

[johnpsanderson]

Despite a brief wibble of anticipation when this was unearthed (ooh, a trapdoor!!!) as well as some random lengths of metal pipe, it s turns out the concrete casting was probably some sort of footings / the weird lid a skim of some kind of concrete/levelling compound perhaps.

I did briefly consider recycling the contents of the Nazi-bunker discovery thread for the newer members, but knew I d never get away with it

[Simpo Two]

You should get Time Team in. They'll soon find out it's an Iron Age settlement.. and then you'll have to pay the council £10,000 to knock your house down...

[The Gauge]

Whatever it is, kill it with fire!!

[ian996]

Simpo Two said:

You should get Time Team in. They'll soon find out it's an Iron Age settlement.. and then you'll have to pay the council £10,000 to knock your house down...

Or get Lance and Andy on the job

https://youtu.be/DZDxo6ZHR0M?si=UziGfje7Ld7oz6Zr

[johnpsanderson]

ian996 said:

https://youtu.be/DZDxo6ZHR0M?si=UziGfje7Ld7oz6Zr

Funnily enough we live about halfway between that field and Dan(e)bury, but sadly there was not a whiff of Tizer ringpull or Ford Mustang…