After some weeks of not going to my spot due to various commitments and recovering from dig-related aches and pains I took the opportunity to spend an entire Sunday afternoon digging. This time, I wanted to be a bit more prepared, so I’d packed some snacks and drinks, a new pair of working gloves and some new safety goggles. The thing is I can only do maximum 4 hours before I start flagging and that where things have gone wrong for me before (e.g. tripping into the river or slipping on the bank). When I’ve found a good spot, I just want to be back there every day but it’s not always practical.
As the weather has been improving, I thought to be a bit cooler I’d wear my joggers which would be comfortable and keep me warm as it’s mostly in the shade there. This is where I’d made my first mistake of the day as the waders attach via a belt clips which the joggers didn’t have. This meant I had to improvise and tie the clips to themselves and hope they held up (they did not). This meant most of my afternoon was having my waders fall down to my knees and most of the mud as well.
Because I was already suited and booted, I didn’t have time to drive all the way home and start over so just carried on regardless. Next time I’ll not make that mistake. I started by digging more around the surface where I was before and exploring slightly higher up than I had been before. As I mentioned before, the location is very precarious and to be honest all the ducking and diving over overgrown laurel branches is doing my knees in.
I started by making a strong foothold in the bank by digging a flat bit about waist high and then quite literally pinning myself up between two large laurel branches. One was right behind my back serving as a king of back rest and the other was across my thighs meaning I could easily stay there holding on and work carefully with one hand. It was at this point I realised having a hook on the bucket would have been so useful as there were no open branches to hook the bucket handle onto. I rested it on the bank near my foothold hoping it would stay in place on an angle and proceeded to dig. It became immediately apparent that this was an older section of the tip as there was an old fork right on the surface. I had a good feeling about this given its awkward location, I was sure no-one has even dug here before. The only caveat to this location though is that it’s close to the roots of a huge tree right on the bank so I had to be careful.
Bit by bit I extracted mostly smashed bottles and pottery (interesting patterns) and put it in the bucket. At one point the bucket slipped off the bank and everything inside smashed into the river which I totally knew was going to happen. Another lesson for the next dig.
Not long after this I had two incredible moments. I uncovered my first unbroken Foster Clarke – Eiffel Tower Juice drinks bottle!
I couldn’t believe my luck and did a little celebration to myself like the gold dance in the Detectorists 😂. What an amazing thing! I’d found so many broken ones that I wasn’t expecting to find a whole one. I immediately climbed down, clutching it carefully and putting it safely in my jacket for later. After climbing back up, charged with a new energy I found another intact bottle – this time a beautiful green poison bottle. What a moment to remember!
The hoard
This is everything of interest that I bought back (plus a huge bag of broken glass). As you can just make out – I also found a few other things.
Star find ⭐️
It goes without saying this is the best thing I found today. Even though I did my little dance with the Foster Clark bottle, uncovering this was something extra special as they have that thrill of danger. I will upload some pictures of it cleaned up. The words “Not to be taken” are written on one side and a 4oz underneath. Apparently green poison bottles are more rare to find.
M ( SUPER )
This is it! Since my last post I only had the base of this and have found a full one meaning I could see it in it’s full glory. I haven’t been able to find what the makers mark is but the aqua blue bottle was probably a medicine bottle/chemists bottle as it looks almost identical to the Tablespoons bottle found nearby. My family have suggested the “Super” might denote a size/volume like “Grande” in Italian.
Eiffel Tower Fruit Juices – Foster Clark and Co. Maidstone (c. 1890s – 1910)
Since 1910, Foster Clark became a limited company so bottles made after this date have Foster Clark Ltd instead of & co. This means my bottle dates between 1891 and 1910. The firm also made lemonade.
The bottles contained a powder for making up fruit juice drinks. Foster Clarke had a factory right next to Maidstone market. There was even a Foster Clark ward at the Maidstone hospital and a housing estate named after it.
Foster Clark started in Maidstone in 1891 by George Foster Clark, aged 27. Capitalising on the enormous popularity of the Eiffel Tower which had recently been erected in Paris in 1889, he registered the name Eiffel Tower as his lemonade trademark.
Sources: Words taken near verbatim from https://www.whatthevictoriansthrewaway.com/project/foster-clarks-bottles/ and https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk
William Hutton & Sons silverware fork
Woods Brothers bottle base fragment
Now I’ve found a few of these, i’m more convinced the makers mark matches a Wood Brothers, England (1854 – 1981) bottle. The brown stains are from rust.
Wine? bottle base fragment with lettering
I can make out the letters G B C and then DET (or P). It’s fairly consistent with a wine bottle with the kick-up underneath.
The California Fig Co., San Francisco Cal. (ca 1889)
I was amazed to find the fragments of this considering it’s quite exotic for that time. I almost had the complete bottle in parts and tried to assemble it for the picture at the bottom (colour corrected). The California Fig Co. fig syrup was a medical remedy for “constipation and to act upon the kidneys, liver, stomach, and bowels”.
produced medical at Reno, Nevada, in 1878 and purchased in The Sterling Remedy Co. purchased the California Fig Co. in 1912,
Because of the bottle size, lettering and side profile, I believe this to be a “Second Corporation (San Francisco)” bottle (1885-ca. 1889). On page 6 of the company history PDF, it states “the company probably phased these bottles out ca. 1889”
Patersons? Fragment
Based on the glass colour and size of the lettering, I’m fairly sure this is a Paterson Camp Coffee fragment.
Lewis…Store
I haven’t been able to find much about this yet but will update the post when I discover more.
Cod Liver Oil Bottle
The SION writing on the front is most likely from “Emulsion” which would be Scott’s Emulsion, Cod Liver Oil. Alfred B Scott, and his partner Samuel W Bowne, began experimenting in 1873 to produce a more palatable preparation of cod-liver oil. Three years later in 1876 they established their firm Scott and Bowne in New York and began marketing Scott’s Emulsion. It would have possibly been mixed with lime and soda to make it more palatable.
