Marks Tey - May 2008
This dig did not really live up to expectations and had in parts been thoroughly been dug by hand already. I had hoped it would produce the earlier bottles and patents from Colchester but in the main they failed to show!As per all Colchester tips it was full of common gingers, beers and codds to the extent that we began leaving them behind (well everyone apart from me!)The dump was wet at the bottom and no deeper than 8 foot. The top ash consisted of a later layer with the bulk of items found in the bottom 2 feet of ash.Local items that did surface were amber Stevens dumpy seltzers, all white Coveneys impressed GBs, Nicholls Sykes McVay (Wayne picked one up at a boot sale week after for £1.50!) Crooks beers, local baby feeders and several Percy Wicks transferred GBs. No local lids or coloured top minerals surfaced.Other good finds included coloured print lids, coloured top creams and GBs, a rare miniature marmalade and two nice salve ointment pots. We were also lucky enough to recover three Payne & Bayles GBs at the end of the dig.To summarise - the dump has now been systematically dug from top to bottom and completely levelled leaving no ash remaining. Most of what we recovered was underneath piles of old tin and scrap and in water, that would have been a nightmare to dig by hand! We all enjoyed the dig and although not important we recovered our costs with plenty of additional stock to take to the Summer National and Stratford.
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