Site research

[dannieboyuk]

How do you go about researching were theres sites are? I have found a littel spot recently that i am pulling victorian and 1930's bottels from. However i wanted to do a littel research on the area and on other possable sites..... where do i start?

[dannieboyuk]

Ummm intresting. I did take a look at the Enviroment Agency website that gives a littel information about historiacl landfill sites. Now i think i have found the area i was looking for which states the tip was first in use form the early 1950's. A local resident in this area who is in 90's stated that there was a tip there from when her Grandad was about. I am pulling out bottels that appear to be Victorian and 1930's???? Confused

[excavator]

The Environment Agency site is very limited in that most of the landfill sites it shows are less than 50 years old which is too recent for most bottles of interest.
If you want to research your local area start with the old maps site http://www.old-maps.co.uk/ where you can select OS maps of various ages & zoom in on them. A useful fact is that if you zoom in on a particular spot & then switch maps, it centres on the same spot so you can do direct comparisons.
If you open Google Earth in another tab you can tab between the two & see what the area looks like today. And as already pointed out, there is also a new feature on GE that (for some areas) allows you to view older birds eye images back to WWII period.
As for what to look for - woods were frequently used for dumping, as were any convenient 'hole in the ground' - look for old quarries, sand pits, lime kilns, ponds, drainage trenches, etc that may have been filled in with household waste. Allotments are fair game as these were frequently built on former dumps or if not, dumps often grew alongside them as the old boys would wheel their barrows full of rubbish down there & then wheel their spuds back!
Victorian brick works are definitely worth a look as they used ash in the brick manufacture & hence frequently imported household waste as this was 95% ash. Similarly, bone mills, as they wanted bones from household waste. Also look for reclaimed boggy ground & check stream & river banks in these areas.
If you're really keen on finding early dumps & learning about the bottles, you could do an awful lot worse than buying one of Edward Fletchers excellent little books on Antique Bottles / Antique Bottle Collecting, long since out of print, but there's always a couple on the 'bay for a couple of quid or so

[GREGGOWREX]

http://wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[dannieboyuk]

The Environment Agency site is very limited in that most of the landfill sites it shows are less than 50 years old which is too recent for most bottles of interest.
If you want to research your local area start with the old maps site http://www.old-maps.co.uk/ where you can select OS maps of various ages & zoom in on them. A useful fact is that if you zoom in on a particular spot & then switch maps, it centres on the same spot so you can do direct comparisons.
If you open Google Earth in another tab you can tab between the two & see what the area looks like today. And as already pointed out, there is also a new feature on GE that (for some areas) allows you to view older birds eye images back to WWII period.
As for what to look for - woods were frequently used for dumping, as were any convenient 'hole in the ground' - look for old quarries, sand pits, lime kilns, ponds, drainage trenches, etc that may have been filled in with household waste. Allotments are fair game as these were frequently built on former dumps or if not, dumps often grew alongside them as the old boys would wheel their barrows full of rubbish down there & then wheel their spuds back!
Victorian brick works are definitely worth a look as they used ash in the brick manufacture & hence frequently imported household waste as this was 95% ash. Similarly, bone mills, as they wanted bones from household waste. Also look for reclaimed boggy ground & check stream & river banks in these areas.
If you're really keen on finding early dumps & learning about the bottles, you could do an awful lot worse than buying one of Edward Fletchers excellent little books on Antique Bottles / Antique Bottle Collecting, long since out of print, but there's always a couple on the 'bay for a couple of quid or so

WOW!!!!! you have answered a lot of my questions. Thank you very much for the information. People on here are so kind and helpful its very refreshing LOL

[former member]

Keep an eye out for elderberry trees....they often grow on dump sites

[Blackadder43]

Make an appointment with your local heritage centre
They will allow you to view the "Tithe" maps...
These can go back to around 1800's and sometimes earlier
It splits every section of land and tells you who owned it and what its use was at that time....
They also have plenty of other maps there and records...
I purchased almost 30 years of our local archealogical books documenting every dig and site they visited from the heritage centre
They produced this book every year and still do
Each book cost me £1 each and they have proven extremely usefull....

[Blackadder43]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tithe_maps" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[excavator]

Make an appointment with your local heritage centre
They will allow you to view the "Tithe" maps...
These can go back to around 1800's and sometimes earlier
It splits every section of land and tells you who owned it and what its use was at that time....
They also have plenty of other maps there and records...
I purchased almost 30 years of our local archealogical books documenting every dig and site they visited from the heritage centre
They produced this book every year and still do
Each book cost me £1 each and they have proven extremely usefull....

Wow! Thanks, Blackadder, that , and the Wiki link you gave were extremely interesting - now I've learnt something useful myself and can't wait to go and look up a few tithe maps

[slinky]

A free tool to use, which I found today is http://www.goughmap.org/search/ a location searchable medieval map! You can even add layers over it to see where the nearest medieval settlement was too your chosen location....(by using the features tab)..... Just how cool is that.....
Mods is there somewhere to sticky handy links like these so that its easy for members to locate?

[excavator]

Glad you found it useful. Also good for metal detecting - might help to show what those field markings are