Bricks in lawns!

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Hampshire Hog

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Bricks in lawns!
« on: November 19, 2021, 17:56 »
Good evening I have just planted a few daffodils in my front lawn and was somewhat surprised to hit bricks as I lifted the turf. My house was built in the 1970s so I’m wondering if they qualify as “mid century” items as mentioned on TV programmes.
I also wonder how many of you have encountered similar items whether at home or the allotment. It made me think of the phrase “unexpected item in the bagging area”!
Keep digging

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GraciesGran

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Re: Bricks in lawns!
« Reply #1 on: November 19, 2021, 20:38 »
Unearthed bricks and bottles in the garden at our previous house.  It was a 1970 build.  We also discovered  a concrete slab which we used it as a base for a shed. 

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mumofstig

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Re: Bricks in lawns!
« Reply #2 on: November 19, 2021, 21:07 »
I had very old foundations at the end of my garden  :ohmy: Searching on-line for very old maps, I found out that originally there were stables here, and I've found 4 horseshoes, so far. There's also a black ash layer, if you dig deeply as well.
This row of small houses was later built for railway staff when the line (at the end of the garden) was first opened, with the end house, for  a manager of some sort, as it had the added benefit of bay windows and better quality cast iron fireplaces ;)  All sadly, removed and skipped last year, as the house was 'improved'  :ohmy:

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hasbeans

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Re: Bricks in lawns!
« Reply #3 on: November 20, 2021, 05:32 »
I've found bits of wall and mountains of broken glass under the lawn while repurposing.  There was even 30 ft of tarmac path that had been turfed directly over. 

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Growster...

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Re: Bricks in lawns!
« Reply #4 on: November 20, 2021, 07:11 »
It's a fascinating subject, this!

We know roughly where the foundations of the original house, (bombed during WW2) are, and when we were rearranging the greenhouse base a while back, we found the back wall foundations about a foot down, so we kept them on show, as they fit in with the brick path!

I even found a new set of underground brickwork a week or so ago, sadly as I was burying or dear JRT, but the site just doesn't figure with the original plans, and I'm certainly not going there again!

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mumofstig

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Re: Bricks in lawns!
« Reply #5 on: November 20, 2021, 08:52 »
I even found a new set of underground brickwork a week or so ago, sadly as I was burying or dear JRT, but the site just doesn't figure with the original plans, and I'm certainly not going there again!
Sad news Growster  :()

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Growster...

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Re: Bricks in lawns!
« Reply #6 on: November 20, 2021, 11:11 »
Must stay on topic, but thank you Mum - we miss her so much!

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mrs bouquet

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Re: Bricks in lawns!
« Reply #7 on: November 20, 2021, 12:04 »
I think some 1970 builds were "Landscaped".    This generally meant a small layer of topsoil and turves on top, but blow anything that was below that.    The builders didn't care.    My house was built in fields and woodland.
I have found the odd flint arrow head though.   Mrs Bouquet
Birds in cages do not sing  -  They are crying.

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Goosegirl

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Re: Bricks in lawns!
« Reply #8 on: November 20, 2021, 14:21 »
Our front lawn has some scattered biggish brown patches despite it being scarified and aerated early this year but haven't a clue as to the reason. I have dug up a bell like you find on horse reins.
I work very hard so don't expect me to think as well.

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Lardman

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Re: Bricks in lawns!
« Reply #9 on: November 20, 2021, 14:54 »
Mother Lard 1970's garden was full of what was referred to as builder rubble.

Unlike interesting features in older developments as mrs bouquet suggests, the estate site was essentially levelled with whatever cheap rubble could be sourced and then a few inches of topsoil flattened on top.

There's one particular local estate which was the regional rubbish tip after being mined. The rubbish was levelled then capped with a couple of feet of clay, then top soil added and houses built on floating concrete slabs.  I hate to think what you'd find if you dug about too deeply there.

It's notorious locally with those over a certain age. The houses move all over to place, nothing will grow in the gardens, everything has a whiff of methane and because of the clay layer everything regularly floods.

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Hampshire Hog

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Re: Bricks in lawns!
« Reply #10 on: November 20, 2021, 15:47 »
Looks like my experience wasn’t exactly unique.
My house was built on farmland so nothing interesting I’m afraid. I told my 5 year old grandson about the bricks and he wondered if they were Roman!
Unfortunately our village is being overrun by extra housing at present, I doubt more care is being taken than in the 1970s. FYI Our parish council worked for months on a local plan only to have it completely disregarded by a planning inspector.

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Growster...

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Re: Bricks in lawns!
« Reply #11 on: November 20, 2021, 17:03 »
Here's an odd one then...

During WW2, the three cottages which stood on the site of the present 'Turrets', were demolished by a V2 flying bomb, and about thirty other houses were badly blown about as well, including the church behind us. It went off in the air at about fifty feet, and was an unpleasant awakening for all the local citizens, none of whom were hurt thankfully, because it happened very early in the morning.

The current 'Turrets' was built in the early fifties, with all the restraints of post-war shortages like hardly any timber in the roof, and the odd weak patches in the floors, but it now looks in pretty good shape, apart from a few things which Mrs Growster has instructed me to, like a little paving, and painting everything that doesn't move etc...

But, the garden still retains signs of the old houses, like an old mossy wall here, and stone steps and a foundation there. When we built the greenhouse, we found some of the old foundations of one cottage, with the drains still in the ground, so we just dug round them and left them all in place.

While digging the patch, I am always finding bits of clay pipe (a previous inhabitant of the Turrets site was the Church Warden, so he obviously was not averse to a few tilts at the old St Bruno), and other things like buttons, coins etc., which also go with the plot. There are also bits of gravestone with just a few words still scattered about, so the old V2 did quite a lot of damage!

One day though, I found what's in the pics below...

It is a tiny stamp, similar to that on a signet ring, but set in metal, and with a tiny loop so it could be attached to a watch chain. These were used to mark sealing wax on deeds, documents, letters etc.

(Owing to the impossible photographic qualities of the 'Growster Boer War Bellows Camera, with walnut veneered tripod, and built in emergency tincture flask', the actual stamp just does not come out well, but a quick splunge into some White Tack shows this, which isn't much better...)

The image is a Heart in a Hand, with the words 'Love' and 'Truth' on either side. It took only a little Googling to find that these two words, together with the symbol, are closely associated with 'The Shakers' in the US, and also 'The Oddfellows' in the UK as well.

From the 1700s and the 1800s, right up to the bombing, the smallest of the three cottages was used as a local shop, where a dear old lady sold sweets which she made herself. It was also sometimes used as a store, where left over grain from the local market was kept, and, it is strongly rumoured locally, it was used as a Penny Bank! These banks were sometimes provident societies, or plain savings banks, where restrictions on savings kept accounts down to a level like £150 p.a. They were often sub-branches of the larger banks, and did a useful job in the community. They also had a strong asociation with Friendly Societies across the country - like 'The Oddfellows'!

Back then (around 2010), I had a long chat with a local historian who was well into his eighties, about all this, and because he ran the local shop for years, he knew everything about the village. He was very excited about this find, because he told me that just a few yards from here are two houses, which were once known as 'Oddfellows Cottages'.

But this is as far as the story goes, and because there are so many unanswered questions, it seems to fit the coming season of good cheer, in that I'm thinking 'Charity', and 'Goodwill', 'Love' and 'Truth', not to mention that I may just be digging out there one day, and stick the spade right down into a long-forgotten vault stacked with piles of gold splonders...
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mumofstig

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Re: Bricks in lawns!
« Reply #12 on: November 20, 2021, 17:29 »
That's all very interesting Growster  :)

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Subversive_plot

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Re: Bricks in lawns!
« Reply #13 on: November 20, 2021, 23:09 »
I think some 1970 builds were "Landscaped".    This generally meant a small layer of topsoil and turves on top, but blow anything that was below that.    The builders didn't care.    My house was built in fields and woodland.
I have found the odd flint arrow head though.   Mrs Bouquet

It would be interesting to see the flint arrow heads! Do you have any photos?
"Somewhere between right and wrong, there is a garden. I will meet you there."~ Rumi

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jezza

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Re: Bricks in lawns!
« Reply #14 on: November 21, 2021, 06:57 »
Hello theres a garden 100 yards from me that I've bern mowing the lawns in it has a brick path with 1 brick slightly higher than the rest,I know where it is so can miss it,the people that lived there caught the brick 3 times bending the mower crankshaft each time,new people moved in I warned them about the brick their cordless electric mower didn't stand a chance,30 years ago the kids that lived in the house called the brick Bertie,  he is marked with yellow paint      jezza


 

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