A quiet day, with only two of us shovelling away in torrential rain and dazzling sunlight, sometimes within a few minutes of each other! Slowly, but surely, the foot of the embankment is returning to its original depth. As the soil level drops, we're also pulling the fence back upright, so far as possible - although it will need substantial repairs.
Among the finds this week:
* A padlock, with some still-legible printed paper stuck to it. Anyone recognise where it might have come from?
* Three intact milk bottles, marked "CoOp", "Leicester" and "Northern"
* Two jars, perhaps used for coffee?
* Another bucketful of broken glass
* Parts of the lever-frame
* A piston from an internal combustion engine
* A single shoe
* An insulating spacer for bullhead rail
* A curved lump of clear glass (what was it?)
* More pieces of crockery
* Broken insulating pots from the pole run
* Assorted electrical wire
* Several lengths of steel wire with circular loops wound near the ends (any ideas?)
* A brass key lever from a block instrument
* The handle off a stopcock
* Another gravity-lock cover, broken
* Two disintegrating zinc-carbon cells
* Three more plastic coal sacks
* Part of the lock from a small cabinet or box
...alongside the standard lumps of coal and masonry. While this might be a relatively dull stage of the project, it has something of the 'lucky-dip' about it. We never know what might turn up, and when it does, we're probably the first people to see the thing for thirty (or fifty) years!
