After the excitement of getting the roof repaired, normal service resumes with another day of digging-out the ditch. Surprisingly, as we get further from the building, the quantity of late-20th-century junk we find seems to be increasing! This week we found:
- No fewer than eighteen intact glass bottles!
- A further eight glass jars, many branded "Mary Had" (Lamb sauce, we presume)
- A can of "Top Deck" shandy
- An aluminium kettle
- A fork, in excellent condition
- Various bits of broken crockery
- Part of the kitchen sink
- The white enamelled washing-up bowl
- Two padlocks
- What might be part of the element from an electric hob
- A single shoe (not the same size as the one we found weeks ago)
- An Ever Ready bicycle light
- The number nine
- Assorted electrical fittings
...and another bucketful of broken glass. Remarkably, one of the bottles still contains milk - though I suspect it has gone off by now.
Meanwhile, we put some work in on the main window frames, freeing up the access-covers for the sliding window carriages, and using them to oil the rusty (but serviceable) rollers inside. We also removed the brass handles and catches for cleaning, although some of these proved entirely resistant to unbolting by conventional means, and will have to wait until we can return with more tools. The thoroughly-perished rubber buffers at either end of the sliding casements' travel were also removed, and will be replaced with modern equivalents in due course.
Curiously, we also found the box's nameboard lying at the bottom of the stairs. Whether there were sufficiently high winds to blow it off the wall last week, or merely some tall and energetic vandals, remains a mystery.
