These are some of the common things I found amongst the bags of earth and rubble in the basement from the excavation that was started and abandoned 10 years ago. 

Neighbour and historian Dan Cruickshank encouraged me to sift through them to see what historic relics there might be in there.

Most of it predates the house as they dug below the original floor, though I also found lots of 20th century buttons that were probably still scattered around the basement floor after its last use in 1976 as a Ladies Clothing Manufacturer (it’s been empty ever since!)

In the 17th and 18th century, the price of tobacco dropped as imports increased, and the habit became widespread (no longer just for the wealthy). Clay pipes were the cigarettes of the day – often pre-filled with tobacco and sold for single use!  So it’s no wonder that clay pipes are a common find. 

The illustrated chart dates the ones I found as early 18th century – perhaps some were the pipes smoked by the builders who built the house!

The biggest surprise was how many oyster shells I found! I’d heard that oysters weren’t always the delicacy they are today. Dan explained to me:

“Oysters from the Thames were cheap food in the 18th century but became extinct in the 19th century due to the increasingly polluted nature of the river. Even for oysters there can be too much of a good thing. So, oysters had to be shipped-in to London and prices went up. Oysters are an odd story. There is a myth that the Romans introduced into English waters. Not so. One of the reasons the Romans invaded was to get their hands on the famed English oysters. The challenge the Romans had was to keep the oysters alive on the journey from England to Italy – when they arrived the precious oysters recovered from the journey and enjoyed themselves for a while in well-appointed oyster farms – being fattened up I suppose.”

Dan Cruickshank

Finally, here’s a photo of a letter from an old printing press. The census of 1851 shows there was a printer living there. Could it be his?

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