VICTORIAN TIP LARKING
Back in the early days of digging it would hit the drought season of metal detecting: a time just before the harvest begins and the pasture finds begin to run out. Hungry for our digging fix we would explore a slightly different digging hobby: tip larking. This is the only digging hobby that Lucie will actually dig for! (something about bottle fever and it being very addictive…)
Here is our tip larking story, a visual diary of our days ratting in the dirt for Victorian Treasure.
‘Mrs Winslow’s Soothing Syrup’ is a great example of a scary time in Victorian Medicine when you really couldn’t trust anything on the shelves. Created in 1849 as a cure for fussy babies this syrup was actually a mixture of morphine and alcohol and one teaspoon alone contained enough morphine to kill a child. In fact the syrup earned the nickname the ‘baby killer’ as many children went to sleep after taking it and never woke up again. Regardless of this, it was still a widely popular product and millions of bottles were sold in both the United Kingdom and the USA.
Decorated pipe bowls are a particularly special tip larking treasure and we were lucky to find three in our adventures: Two lovely examples of an acorn design and one Staffordshire Knot design. Decorated pipes were very popular in Victorian Times and you can find designs of almost everything imaginable such as popular events like a coronation, sporting activities and even the human skull!
Vulcanite screw bottle stoppers were invented in 1872 by Henry Barrett and were the manufacturing norm for well over 100 years, right up until the 1970’s due to their reusable and durable nature. They also became a valuable opportunity for advertising and many can be found featuring company names and trademarks. Finding these small examples of Lincoln businesses that no longer appear on the high street allowed us to discover some 20th Century local history where bottles were manufactured right on our doorstep.
Mostly digging as a duo there aren’t many things that cause competition between Roman Found as metal detecting finds are a joint effort. However all cards go out of the window for tip larking, it’s a race for that victorian treasure and there’s much under the breath cursing when someone comes up with a gem like a complete pipe bowl or ink well (some particular Roman Found favourites). Ellie still hasn’t quite forgiven Lucie for that Edward VII Penny Tip Find she ratted out by eye, no metal detector required.