Treasures on the Spoil Heaps: A day at a Scottish bottle dump

By Nicole and Craig Lind

Back in the 1880s to 1930s, there was no trash collection in smaller villages. If you lived in a house with a garden, you probably dug a hole, called a midden, at the far end of your garden or threw your empty bottles over the fence onto a field. Some villages had smaller dumping areas allocated in forests near the village, where you could go and dispose of broken mugs, jam jars, and other non-reusable items.

Back in those days, people had a lot less rubbish to throw away. Stoneware bottles and jars were reused for many years until they developed cracks. A lot of soda and beer bottles had deposits on them and even embossed messages to say that the bottles were not owned by the buyer, but in fact belonged to the brewery, and you were required to return them there. Nothing came in plastic containers; flour was sold in paper bags, and most Victorians made their own jam and preserves, which they jarred themselves reusing old glass or stoneware jars.

Dumps, in gardens, woodlands, or farming land in took in most of the “waste” generated by a household. But a household could also make a little money by getting rid of their rubbish another way—the rag-and-bone man. The cry, “Any old rags,” announced the arrival of a horse-drawn cart driven by the rag-and-bone man who, until the 1900s, collected pretty much everything, including coal dust, vegetable scraps, metal, human hair, and even urine. These collected items were then sold on by the rag-and-bone men to be reused: fat and marrow to soap boilers and glue makers; broken glass to emery paper manufacturers; old boots to Prussian blue pigment manufacturers; and vegetable and animal matter for manure or animal feed.

Many of these activities ended with the cheap mass-production of glass bottles, beginning around the turn of the 20th century—refuse from households was no longer a commodity that was collected and traded by the rag-and-bone men. The advent of the Industrial Revolution put an end to the culture of recycling that had existed for decades—cheaper products and packaging made reusing jars and ink wells seem a needless effort when they could be thrown away and replaced cheaply. But the Industrial Revolution also drew people into emerging or growing towns, where people spent their time earning a living—the time once spent recycling and making jam and preserves at home was now spent working for money to buy these things.

Large populations and an emerging throwaway culture created a need for newer and bigger dumping grounds. Larger towns sometimes had marl holes—huge crater-like openings that were initially used to dig up clay for the potteries. These holes, up to100 meters (325 feet) deep, were slowly filled with the town’s trash. Once filled in, the top was sealed with a few feet of clay, and once the grass grew over these dumps it was as if they were never there. These areas were often turned into playing fields, industrial estates, or so called "commons"—outdoor spaces where everyone could go and enjoy sitting on the grass on a Sunday.

These are the places where treasures lurk underneath the ground. These are the places where we love to search. Old maps give clues to the location of many of these refuse areas, but many of these “bottle dumps” are highly guarded, secret places.

What can you find in bottle dumps?

If you are an avid bottle digger, keen on digging six-foot deep holes, then you can be the first person to uncover someone’s old rubbish from 100 years ago. But if you are like us—searching for treasures on the spoil heaps left by bottle diggers—there is still much to be found. Many treasures are left behind by bottle diggers, who principally look for rare bottles that fetch high prices among collectors. Frozen Charlotte dolls, beads, small poison bottles, and many more common items are either overlooked or undervalued by bottle diggers, and these can be found with a little bit of patience and a good eye. Bottle diggers commonly leave piles of bottles on the edge of the hole while they dig—bottles in these heaps are of no interest to those looking for highly valued finds—but many items we consider treasures can be found, and historical lessons can be learned from these treasure troves.

It’s always an exciting day treasure hunting at bottle dumps, hidden from time and forgotten by most. Rare ginger beer bottles, blue Codd bottles, and printed stoneware jars fetch thousands within the bottle digger community. Don’t expect to find anything like this if you are searching the spoil heaps. But you will find precious glimpses into the life of Victorians and Edwardians.

One of the more common finds are sauce bottles, such as HP sauce. These bottles were capped with glass stoppers, which are also found here. Codd bottles often abound around spoil heaps, but they tend to be broken, and their coveted marble is most often missing. Children smashed the bottles, forgoing the deposit, so they could get to the marble inside the bottleneck.

The sheer amount of sauce bottles and flavorings tell us something about the Victorian diet—it was bland. People added jam or “dripping” on bread, added sauces to bland broth and starchy foods, and chicory coffee extract to drinks. One Victorian answer to this boring diet was California fig syrup, of which we find abundant evidence, along with a plethora of other digestive aids. Quack cures and "snake oils"—cure-alls that mainly consisted of sugar water—were very common. A lot of people back in those days could not afford to go to a doctor, so they bought “medicines” that promised to cure pretty much anything in one bottle, but mainly contained sugar. On the other hand, wines and “soft drinks” were commonly laced with hard drugs. Halls Tonic Wine or original-recipe Coca Cola are good examples—both were heavily laced with cocaine.

What we love to find.

Some of our favorite finds are the more mundane items. We love finding plain stoneware jam or ointment jars in all shapes and sizes. Stoneware bottles and “penny inks” (ink bottles produced by the million and sold for a penny each), can be found in all sorts of shapes, though the more coveted ink wells shaped like a bird cage or cottages are never left for us to find on a spoil heap.

Most days gift us with at least one really great find. Lost jewelry, mourning buttons, brooches, and delicate glass beads lost among the ash, sand, and dusty soil really brighten up the day. Little treasures like these easily vanish into the large mounds created by bottle diggers but emerge from the century of waste with a slower look over a dig site.

Among our favorite-ever finds are delicate perfume bottles with writing on them; anything with Edinburgh on the bottle; a beautiful Frozen Charlotte porcelain doll that looked like a boring twig until Craig picked it up; or an incredible “Tear Catcher”—a very rare find with a dubious history that we uncovered. We love finding tiny bottles because we can keep and display so many more of them than we can big bottles. These tiny bottles also reveal the dependency that past generations had on commonly available substances, such as morphine, opium, laudanum, cannabis, and other substances now controlled by law.

Other small bottles reveal insights about domestic activities—some contained indelible inks, used to mark clothing so it could be easily identified and claimed in the busy washhouses. But perhaps our favorite tiny bottle find is an insulin bottle, which we found with the printed label still on it. Our research into this little bottle pointed us to an important period in the development of modern medicine, as it was one of the first ever made during that time.

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention dangers in these dumps.

Bottle dumps, much like today’s dumps, hold all manner of refuse: household waste, broken bottles and jars, batteries, chemicals, sharp pieces of metal, and waste from the slaughterhouse and the butcher's shop, and even hospital waste. We always wear gloves and use very strong insect repellent to keep things like ticks away. Although commonly done, we advise against tapping anything on your teeth to check if it’s plastic or glass. Keep an eye open for under-dug ground or overgrowth hiding deep holes full of broken bottles. Even with the best of care, overgrowth, nettles, and fireweed can hide trip holes, six-foot deep pits, or edges that have been weakened from below. Have fun, discover the past, but always take good care of yourself.

Learn more about bottles

Learn more about identifying bottles by shape and color, the history of bottle manufacturing, stoppers, marbles, and more. Articles ›

All photos courtesy of Nicole and Craig Lind.

This article appeared in Beachcombing Magazine Volume 45 November/December 2024.