In the Spring, whilst undertaking a bit of garden re-design, we discovered some old foundations at the front of our house, which is at least 300 years old. We also found an area of cobbles, a huge pile of magnetic slag or possibly ‘bloom’ from iron smelting activity, and a great deal of rubbish - but that's another story!!
As very amateur archaeologists we then got very excited and started to carefully look at what we were digging up whilst we tried to establish the extent of these stone foundations. Amongst the stuff we have found is this little object. It’s very corroded but it is possible to see the words ‘W. Dowler & Sons, Birmingham' on the concave reverse and what appears to be a stylised horse, or possibly a unicorn on the front. We have discovered that this Birmingham company are still in existence and in the past it has manufactured buttons, whistle and swords amongst other stuff. We emailed them a few months ago to see if they could throw any light on what it may be but we are still awaiting a response from them, so in the meantime perhaps my RootsChat colleagues would like to have a go at finding out what it is, or perhaps someone already knows.
This first picture is to give the scale. Better pics to follow.
Maggie
