3d back?

Over the years my husband dug up many old bottles - from the footings dug on building sites he worked on years ago, and from an old rubbish dump revealed when so many of our old trees were uprooted in the 1987 hurricane. We have a number displayed in our house - including the 3 round bottomed bottles pictured above.

However, many were stored in open boxes in the eaves of our loft and we knew that it was time to sort them out.... so yesterday we washed them all and allowed them to dry in the warmth (heat!) of the garden, before packing them all safely away again in special storage boxes with lids.

We were going to try to sell them, but they are such a wonderful view into social history that we are not sure we can part with them yet.

For so many years extra money was levied on drinks in glass bottles, so that money used to be got back on empty bottles - the ultimate in encouraging recycling! originally it was about a farthing or a halfpenny, but when I was young it was 3d.

As kids we would knock on doors asking for their old bottles to get a bit of money - and if we found some discarded on the heath, that was an added bonus.