History beneath our feet – October 2023
Colin Smale examines fascinating historical artefacts found in our county.
If you could clear away today’s landscape and reveal that of Roman or Saxon times, you may be very surprised at what there once was near you. Your house may have been right in the middle of a long-forgotten settlement site! While weeding her garden in Cleethorpes, an elderly lady pulled out a 1,000 year-old Saxon finger ring. It begs the question, what was going on there in Cleethorpes 1,000 years ago?
POTTERY SHARD
Discoveries can surface at the turn of the archaeologist’s trowel, the farmer’s plough or from the beep of a metal detectorist’s machine. Sometimes the artefact is immediately recognisable, such as a coin or a button, but more often than not the item is enigmatic, like the strange shard of pottery shown here [PIC 3]?
What could this have been, it was obviously created for a purpose?
According to recent research this type of perforated pottery was used to separate cheese curd from whey, it was for making cheese and has been used as such for well over 7,000 years! This piece has been loosely dated as Romano-British (AD 43-410).
BUTTONS
I mentioned buttons; well, ancient buttons can also be more interesting than you might think. Just take a look at the one featured here [PIC 2], known as a ‘livery button’, found on farmland in Caistor. It shows a covered wagon pulled by two horses and you can even see the harnesses. It reads ‘Brocklesby Caister’. It’s a bus and dates from around 1770-1850!
Today’s Caistor was obviously yesterday’s Caister because such a wagon is hardly likely to have plied between Lincolnshire and Caister in Norfolk.
CELTIC GOLD!
Gold or silver does surface from time to time and here is a beautiful Celtic gold stater of Dumnocoveros [PIC 1], ruler or king of our own Celtic tribe, the Corieltavi (sometimes called the Coritani) who inhabited this region in the Roman period and before. Its diameter is 19 millimetres and it weighs 5.40 grams.
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Food waste collections are coming to parts of Lincolnshire in early 2026 ♻️![]()
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Here are the key things residents need to know:![]()
• New household food waste collections will start rolling out in phases from January and February 2026![]()
• If you’re in one of the first areas, you’ll receive food waste caddies and a guidance leaflet delivered to your home![]()
• The leaflet explains how the service works, what can go in your caddies, and when collections will start![]()
• All food items that are edible and inedible are accepted this includes items such as egg shells, meat bones, tea bags and so much more![]()
• The service is part of the Government’s Simpler Recycling changes![]()
• Not all areas will start at the same time – check your local district or borough council news channels for confirmed start dates![]()
• Food waste should be placed in the kitchen caddy using the supplied liners, then transferred to the outdoor caddy for collection![]()
• Collected food waste will be taken to an anaerobic digestion plant, where it will be turned into energy and fertiliser.![]()
Look out for your caddy delivery and make sure to keep an eye on local council updates so you know when the service goes live in your area.![]()
#LincolnshireRecycles #FoodWaste #Recycling #EnvironmentAct2021