A local mum has been discovering relics and items from the past, long hidden in her back garden.

Kath lives with her husband and two children on Falmouth Road in Bishopston and has been discovering the items since digging in her garden two years ago. While doing so, she discovered old tiles, chimney stacks, roof tiles and Victorian wall and floor tiles.

Since this time, Kath has been regularly discovering items and objects from the past while gardening including fragments of pottery, cups and glasses.

And, when recently digging a trench in the middle of her back garden to make a guinea pig run for her children’s pet guinea pigs, Kath discovered several more items, including a Victorian glass medicine bottle – completely intact.

Kath’s careful cleaning of the bottle revealed the name of the medicine – Congreve’s Balsamic Elixir – and after some research on the internet, found that this was a common Victorian remedy for consumption and whooping cough.

Many of the items that Kath has discovered are probably the result of a tragic bombing that occurred on the night of 24th November 1940 when seven people on Falmouth Road – including a 3 year-old boy – lost their lives, and one house a few doors away from Kath’s house was completely obliterated and had to be later rebuilt.

Other items that Kath has uncovered during the digging of the guinea pig run include a piece of an old hot water bottle, more Victorian floor tiles and a first world war “peace cup” and saucer set from 1918 commemorating the end of WW1… later destroyed in the WW2 bombing.

Kath is carefully looking after the items and is also steadily piecing the Victorian floor tiles together so as to make a mosaaic.

The items and objects that Kath has discovered in her back garden gives us both an insight and a reminder into the lives and times of the people who once lived – and died – in Bishopston.

Bishopston has a wealth of history – have YOU found any items from the past in your back garden? It would be great to share interesting finds from Bishopston, Horfield, St Andrew’s and Ashley Down. Please email me on bristol_mum@hotmail.com.