Button

[Drivertess]

I know buttons are very common but I thought this one may have some history. Has anyone any ideas please?

[Tafflaff (Rob)]

Well its the navy insignia so it could be off any Navy uniform.

[monkeymad]

I have got 4 exactly the same.  They all came from the same field.

[Drivertess]

This one was found inland and the only military activity in the area is Army Barracks. I will have a word with the farmer to find out if he has any idea of the Navy in this location and if so when they were present there. This will give me a rough date on the button I think.

[Chef Geoff]

There doesn't have to be any naval activity, in the same way that the ultra common general service buttons doesn't mean army.
Now there could be loads of reasons but it's worth remembering that after WW1 there were no demob suits, the only thing you had to hand in was your great coat which you took to a railway station after you got home and they gave you £1, you kept your uniform (and helmet in the case of army).
I doubt that there were many chaps after that war who would have had fond memories and so the uniforms would of, in some cases, been used as work clothes. At harvest time and haymaking many people would help out farm by farm and so that's how some come to be there.
If you are finding an absolute stack of buttons then I'm afraid they are usually the result of night soil

[jamiepearce]

There doesn't have to be any naval activity, in the same way that the ultra common general service buttons doesn't mean army.
Now there could be loads of reasons but it's worth remembering that after WW1 there were no demob suits, the only thing you had to hand in was your great coat which you took to a railway station after you got home and they gave you £1, you kept your uniform (and helmet in the case of army).
I doubt that there were many chaps after that war who would have had fond memories and so the uniforms would of, in some cases, been used as work clothes. At harvest time and haymaking many people would help out farm by farm and so that's how some come to be there.
If you are finding an absolute stack of buttons then I'm afraid they are usually the result of night soil

Hi Geoff
I find loads of buttons on my permission which has used for vegtable and crops for hundreds of years and was told it was because people used to use old cloth and clothes as fertiliser ?Is this correct and what is night soil

[Chef Geoff]

Hi Jamie
It all depends on what part of the country you live, definitely around the mill areas of Lancashire and Yorkshire "shoddy" Wool fertiliser was used but I have not seen any substantial proof that buttons would have been attached when the cloth went through a shredder.
Night Soil is basically human waste, if you think that mains sewerage has only been in existence in the vast majority of homes for no more than 100 years and far less in rural communities (some still don't), it all had to go somewhere
Night Soil men would clear out the privy (a bucket) during the night and this was sold to farmers to use as fertiliser....yum yum
By far the commonest button found is the four hole button and as most will know this was primarily used for trouser flies and braces so you don't need much of an imagination to know how they got there.
But what about the larger "coat" type buttons?
Well you now have to put yourself back in time and realise that the "privy" is generally set as far from the living area as possible because of the smell and of course we are talking of a time before electric light. So it's the middle of winter and it's snowing, are you going to just pop the 100yds to the loo in your shirt sleeves? No, your going to put your coat on and that's if we are living at a time when you ever took a jacket etc off, so the simple process of going to the loo becomes far more involved with unbuttoning and buttoning and there are far more chances of buttons falling off and into the bucket of...well you know.
But how come so many?
Here we come to the simple maths.
If we tie in the number of years buttons have been commonplace against the years before mains sewerage we end up with a figure around 250 years, now take a small village of say 200 people and now let them go to the loo only once a day (unrealistic) that will give us a total of visits to the lavi and losing a button of 18,250,000. If we allow for a button only being lost every 5000 visits we still end up with 3650 buttons.

So the moral of this story is......."don't stick them in you mouth"

By the way many of the pot fragments you see on fields got there the same way as there were no rubbish collections back then and so a good way of disposing of rubbish was to bury it in the bucket

[Dryland]

very interesting read Geoff,  I wish they had taught maths like that in school  .
"Don't stick em in your mouth " lol 

[jamiepearce]

Thanks chef
That's explains a lot thankyou.........very interesting 

[monkeymad]

The people who did the job where also called Gong Farmers 

My 8 year old niece just called me one  she learnt it in her history books.

[Drivertess]

I don't know if it is connection but the farmers great Uncle (the farmer is 57) was in the navy and had many friends to the farm and worked there on his leave. This maybe where the button came from!

Thanks for the great explanation regarding the origin of all those buttons I am finding and, yes, they are found in the particular farm I detect on only in certain areas of certain fields