Classic car unearthed in Yorkshireman's back garden

Classic car unearthed in Yorkshireman's back garden

Those who are fortunate enough to have their own gardens have rightly been taking advantage of this to get outside - especially in the lovely Spring weather we're experiencing this Easter - and do a bit of horticultural pottering, but I bet this chap in West Yorkshire wasn't expecting to discover a car when he went to dig his garden! 

source

source

That though was the surprising find as reported in this article - a 1950s Ford Popular that had somehow wound up completely buried in a suburban back garden.  Quite how or why it got there is anyone's guess, although the military vehicle theory is as good as any.  Ford Pops would have likely been used as basic runabouts by the postwar armed forces - perhaps this one went AWOL and was hidden away to be retrieved later.  Such incidents are surprisingly commonplace with pre-war cars whose owners - fearing their potential destruction in bombing raids during WW2 - buried them in their gardens to be retrieved after the hostilities were over only for them to be forgotten until unearthed decades later, but this is a rarer instance of a post-WW2 car being found in such a way.  This is assuming it is a Ford Popular, which I have no reason to doubt, although it would be something if it were to found to be an older vehicle.



Either way it is an amazing (and amusing) find and definitely brightened up my day when I first read about it, hence its inclusion here.  If nothing else it ought to encourage the green-fingered amongst you to get out in to your garden, if you have one, and start digging.  If it sounds too much like hard work you don't even have to rip up your lawn to uncover fascinating treasures, as this similar story from Stoke-on-Trent proves:

Medieval coin found in Stoke-on-Trent garden raspberry patch

It always astounds me to think how these historical artefacts can just resurface (quite literally) after centuries underground, as the movement and cultivation of the earth slowly brings them back to ground level again, to be rediscovered in the sometimes most bizarre of circumstances.  It gives one to wonder just what other treasures are still waiting to be uncovered - perhaps in your own back garden!

A 19th(?) century clay pipe that was dug up in the family back garden in the '90s by
our pet dog Toby(!).

What's the strangest thing you've unearthed in your garden?  Let me know in the comments and if you haven't found anything yet - get your spades on!