Jane: Old finds

My 'batisse' dates back to around 1750.  No one is sure exactly but it was here in 1800 and neighbours feel sure that it was around earlier than that.  As I write this, a 'cuve à vin' is being divided and a shower room is being created one end and a utility room the other; a garage is becoming a beautiful living-room; and the vaulted room where the wine was no doubt stored, will be a sort of hallway accessing the shower room and the living-room.  Roll on the 21st century!

When my parents moved into our house in Purley, Surrey in 1958, they discovered a wonderful grandfather clock in the attic.  It still remains in our family.  When I bought my house in London in 1982, a friend spotted that there was a safe hidden behind a piece of wood in the basement.  Several years later, I had it opened.  There were several trinket boxes but most were empty, certainly the little heart-shaped leather one was!  There was a long gold chain however.  When gardening one day, I dug up a wonderful old medicine bottle.

So, what could I possibly find in my little batisse in a tiny hamlet here?  Roman coins? Wouldn't that be good? No, something possibly as old if not older.  My electrician appeared at my door one day clutching two pieces of stone, both with fossils in them:

but today, he arrived with something even more special - a piece of rock made up quartz crystal.  I cannot identify it but I am told it occurs in sandy areas.

 To be honest, the find was more exciting than the gold chain!