Burried Rubbish and rubble

Hello all.
My garden has fairly good but uneven soil. Currently I am digging a pond. About 50cm deep (1.6ft) I have found a lot of rubble and rubbish: lumps of concrete, disintegrating bin bags, old toys, plastic bottles, rotting leather, Styrofoam, bits of wood with nails sticking out.

My house and the surrounding estate was built in the late 1940's and was originally council housing. It looks to me like the rubbish is from around the 80's and that for whatever reason, the previous owners just decided to cover it over.

What should I do? It could be localised but I fear may affect most of the garden.

Has anyone else encountered anything like this?

 

Yes. There was a site just outside Canterbury, where some new houses had been built over a very old tip. There was trouble there for all the householders regarding methane gas.
I hate to tell you this, but would advise that you may want to investigate the matter further.

 

I don't think it is that. Actually just dug up a pokemon teddy toy and they were not made until 1995. It is definitely the previous owners.
We have found other problems with the house, when we moved in the electric wiring was a series of unsafe cowboy builder botches and there were two areas set up specially for canabis growing. The neighbours also reported the previous owners once vandalised their car in what they believe was a racially motivated attack.

So this latest discovery in a way does not surprise me. Even so, I do want to fix it. Would you still recommend proper investigations if it is new rather than an ancient dump?

 

There was no waste collection here until the mid sixties so all domestic refuse was either burned or buried. We have taken well over 40 tons of material to the recycling over the last 22 years. The rubbish was so deep in one area that we found a push chair, (sans enfant) buried in it,upright. Our Lily pond is over a metre deep and I never did find the original soil level.
In one area I found a pit, full of broken glass. I dug down along side it and the further I went down the older the material until the lowest level was Victorian.
All you can do is bag it and take it to you nearest recycling yard. Never had any health issues with digging it up here though, even though some of the stuff must have come from the First World War Tented Hospital in the fields behind us. Just wear gloves!
Good luck with it.

 

I remember well I was sorely tempted to bury a pushchair avec enfant at one time - many years ago. I bought him a one way ticket to Australia instead. ...we joke about it all the time (little does he know)

 

You could dig another hole to get rid of it
I once found a old car buried in the drive way, a Ford escort mk2

 

There really should be a horror face next to the like thumbs up for this!

 

You could always use this one @Amy Willshire .... but it can only go in your post when typing it

 

At the bottem of my garden was a plot of land about 4 ft which at first i did not k ow it was part of my garden as the back garden fence ended just by that land .it was used as a rubbish tip by some 3 council tenents whose 3 houses were back of the garden

When i found out that it was part of my garden i decieded to reclaim that land back unfortunately the coucil refused to remove the rubbish as once they did clear it some years back but now if i wont the land back i am responsible

As there was a load of rubbish including , asbestos ( which was thrown there by the niebours) next door to me as they did they have an abestas shed which they dismantled awhile back also car parts,baby prams etc even a foxs den

So i got a firm in to remove all the rubbish a lorry load was overflowing with rubbish ect and took the lot away as regards the foxes den it had been abanded sometime ago

So if you have a lot of rubbish sometimes its better to have it removed professionally plus its much safer as you never know what might be underneath alot of rubbish eg asbestos

 

Personally I would just deal with problems as they arise and not worry too much about it. Dig your pond and deal with any rubbish you encounter. My house is built on an old builders yard an i encounter all sorts when i tackle a new area. I either fill the land rover up and take it to the dump or i use skip bags. Skip bags aren't the cheapest way of getting rid of stuff but are more convenient than a proper skip.

Good luck with the pond. Investing some blood sweat and tears will give returns in the long run.