Gardener Unearths Treasure
“Many a veteran gardener will tell you they’re ‘green-fingered’. For relative novice Jan Long, however, ‘gold-fingered’ is a more apt description – as nearly every time she weeds her borders or tends her vegetable patch, she unearths an antique. She has dug up an incredible treasure trove of dozens of valuable items including a diamond ring, a solid gold Victorian watch and an Edwardian chain-mail bag at her historic farmhouse. The mother of three has also found more than a hundred coins – some of them Roman, and an Austrian Crown from 1780 – as well as brooches and medals in her 150ft long garden. Among the more bizarre are a plough, a gate and a wheelbarrow. Her unusual ‘crop’ began when she took up gardening six years ago after she and husband Dr Richard Long, 70, a retired university lecturer in Middle Eastern Studies, moved to the rural property near Ledbury, Herefordshire, and found a stash of Victorian bottles.” w/ photos
