BURYING STUFF ON THE CASTLE

WHEN I WAS ABOUT 9 YEARS OLD

PHOTO: Scarborough Harbour & Castle

There was a phase when I was about 10, I think, where my schoolmate Dennis Hearn (Lived in Elder Street, Scarborough) and I used to bury stuff up on the Castle Dykes at Scarborough (UK). Most of it is probably still there unless the people with metal detectors in recent years have gone over it and dug it up.

Now you might well ask "What kind of stuff?" To be honest, I can't remember exactly, but we used to bury money that we'd fiddled from the machines in the amusement arcades down on the seafront. (See next story) We'd bury knives, coins, momentos, badges, pens, unwanted toys, unwanted gifts, - in fact just about anything.

What we'd do is this: We'd use a knife blade and dig out a square of grass about four inches square and six inches deep, bury whatever it was we wanted to bury, then replace the grass square. We'd step up and down on it, and it was impossible to know that there was anything buried there. We'd then make a note of the position by taking paces from the nearest park bench, telegraph pole, or whatever, so that we could go back at any time and dig it up. Mostly, we never went back.

I think it was the act of burying stuff that made us feel like we were burying treasure like the pirates used to do. We must have buried over a hundred bits of stuff, at least.

Want to have a go at finding some of it? Go up "Castle Gardens" and climb the stairs to the Castle Dykes. From the grass pathway above, we buried stuff between the grass overlooking Castle Gardens up to 100 yards west towards the Castle Archway.

Let me know if you find anything.