3. Discoveries

Litter is pretty much an invention of the 20th century. The first National Litter Act was passed by Parliament in 1958, on the heels of the first national anti-litter campaign, "Keep Britain Tidy", launched by The Women's Institute in 1955.

It's probably impossible to date this bottle precisely, but it poked enough of its lip out of the side of the ditch alongside the Aston Somerville road to emerge at least 50 years after it was sold; and since the company itself, Foster Clark of Maidstone, ceased producing Eiffel Tower Lemonade crystals sometime in the 1960s, it could be even older.

2020 03 01 Eiffel Tower Lemonade bottle, obverse side: "Foster Clark Ltd Maidstone"

Foster Clark Eiffel Tower Lemonade Bottle found March 1, 2020. Add water to crystals and dilute to taste. Dropped perhaps by a tourist. Churned into the verge. Buried by ditch-clearing. Revealed by erosion. What an adventure litter-picking is. What unexpected discoveries there are! (stay tuned)