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Does anyone know what this might be?


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Digging in the back garden of our home, built in 1836, we found this. It is made of patterned cement and has a brick edging. The cement top measures about 50cm x 90cm. Does anyone know what it might have been? Or what it might have been used for? We have lifted the top cement piece, there is nothing but dirt underneath.
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Could it be possible that your garden housed a horse and cart? Our garden did (we once had a very large side-return). We still have a section of garden with cobbles. In our single street we know there were at least 3/4 houses which had horses - ours was for the coachman for the doctor who lived next door around 1850s, another was a dairy.
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If there had previously been tiles on the path they wouldn't have left a depression around their outline in the concrete like in the photo, and there would have been no use to scoring the concrete like that prior to tiling it.

The scoring was to help avoid slips when wet.

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Yes, good point KK. If it had been tiled and grouted then the lines would be raised. Obviously an attempt to be decorative. I wonder though if it would have worked as a non-slip measure rather than leaving it as a rougher, tamped finish.
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Back in the day winters were harsher, surer and longer than nowadays. Any keying on a path like that would have helped stop slipping and to break-up any surface ice which formed. The concrete could have been finished rougher but may have had a less appealing appearance.
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The 'slab' - which looks complete, is about 2ft by 3ft - if the actual measurements are in cms than it's likely to be well post war - but if it is 2 x 3ft it's really quite small (even with a brick surround). I can't imagine the markings are anti-slip - if only because it can't be more than 2 paces long and probably less. It may well have been recovered from some other use and then re-used in the garden. It could be the base for a burner of some sort, for instance for use in a greenhouse. The cross hatchings could be decorative, or could be to wick away moisture, so whatever was standing on it didn't get waterlogged.
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