Codd neck bottle

In May 2010 Jamy's daddy was ploughing a field in Ballaugh on the Isle of Man, when he saw something shiny in the soil. He carefully scraped away the soil to reveal an old bottle with a marble in the neck. The farmer gave it to Jamys , and since then Jamys has started collecting old glass bottles.

The writing on the front reads 'DOWNWARDS DOUGLAS & RAMSEY'. Downwards produced carbonated drinks on the Isle of Man until the 1970s . On the island the brewing of non-alcoholic ginger beer, soda and other mineral water production began on a commercial scale about 1850 with a substantial number of individual manufacturers, many of them being purely local in character and supply. By 1972 only four were still in business, namely Downward's, Irvings (Peel)' Kelly's and Qualtrough's. Of these Downward was merged with Qualtrough as part of the SmithKline Beecham-Glaxo group and is now the only survivor of the industry.

Over the years these bottles have become relatively rare,as many were smashed by children who wanted to get the marble inside to play with. A popular pastime among local children was looking for 'empties' and returning them, earning 1d or more for each bottle.