Visited New Mills two weeks ago and found these treasures by the river near Torr Vale Mill. I think the ceramic shards were brought into the site with building debris to shore up the river bank, they don't make sense in the location.
It reminded me of an allotment I had a decade ago near the Greyhound Stadium in Walthamstow - the earth was full of ceramic and glass. Someone told me the soil had been transported out of bomb damaged central London after the war.
Recently, I read the word 'sherd' for the first time and though it a typo. Sheard comes from 'potsherd', defined as a broken piece of ceramic material, especially one found found on an archaeological site. In general, sherd only refers to pieces or fragments of pottery whereas shard may refer to broken bits of glass, metal, rock, and ceramics.
