Meet the schoolgirl who just loves digging up treasures
“I first took her with me when she was two or three years old. Now she’s more out of control than I am.”
Betsy-Mae Lloyd is only 10 years old, but the Albert Pritchard School pupil has a hunger for history after falling in love with her father’s hobby of antique collecting.
The 10-year-old, from Wednesbury, hunts down artefacts with her father, Jason Lloyd, by digging up old treasures from landfill sites across the region. She then sells these in a shop in her family’s back garden, called Betsyville.
Jason said: “I’ve done this for 45 years and my lad did it as a kid, but he’s 21 and grown up now. Betsy’s love for this has blossomed, but I’ll support her whatever she decides to do in the future. She’ll probably drift away from it when she’s older. She’s at the age where she’s starting to get into makeup now, but it’s something she can come back to.”
Betsy-Mae and Jason will do research by finding old maps of the local area and looking for clay pit sites. If they disappear off the map ten years or so later, then the pair know they are landfill sites.
The father and daughter have found a vast array of treasures – some of which could be worth £600 or £700. After collecting items from landfill sites, Betsy will then sell some of them in her shop and either save the money or use it to buy other special antiques. “Her glass bottle collection is her favourite,” Jason said, “there was one worth £120 which is her most expensive buy, and it included a Victorian version of a sodastream.”
“We mostly dig around Walsall because our interest is local history,” Jason said. Betsy-Mae and Jason are always on the hunt for antiques and special items, and are appealing for anything which someone would like to donate or sell on.
Anyone interested can call Jason on 07757 806001. Betsy-Mae’s shop is in the garden at 76 Wood Green Road, Wednesbury.
