Potential Mutant Boy Cameos

I watch the ripples in the river from Blackfriars Station, and the sun is shining, but looking at the foreshore - the heaps of pebbles and bits of wood sticking out and the rocky patches, I feel incredibly sad.

I had a good year, finding treasure, all of it treasure, on the Thames foreshore. In reality I found pottery sherds and bits of glass and all kinds of discarded things, but it seemed like they were the most amazing things I'd ever seen, as they were from the river.

I learnt so much, about everything from Bovril jars to uranium glass to vulcanite bottle stoppers to milk trains to hat polish to aerated bread to bearded men to bullets to knucklebones to eels to fossils to ink. I also learnt a lot more about Londoners of the past, about what people drank (ginger beer and R White’s) and ate (marmalade) and smoked (clay pipes). But also about cafes and pubs that once existed and shops and societies, and also who made the items I found, the factories and the kilns and the bottle makers, and the streets that are no longer there. I saw a different side of London, a side of London directly entwined with the past.

I walked along the foreshore in many different parts of London, from Kew to Putney to Chelsea to Battersea to Vauxhall to the Southbank to Wapping to Rotherhithe to Limehouse to Greenwich to Surrey Quays to the Isle of Dogs, and at different times of day, at sunrise and sunset, early in the morning, sometimes even at night when it was dark and I'd take a torch. I saw London from a different angle, watching commuters walk by above me, oblivious. I hadn't explored the foreshore much before and walking along there, across the pebbles, the sand, the mud, with the river beside me was a delight.

Mudlarking became such an important part of my life. I consulted tide times and organised things around them, I carried wellies around with me and rubber gloves.

Mudlarking gave me a reason to want to get back to London when I'd been away and made London feel like it was my home and the place I really wanted to be.

I am sad that now my permit has expired I can’t go mudlarking anymore. The river and the foreshore will still be there for me though, and London, of course, will still be there, and I learnt to love it even more through mudlarking. In a few years, perhaps I'll get another chance.

Beaumont Stairs in Chelsea have been my go to place when I want somewhere quiet, where I'm definitely not going to be bothered by tourists, and there probably won't be any other mudlarks.

I saw the remains of trees that once grew here and it amazes me that they are still here. The bus stop was also still on the foreshore. I thought once it was gone, but no.

After the tide had turned, I walked along, wondering if I could find the Saxon fish trap. I had seen a picture of it near some boats. I couldn't see any way down to the foreshore near the boats though. I think the tide was just too high on this day to see it. I walked on and found myself in Cremorne Gardens which used to be pleasure gardens from 1845 to 1877. They have saved the grand gate and it's in the little park there still. There used to be all kinds of entertainment there - from tight-rope walkers across the Thames, to hot air balloon rides, fireworks, dances, a marionette theatre, and so on.

Further on and I could see a mudlark on the foreshore but I couldn't work out where steps were to get there. There looked like there was a range of stuff down there.



Finds:
A piece of an Express Dairies milk bottle
A piece of a bottle that says Wells on it

Two patterned pipe stems - one looks to say “d market” on it and “nny” on the other side.

An original vulcanite bottle stopper from Barrett & Elers.

Part of a Hartley’s jam jar

A few pieces of mocha ware

A nice piece of Staffordshire style combed slipware

A chunky glass stem. I have another of these and liked to imagine it might once have been part of a penny lick.



A Bourne & Son stoneware base
A Doulton Lambeth stoneware base

A saucer shaped like a teapot, which I think is modern

A plate with a diamond mark - this shows the plate was made on 6th April 1868.



A toothbrush, missing the handle, made of bone.

Keys, attached to a Lego keyring.

(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)