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Another Mudlarking the Thames River shore book gives a people's history of London

Posted by (northern CA) on

Rick brings up mudlarking the Thames' banks in both his TV show and his radio podcast ( he can't get enough of single-use clay pipes ) and he had a guest on in 2021 named Lara Maiklem who has a popular history book about it:

https://wwnorton.com/books/9781631494963

Well, now the subject is getting academic treatment from Princeton Univ. Press with a new book by Malcolm Russell that uses the mudlarking finds to talk about the everyday folks of London's past:

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691235783/mudlarkd

In typical Ivy League style, they call it a demotic history.
An example: taverns had their own tokens that people would buy and then use for goods and services in those establishments (kind of like poker chips), but people would take a token and bend it and then give it to a sweetheart or buddy as a token of a promise or pledge -- plenty of bent coins are in the mudlarkers' collections. Were they promises fulfilled, or forfeited?

Posted by
2710 posts

Lara Maiklem is a frequent contributor in the FB group The River Thames Mudlarking Finds--absolutely fascinating posts from all the members who mudlark, not just the Thames but other rivers and the seaside in the UK. I am just content to view their finds and learn a bit about their history, considered getting a permit but they've recently paused giving new ones as this has become such a popular activity that they fear too much is getting lost.

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