This is in response to the last radio show but one. Mudlarking can be done brilliantly via London Walks in summer if you can get the right date and time. It's all due to tides and their schedule. We had a wonderful half day out with intertidal archaeologist Fiona, and discovered all kinds of interesting information about our finds. Not to mention the pre-mudlarking bit about the history of the London rivers. Mudlarking all done very properly/legally with gloves and good warnings, no digging, etc. if you want to really know what your finds are, and you are concerned with the laws about the things, and safety, ahem, try to come on the summer London Walks tour. We had a truly lovely time, August 2016.
Posted by
Narberth, PA
1255 posts
What kinds of things did your group locate? Can you describe the walk/session a little bit?
I have thought of taking this Walk, but so far, the timing has not been a good match.
Thanks. Debbie
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Hi Debbie,
Like all London Walks I gather, we met at a tube station. This one is near the Thames on the other side from the mudlarking spot. That's so that we could look at the slope of the ground & learn about the history of the river. I think we stopped to hear a bit of lecture a couple times. Then we crossed the bridge, had a safety lecture and passed out rubber gloves, and made our way down to a good spot that has a lot of beach at low tide. It's nearish to the Globe Theater as I recall.
We mostly found pottery bits, but one person found a whole pipe bowl, one found pretty rounded glass bits, and another found the top of an old bottle. My daughter found what looks like a teeny tiny manicure blade with a little handle, like for a doll's set or something (sharp-eyed girl.) Fiona borrowed it to have a picture taken, and she's going to mail it back.
So, we brought handfuls of bits to Fiona, who let us know if something was "between the wars" or "Victorian" or "no way to know" (the last is for white pottery with no markings, there's a lot of that.) Also she showed us the difference between yesterday's chicken bone and one that could be a century old :). We were supposed to only take two bits each, and not to dig whatsoever.
All in all it was enormous fun, and really useful to learn what to look for. It was super lucky that there was one day available during our trip. I'd been looking forward to this for several years! The only unfortunate thing was it was super hot, and so I got tired of searching much sooner than I'd expected, and had a nice sunburn. But I'm sure that's not a common problem! :)
We did another London Walk as well, the Old Westminster by Gaslight, and it was very very interesting. A lot of walking! But well worth it.
Good luck finding a time!
Yours,
Leah
Posted by
Narberth, PA
1255 posts
Thanks, Leah. I hope to be in London near the end of April. I will look at the London Walks options, and if this one fits in, I will give it a go. A century old chicken bone! I can't imagine. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by
OP
3 posts
You're quite welcome! April might be a bit early, they seem to post these on their summer schedule if I remember correctly, but you never know. There were a bunch of them last summer, but one summer I think there weren't any.
That said, if you're in the neighborhood of the Tate Modern (I just checked the map) the beach was right there. It was quite muddy, we had the plastic gloves but washed off carefully in the Founder's Arms restroom and had a nice lunch there.
From the map it seems we met at Mansion House tube, walked across Southwark Bridge, past the Globe, and on to the Tate, more or less.
Yours,
Leah