Collateral Damage

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A listing of the number of carriages on each form of public transport I took for two weeks. One dash is one carriage. I also included buses and used one dash for a single decker, two dashes for a double decker. Most days are quite symmetrical, but not all.

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.)

Custom House Lower Stairs has been my lunchtime haunt, when the tides are amenable, so I had one last session there. There were a few tourists wandering about and the tide was not low enough to be able to get underneath the wharf, even at low tide.

Finds included:

White horse distillery bottle base

A piece of glass with a curious shape

A squashed pipe

A black thing with green circles, which may be from a fire bucket.





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

It was Easter Sunday and I headed back to Gabriel’s Wharf and along to outside the National Theatre and underneath Waterloo Bridge, and I found so much!

The tide was lower than predicted and I was able to get to the bottle graveyard.

There was a giraffe toy but it was too sad and mud covered so I left it.

To start with I was the only person on that section of foreshore, but other people appeared later.

I was glad to be back at this section which always has plentiful finds, but it seemed like it had less pottery sherds this time and the line of coal/brick debris is shifting along. It was great for bottles though.

It also seemed to have more waste, particularly sanitary towels, than most occasions, which is always sad to see.



Finds included:

Blue sticklebrick - I used to have some of these when I was a child.

Boots Cash Chemists piece of a glass bottle. Boots used this name as at the time, most places accepted buying things on credit, but Boots didn’t. This meant that they could offer items at a cheaper price. They also took part in a court case as they were the first chemist that allowed customers to pick items up off the shelves and take them to the cashier, as opposed to having to ask the cashier for them as they were kept behind the counter. The Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain took them to court for this in 1953 and Boots won.

A piece of a glass bottle that looks to say “ale Bros” on one side and “r hi” on the other side. I wonder what the rest of it said.

Half a small cup

Two vulcanite bottle stoppers. One is unbranded but has an orange band on it. The other says White Ltd, so would be from R White’s.

A sherd that says “sapph” and W & co on it. Probably Whittaker & Co from Hanley, who were in operation from 1886 - 1891.

A sherd that has blue and white leafy patterns on the front and possibly says “ssen” and “England” on the back.



In the second picture:

A piece of a white plate that doesn’t look very interesting from the front, but on the back, it says:
Stone China
E & C Challinor
England

It also has the Royal Arms on it.

It dates from circa 1891, made by Edward & Charlies Challinor in Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent. I wonder what was eaten off it and who used it.
–

A nice piece of mocha ware

A glass bottle lid that looks to say Calder - probably Aire and Calder Glass bottle works of 83 Upper Thames Street, London and Castleford.

A base of a bottle that says “J.L. & Co.” - John Lumb & Co. They were also from Castleford.

Half a bottle base that looks like it said “New Cross” on the side. Possibly Kent Mineral Waters Co.



A large piece of an ink bottle - "Encre Japonaise" by N. Antoine & Fils, Paris, from around 1870 - 1900. It must have been a large ink bottle, so I wonder who was using that much ink.



A 2 Player Championship Golf LCD game, made by Tandy, circa 1991.
There was also a Radio Shack branded version that appeared in their 1992 catalogue. It's on page 163 and says: "An entire 18-hole golf course you can hold in your hand and play anywhere! Musical sound effects add to excitement."
https://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/flipbook/1992_radioshack_catalog.html?fb3d-page=163



A broken Orange Dew bottle. Sparkling Orange. Manufactured by Anchor Springs.The Anchor Brewery in Littlehampton started making mineral waters, under the name of Anchor Springs, when Henty & Constable Ltd took it over in 1921. I can’t find any mention of Orange Dew, apart from an American brand, but Anchor Springs is at least detailed, and there’s a long list of Henty and Constable pubs.

A Schweppes bottle. I often find R White’s bottles, but rarely Schweppes!

An LWD (London Wholesale Dairies) milk bottle.

A Wallingford mineral waters bottle.



A curious red broken bottle. I am not sure what it would have contained.

A plastic City Cruises coffee cup depicting London landmarks.



There were a number of records strewn on the foreshore, as well as their cases, which were separated from the records. It seemed like they probably hadn't been there long. I picked one up and found the matching cover to it. When I got home I listened to the piano music on YouTube: https://youtu.be/32lbp3uylk4



Part of a broken bottle from the Pure Water Company (PWC), Battersea. They had a mineral water factory built around 1870 in Queens Road, Battersea. Advert: https://gll-libraries-production.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/qqh7i5r8teknbg7cb1d4lqtqhx6u

Postcard on Ebay:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333449128241

A United Dairies bottle.

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