Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames

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A Richard III boar badge likely worn to the king’s coronation by an attendee – also discovered by Jason in the Thames – is now used to teach schoolchildren about artefacts at the King Richard III Visitor Centre in Leicester. Want to try London’s coolest new hobby? Mudlarking is the quirky riverside activity that Londoners will love – provided you don’t mind getting a little muddy. Previously: [please read my earlier review below. I stand by every word now that I have read the whole book].

A lyrical and evocative narrative history of London and its people, told through objects found on the banks of the Thames by the city's most prominent mudlark The book is arranged geographically, moving west to east along the Thames. I’m not familiar enough with London for this progression to have meant much to me, so by just past the halfway point the chapters felt like “here’s where I went and here’s some things I found” and “here’s somewhere else I went and some other things I found.” I’m not sure how the structure could have been more successful: perhaps each chapter could have focused on a different time period or category of finds? All the same, this is a fascinating way of bringing history to life and imagining what everyday existence was like for Londoners across the centuries. (If only there were photographs of Maiklem’s collection!) Lara Maiklem is a London mudlark, scavenging for what washes up on the shores of the Thames. I thrilled to her descriptions of what she’s found, including clay pipes, coins, armaments, pottery, and much more. “The Thames is England’s longest archaeological landscape,” she notes, and the many layers of the city’s history mingle at the foreshore: Victorian, Georgian, Elizabethan, medieval, and Roman. The jewel of Maiklem’s collection is a sixteenth-century leather child’s shoe she sent to Cardiff University for conservation.Another thing that irked me was her belief that a portion of the shore had been taken away from her. When telling the reader about nets of stones placed against the river wall in Greenwich in an attempt to prevent erosion, she says: Author Lara Maiklem is a proud London mudlark and shares her finds in Mudlarking - Lost and Found on the River Thames. First, some interesting facts about the Thames from the book. Thirdly, walking on the foreshore of the Thames is dangerous. Permit holders are warned of the hazards of going down to the river bank, and advised to go in groups.

It was a fairly dangerous occupation then, with broken glass, raw sewage and even the corpses of animals or humans known to wash up. My mother had had a museum of her own when she was a child and would delight me with the story of the cat skull, the pride of her collection. She had found it by the side of the road in a state of partial decomposition and rather than wait for the maggots to do their job and risk losing it to another collector, she took it home and boiled it in her mother’s best milk pan to remove the remaining flesh. I loved that story, but bedtime cocoa at my grandmother’s house never tasted quite the same after I’d heard it.” Hosted in Southwark Cathedral in celebration of London mudlark Lara Maiklem’s recent book, A Field Guide to Larking: Beachcombing, Mudlarking, Fieldwalking and More (2021), the event displays a number of found treasures.Pretty much everything that humans have made used and thrown away will be here forever. Often these possessions have ended up in middens and now we bury vast quantities of our unwanted stuff in the ground in dumps. If you know where to look these relics from a time long gone can be found, especially along the foreshore of the tidal Thames. Mudlarking is charged throughout with love for London and its history. Maiklem’s descriptions are witty, evocative and she has some wonderful anecdotes to relate. The history she encounters in the silt of the river hark from the depths of the Bronze Age all the way through to the palaces of the Tudor period and the filth of the Victorian era. As comprehensive as it may be, the history is never dry, and spans so much further than just that of Britain. Maiklem reaches out to the far corners of the globe; detailing 18th century transportations, the horrors of transatlantic slave trade, and even merchant ships hawking sugar and spice and all things nice.

So wonderfully crafted and written, it covers the range of this peculiar pastime along the Thames from West to East. That is from Tidal Head to Estuary. As well as searching by eye and hand, digging and scraping, some modern mudlarks also use metal detectors. Overall, it's a well written and constructed work of non-fiction and through it's many varied layers never fails to hold your interest. I tend to have a big appreciation for books that manage to be both informative and entertaining, but sadly they are few and far between; Mudlarking is one of those rare and special gifts. The author has extensive knowledge of the geography of London over the centuries and the Thames tides and her enthusiasm for her subject matter is infectious. Nowadays, though, the activity is more of a hobby than occupation, with current day participants often looking out for pieces with interesting histories, rather than simply monetary value. In fact, the educational side, of sharing the stories behind their found items, is important to many members of the community.I had no idea the construction of the old bridge slowed the water to such an extent the river froze over in harsh winters. I knew about the festivities that took place when the Thames froze over in the 1600s but wasn't aware that it doesn't do so now because these obstructions were removed when the old bridge was demolished. Mudlarking is the act of searching or scavenging in the river mud at low tide seeking items of value. Modern mudlarks forage in the mud in search of items from history - regardless of value - and it's amazing what they find. I saw the River Thames in person for the first time in 2012 but it's always been fascinating to me as a repository of history. I've had a passing interest in mudlarking and toshing that I think I can attribute to Joan Aiken's Midnight Is A Place, which I read when I was about ten. But I honestly thought it was something that happened in, like, the Victorian era because having seen the state of the Thames (and the Yarra, tbh), I can't really imagine anyone voluntarily searching for lost treasures in the tidal mud flats of the riverbank. But turns out there's a thriving community!