Skyberries and Voidmelons or Voidberries and Skymelons

I miscalculated and only gave myself just over an hour on the foreshore before I had to be elsewhere but perhaps that was just as well as it was cold.

This time I wore gloves underneath my plastic gloves and thicker socks under my wellies and that helped me to keep warmer.

There were plenty of tourists, both on the foreshore and staring down at me, which is why I prefer to avoid this bit at weekends, unless it's early.

I found my second glowstick, and also some sherds including:

Four pieces of Express Dairies Aster pattern
Brown piece of Dudson
Some delicious strawberries
Dunn Bennett & co
J & G Meakin

A mysterious piece that says “Drew” and “Circus”. Wondering if it could be from St Andrew St, Holborn Circus, but difficult to tell.

Also, what I think is a bobbin, possibly bone and possibly for lace.





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

Unexpectedly, I was let out of work early on New Year's Eve so rushed to the foreshore. My trains had engineering work so I had to go a different route but then got on the wrong train from London Bridge and ended up in Norwood Junction, far from the river.

I did eventually make it to the South Bank though. Security were making people detour around the back of Gabriel’s Wharf so wouldn't let me get down the steps to the foreshore there, so I walked back towards Blackfriars and finally made it down.

It was the last day of the year and as the sun set, I was on the foreshore, staring at the Thames.

I found a cowrie shell, which would have been used for trade, as they're not native to the Thames. This is the third one I've found.

I found a piece of Meakin Sol Ware with a sun logo, probably from around 1918 - 1963.

I found another piece of Express Dairies aster design.

I found a piece of Lovatt & Lovatt, Langley Mill, Notts, which would have been from between 1895 and 1930. I mostly find things from London or the Potteries in Stoke-on-Trent, not so much other places.

I found a piece of a Bovril jar! My second Bovril jar, but sadly this one was not in one piece.

I found a sherd that said "ich" on it. I assumed this must be German, but the Prince of Wales’ motto is "Ich dien" (meaning "I serve"), so it’s likely to be from that, maybe a commemorative plate.



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

I was awake at 5AM and I was the only person to get on the first train of the day at my station.

It was Solstice, and at sunrise, I was on the foreshore, staring at the Thames and the pink sky.

I found a broken plastic domino! I found a jack (alley gob) similar to the one I found previously!

–

I found a sherd from an inventor who exhibited in the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace!

The sherd says 17 Silver-Street, Wood Street on it.

Mayo & Co were located at this address and appear in a catalogue for the Great Exhibition, which was held at Crystal Palace in 1851.

Description from the catalogue:
“Patent syphon vases, for containing aerated or gaseous mineral waters. They afford the means for withdrawing at pleasure such quantities as may be desired, whilst that which remains for subsequent use retains its purity and effervescence. The vases exhibited are specimens of the combination of metal with pottery. The process of manufacture is the invention of the exhibitor.”

Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851:
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/pdp6m5e3/items?canvas=406&manifest=2&shouldScrollToCanvas=true

Silver Street no longer exists, but there is still a small garden - St Olave Silver Street, where a church once stood. There's also a plaque in the garden for Shakespeare as he had lodgings on Silver Street.

–

I found a pink plastic star spokey-dokey, that may once have been attached to a bicycle.

I found an orange button.

I found a stoneware sherd that says “gin”, but it probably contained ginger beer.

Two pieces I haven’t figured out:
The dark brown sherd that has the word “king” visible
The lighter brown sherd that has “N.Higg” visible.

Glass:

–
A good chunk of a bottle that says “216 Kingsland Road” and “Batey” on it. Batey made ginger beer and mineral water and “Batey’s Britannia Steam Works” was located at 216 Kingsland Road from 1847.

How it looked in 1920:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DrLNoPDW4AELDkw?format=jpg&name=medium

212 - 216 Kingsland Road is now the Suleymaniye Mosque.

–

Another piece of a medicine bottle with “Sp” on it, which would have had measurements for tea spoons or table spoons on it.

R Whites, always so much lemonade.

“Ingsland” - likely another Batey.

“Bourne Denby 09” - Probably from 1909.

Not yet identified:

“eet.w.”

“re”

“ford”

–





Dominoes and jacks - the white ones were the ones I found this time:



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

1. "What the aliens heard when they landed on Earth" - If aliens landed on Earth, what would the first thing they heard be? Using locations of UFO sightings in London, I will record sounds at these locations. If you touch the location on the map, you can listen to the sounds and also a description of the UFO that was sighted.

2. A pinwheel that you blow on, and then you can hear sounds of the wind on Mars.

3. Items found on the Thames foreshore that you touch and then you can hear sounds of where they originally came from.

This felt like a proper adventure! I walked across a bridge to Albert Island, near to City Airport. It's mostly abandoned at the moment, but there was recent news that Billingsgate and Smithfield Markets will move there.

I peered into a building with broken windows that contained rusty lock machinery.



( Read more... )

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

I went to Chelsea, down the steps by the boats and walked between Battersea Bridge and Albert Bridge, on the north side of the river. From the bus, I could see rainbows on the river, caused by the reflection of windows.

I spoke to a person on the foreshore and asked them what they'd found and they had found a ring, although a modern one.

I found a chunk of a stoneware ginger beer bottle - Clayton’s. It would have said on it:
Clayton’s
Old English
Stone
Ginger Beer
London and Kingston-on-Thames

I found two buttons.

The bus stop was still there, as well as a Lime bike.

A crisp packet floated by.

I found two stickers, one of which was a festive bauble.

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

A lunchtime lark and I found some bits of Westerwald, and what looks like a bit of a comb, with nit comb on one side, possibly bone.



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

After the past few times of being shouted at on the foreshore, I decided to go somewhere quieter - Wapping. Low tide wasn't until 17:15 so I had a whole day to fill first. I walked from Blackfriars to St Katharine Dock and as I walked past the HMS Belfast decided to jump aboard! I quite enjoyed it, having never visited it before. I also popped in to Southwark Cathedral and saw the latest mudlarking case.

When I got to Wapping, I apologised to photographers as I got in the way of their shots as they were blocking the stairs onto the foreshore. Later on there were a few other people mudlarking, but no-one shouted at me this time!

I walked from the New Crane Stairs to Wapping pier and then overshot the stairs, and panicked that I had read the tide times wrong and that the water had engulfed them. (I hadn't, just walked past them.) The stairs with no lower steps started gushing water so I had to jump the stream there.

Finds weren’t plentiful and I didn't stay until low tide as I was cold and the light was fading.

I did find a nice sherd with a child holding a sprig of something though. I also like the sherd with a tree on it.

Also, what I initially thought was part of a glass bottle turned out to be a glass Exide battery case! It would have contained acid for a battery and is likely to be from the 1930s to 1950s. It may have looked like this originally: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/156007794819

A piece of coral was an interesting find. Coral isn’t native to the Thames, so it’s likely it was used as ballast on a ship, transported from warmer waters, such as the Carribean.

The “warranted ironstone” sherd is again likely to be from John Edwards. https://www.thepotteries.org/allpotters/374.htm

A piece of mochaware.



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

I climbed over the locked gate, as it was getting dark and the tide was coming in. It then started raining when I was on the foreshore. Holding my torch, my umbrella, and my finds bag while poking at things proved a bit difficult, so I ended up not staying that long. I also seemed to have some girls shouting at me - apparently I was holding my umbrella wrongly? Or something like that. But it's hard to hold an umbrella when you're holding so much else and bending over a lot to look at things. Not a fun time on the foreshore really.

I picked up a pipe and a couple of pieces of pottery in desperation, to make it feel like getting wet and getting shouted at and climbing over gates was worthwhile. I found an octopus!

Climbing back over the gate I find a bit more difficult, I am not very flexible, and the gate is wet so I got even more wet.



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

On Sunday morning, I went to Putney, as it was somewhere I hadn’t mudlarked before. I tried going down the Brewhouse Slipway, but it was too muddy. I then found the steps next to Putney Bridge, which were also muddy, but there was a handrail to hold onto for the top steps at least, so I made my way down slowly. The foreshore was covered in silt, as the tide must have started receding before the Uber boats started running again.

I made my way around the mud and the streams of water, and got to the river’s edge. I heard bagpipes being played. It was Remembrance Sunday, so I suspected they were coming from the church just above.

Other people on the foreshore included a person metal detecting, and a person who told me that it was muddy the way they came, and I told them that I’d found a Bovril jar.

At one point I was stood between the river and a large stream bit, as if I was on an island, and even though I knew the tide times and knew the water was still going out, I wasn’t sure I felt that safe, so turned around.

I didn’t take home:

1. A pink iPhone, smashed up, no screen, underneath Putney Bridge.

2. Hindu offerings, a collection of them washed up together.





I walked underneath the bridge and then came across some gates that had warning signs that said lights flash and that there could be sewer outfalls without warning. I walked quickly past, lights were not flashing.

Things I found:

1. A plastic frog head. I think it was a real animal to start with, so was glad to find it wasn’t!

2. A bracelet, perhaps?

3. Glass that says “blis” on it. Probably Chablis, but I like to imagine I found "bliss"

4. Glass that was part of an R White’s bottle.








More things:

1. A Bovril jar! Very excited by this one. It’s not one of the oldest types of Bovril jars as it doesn’t have a long neck, but it does have “oz” on it, so it’s certainly not recent.

2. Barrett & Elers bottle fragment

The “B&” were visible on this fragment, but the symbol on it is more of the giveaway - it’s of a vulcanite bottle stopper! The company was registered in 1897 and Henry Barrett invented this type of bottle stopper in 1872.

An advert from 1883: https://boroughphotos.org/lambeth/advert-barrett-elers-london/

–

3. Solo bottle fragment

On the bottom of the bottle it says “Property of Solo B”. The Solo Bottling Company were based at 10 Whitcher Place, NW1. Using 1940s - 1960s OS Maps, it says “Mineral Water Bottling Works” at this address. Whitcher Place does still exist but where this building was located is now UCL student halls.

From a listing of a 1954 receipt on eBay, I've found that Solo Bottling Company were linked to Solo Orchards, who made orange juice and other drinks.

There are various adverts from Solo Orchards, such as “ah! oh! SOLO” from 1948, and eBay also has a beer mat for sparkling orange listed.

Solo Orchards were taken over by Idris in 1960.

So the bottle I found could have contained sparkling orange from Solo Orchards, and is likely to be from the 1940s or 1950s.

1954 receipt:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/167796598399

1948 advert:
https://flic.kr/p/2fFCAWU

Sparkling orange beer mat:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/306036568891

--

After that, I continued along the river, through Wandsworth Park, and past Church Draw Dock (another place to mudlark) and a heron, and onwards, over Battersea Bridge, and past the sphinx benches, and then over Vauxhall Bridge, and I stopped my walk there. I walked about 11 miles that day.

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