I’m a modern day ‘mudlark’, in London. That means I search the foreshore of the tidal River Thames for artefacts of historical importance. Twice a day the river levels drop, and the foreshore is exposed. That’s when I head on down to search for items such as coins, clay pipes, dress accessories and much more. From Roman to Medieval and modern, the River Thames is a hotbed of liquid history.
Mudlarking was once a necessity for survival for the poor and often infirm – they scoured the riverbed for scrap to sell. These days we are in the privileged position of mudlarking for pleasure. I like to share that with you, by taking you down to the river to see what we can find. In this video, we look at some of the objects I have previously found, and their historical and social context (if you’re looking for my ‘on the foreshore’ videos, please head to the ‘Videos’ section, and you will find lots there).
Mudlarking objects found on the Greenwich Peninsula bring our history to life. In this 25 minute presentation we look at Greenwich history through objects I have found whilst mudlarking on the tidal river Thames, London.
Greenwich in 50 Objects is a project by Rich Sylvester, storyteller and historian, and was delivered in a series of walks and talks for the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. See his larger, ongoing, project, Greenwich in 100 Objects, here: https://www.hogblog.org/
FURTHER READING (Links to projects/websites mentioned in the video)
https://www.hogblog.org/ – Greenwich in 100 Objects
https://www.rmg.co.uk/ – Royal Museums Greenwich
https://greenwichindustrialhistory.bl… – Greenwich Industrial History
http://www.tidelineart.com/ – Tideline Art (Nicola White)
https://www.bl.uk/people/ignatius-san… – Ignatius Sancho
http://scpr.co/index.html – Society for Clay Pipe Research
https://www.newhamheritagemonth.org/r… – Silvertown Explosion
http://www.postmanspark.org.uk/ – Postman’s Park
IMAGES USED IN VIDEO All images have been credited with a description/title and credit, unless unknown and in public domain. Any painted images uncredited are © National Maritime Museum, London, and were used at the time of live presentation given for/at the National Maritime Museum. Any queries regarding images used, please contact me via https://thamesmudlarkdiary.com.SHOW LESS
OLD FATHER THAMES | Tide Travelling Mudlark 