Mudlarking 75 - Solstice

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!

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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.

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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:

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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.

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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”

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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.)

Mudlarking 76 - Grant's Quay Wharf

A lunchtime lark and the foreshore was full of tourists.

One man was showing his small daughter how you should scrape the top level off, in an area where no surface disturbance is allowed. That annoyed me.

Anyway, apart from the tourists, there was one other mudlark there that lunchtime, wearing wellies, mostly in the mud.

I didn't find a lot. A chunk of a John Maddock plate, possibly from between 1906 and 1927. I don’t usually find sherds with words on in this area. A bit of a plastic flower. A bit of glass that said 72 on it. A piece of Staffordshire style slipware, some bits of Bellarmine. I was happy to find a button.

It was near to low tide so I walked underneath Grant’s Quay Wharf. It's a bit dark under there so more difficult to mudlark but it feels like you're somewhere secret when you're amongst the wooden struts.





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