Mudlarking 65 - a battery and coral
Nov. 21st, 2025 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
squirmeliaAfter 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.)
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.)
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Date: 2025-11-21 06:45 pm (UTC)*crowdsourcing via the usual groups
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Date: 2025-11-21 08:12 pm (UTC)