All on display: one of the London Museum curators puts the final touches to one of the more than 350 items at the mudlarking exhibition which opened this week
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: There’s artefacts of history all around us, but as Minster archivist DAVID MORGAN found at an exhibition this week, there can be few sites as rich in finds as London’s often perilous river banks
An exhibition has just opened at the London Museum Docklands called “Secrets of the Thames: Mudlarking London’s Lost Treasures”.
New find: a stoneware Bartmann bottle, probably from Germany and at least 400 years old, half-buried among pebbles on the foreshore of the Thames
It is the first major exhibition devoted to mudlarking, the search for artefacts and objects on the Thames’ foreshore, so I went along to the museum – housed in a 200-year-old Grade I-listed warehouse at West India Quay – to find out how other archivists have been collating and displaying their finds.
The River Thames has been a centre of human activity for more than 10,000 years. Below its waters lay lost or discarded items, from the ordinary to extraordinary, that all contribute to our knowledge of London’s, and Britain’s, history.
From prehistoric communities that camped, hunted and farmed along the foreshore of the once broad and shallow river, to the arrival of Romans who founded Londinium, and Vikings who travelled up the river to expand their territory.
There is also evidence of Britain’s early days of exploration and exploitation as London burgeoned into the country’s first port of empire. “Each new departure and arrival has left traces behind relating to all aspects of human life,” according to Kate Sumnall, the London Museum’s curator.
Scraping a living: an engraving from the early 1800s of a ‘well-known Mud Lark’
The Thames has become a living time capsule that tells stories of the ways people have survived, made a living or enjoyed their life in the city.
First records of mudlarking date back to the early 1800s, when London’s poor would search the foreshore for bits of metal, rope and coal to help them scrape a living. Occasionally they might find a more valuable object which had been dropped.
Subject to dangerous tides, it was a job often undertaken by children and women, who would brave cold waters, broken glass and other hazards to find items that they could sell to feed their families.
The one thing which the Victorian and modern-day mudlarks have in common is their detailed knowledge of the tides and of the river. The dangers of working the foreshore, or just visiting it out of curiosity, were demonstrated tragically earlier in the week when 11-year-old Kaliyah Coa went missing after she had been paddling in the Thames during a day off from school.
The river’s tides, the undercurrents, the sometimes glue-like mud of the foreshore make it a place best left to the licensed mudlarks, who search to find the historical treasures that might be revealed at low tide. The wet and clay environment of the river has preserved objects that would usually deteriorate elsewhere.
It is a hobby that has grown in popularity, with the Port of London Authority having seen a significant increase in applications for licences, particularly since 2020.
There is even a dedicated “Portable Antiquities Scheme London Museum Finds Liaison Officer”. According to the Museum, they usually record around 700 finds each year, having identified around 5,000. A small number of these items are acquired into the Museum’s collection.
The London Museum Docklands describes the river that flows calmly nearby as an “internationally important archaeological site”.
Tooth fairy: someone in 18th-Century London was missing their dentures
On display in the exhibition are a wide variety of objects, ranging from the beautiful and elegant to the bizarre and macabre.
A medieval gold ring uncovers a centuries-old love. An intricate 16th-Century ivory sundial tells of miraculous discovery with its two halves unearthed by different mudlarks eight years apart.
Among other rare survivals on display include the nationally significant Iron Age Battersea Shield and a Viking-era dagger personalised with the name of its owner.
With more than 350 mudlarked objects on show, other curiosities include clay pipes (among the most common find along the Thames), a set of 18th-Century false teeth, Medieval spectacles and 16th-Century wig curlers.
Many items in the exhibition have never been on public display before. It is remarkable to see how well the objects have been preserved.
One of the many modern day mudlarks to be found down by the water’s edge is artist and printmaker Amy-Leigh Bird. Like all mudlarks, she has to have a permit. While mudlarks look out for all kinds of treasure, Bird is especially drawn to overlooked objects.
Beauty: artist Amy-Leigh Bird uses objects found in the Thames to create her art
“There is beauty in the mundane,” she said to me. In the areas she particularly haunts can be found a huge number of animal bones. The bones of cows and sheep are the “industrial waste” that was thrown into the waters of the Thames from the large numbers of Victorian abattoirs that lined the river banks.
One of her sculptures, “Ancient Ruins”, is a striking, spherical mass of bone, stone and teeth. Each piece was collected by her. Once back in her studio she slotted them together like a 3D jigsaw.
This sculpture is positioned next to a re-creation of a part of the Thames’ foreshore, where visitors to the exhibition are encouraged to use their eyes to search out partially hidden objects.
Every object that is found has a story to tell, and this is the fascination for most mudlarks.
“It makes history so much more interesting,” said Bird. “How old is it? Where did it originate from? How did it end up in the Thames? I could be the first person for hundreds of years to hold it in my hand.”
Bird’s favourite pieces on display are the Neolithic stone tools. “They have a simplistic artistic beauty and the fact that they are thousands of years old is simply staggering.”
Boat building: part of the display shows pieces of wooden ships found around the river, from the time London was the world’s biggest and most important port
Mudlarks today are very different to the Victorian folk who frequented the foreshore. Henry Mayhew, the Victorian writer and co-founder of the satirical magazine Punch, described the mudlarks as a “peculiar class”.
The exhibition outlines how one Victorian mudlark, Peggy Jones, would use her feet in the shallow water to feel for lumps of coal which could be “harvested”.
The exhibition is a fascinating mixture. On the one hand there are the finds and they are truly exceptional in their number and their variety.
On the other there are the sculptures and prints which artists like Bird have created using what had been found.
I was made closely aware, looking at the installation of the moon by artist Luke Jerram, of the importance of time. The cycle of the tides creates the conditions which help preserve the objects but also allows them to be discovered. The moon seems to stand for the time which has passed between an object falling into the water and being rediscovered.
Curator Kate Sumnall said: “We are lucky in London to have this amazing tidal river environment that has preserved so much of our past. It is the longest archaeological site in London and here we find an unbelievably rich selection of finds.
Moon-lit magic: the London Museum includes artefacts and art works, including this night-time landscape by Victorian artist Henry Pether
“Thanks to the dedication and expertise of today’s mudlarks, we are constantly uncovering new objects that inform our understanding of history. ‘Secrets of the Thames’ showcases some of these fascinating objects and their journey from discovery to joining the Museum.
“Above all, it is an exploration of love and desire, faith and loss, migration, community and culture. The stories of generations of people who have visited the city or called it home.”
This year-long exhibition will appeal to many and should become an undoubted attraction both for the casual visitor and the historian determined to learn more of the human stories behind the history of London.
- ‘Secrets of the Thames: Mudlarking London’s Lost Treasures’ is now open at London Museum Docklands. Tickets are available through the London Museum website starting from £16. For further details, please visit: https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/whats-on/secrets-thames/
- David Morgan is a former Croydon headteacher, now the volunteer education officer at Croydon Minster who offers tours or illustrated talks on the history around the Minster for local community groups
If you would like a group tour of Croydon Minster or want to book a school visit, then ring the Minster Office on 020 688 8104 or go to the website on www.croydonminster.org and use the contact page
Some previous articles by David Morgan:
- Film star from Croydon whose career ended in a tawdry scandal
- Willoughby really knew how to put on a show in New York
- Victorian opera star whose family enjoyed burgeoning success
- The church fire that consumed a thousand years of history
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
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