Skyberries and Voidmelons or Voidberries and Skymelons

After work, I headed down to Gabriel’s Wharf, and walked down onto the foreshore, but even at low tide, it was too high to walk along to the bit of foreshore outside the National Theatre. That day the low tide was apparently 2.15.

I found a few bits of Staffordshire style slipware and a piece with a few letters, and some leafy pieces, and a round yellow thing. But mostly I was just annoyed I couldn’t walk further along.



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

I decided to try somewhere new again! Trinity Wharf Stairs outside Surrey Docks Farm.

When I reached the foreshore, there was someone digging to the right of the stairs. I walked that way a little bit and then decided to walk to the left. It was pebbly on the upper bit of the foreshore but lower down, there was a lot of mud. I took tentative steps and felt myself sinking in it so tried to be careful. Another mudlark appeared and was a lot more confident than me at walking over the mud nimbly!

This seemed much more like the kind of place I see the famous mudlarks finding things, prying items out of the mud. A lot of the foreshore I walk on isn't muddy at all, it's just pebbles.

I walked up to where there was a sign saying "Engineers Mills". The full sign apparently said:
Engineers
Mills & Knight
Nelson Dry Dock
Ship repairs



I found a pint glass with a handle, buried in the mud, and was glad I had my trowel, so I could dig it out. It has a pint symbol on it and looks like it says 1370 on it, which means it's from Chesterfield and was made between 1971 and 2006, so quite recent really. It has survived at least 20 years in the mud though! It's quite heavy.

I found a bottle, and it's still full of mud, and I'm trying to get the mud out of it. It's a UGB (United Glass Bottle Manufacturers) bottle, but on the side it says LWD - London Wholesale Dairies. Here's a photo of their building in Vauxhall in 1927: https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/BL29277/001 They were the wholesale arm of United Dairies.

I found an Amazon Basics plate, which I left on the foreshore.

I found a small cowrie shell with holes in it. I also found a bit of coral, which may have been used on a ship as ballast. There's also a stone that looks like it has tiny bits of fossils in it.

I found a piece of glass that was probably once a Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society milk bottle. Written on it is "Royal Arsenal" and "RACS". RACS were in operation from 1872 to 1987 when they merged with the Co-Op. Their headquarters were in Woolwich. As well as shops selling food, they ran everything from hairdressers to bookshops to undertakers to hotels, and also built houses. Their motto was "Each for all and all for each". I also found a second piece of glass.

I found a piece of glass from a Walker’s Kilmarnock whiskey bottle. They later became Johnnie Walker, in 1909.

I found a red and white sherd, that might be from Hilti.

I found a piece of green glass from an R White's bottle that said "Camberwell" on it.

I found a bit of a pipe with the initials I I on it.

I have yet to figure out the piece of glass with "KS" written on it.

Surrey Docks Farm had signs around that explained the history of the area, of how the area was used for shipbuilding and how there was a smallpox receiving station there. There was also a mudlarked finds box but unfortunately there was a lot of condensation on it, so it was difficult to see. They had pottery from the smallpox receiving station and from London County Council (LCC). They also had a mosaic made from clay pipes and bits of pottery.

I had a quick look around the farm after mudlarking and they had a few more signs about the history, as well as pigs, goats, cows, sheep, and other animals.

After that, I walked past some more steps that were a bit green, but the gate was open, near the Ship & the Whale and wondered if the glass had come from that pub.

I then saw people running to get on a boat at Greenland Pier, so I decided to do the same, not knowing where the boat was going. I ended up getting off the boat in Woolwich.









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

I had been tempted to book the morning off work when I noticed a very low tide, but was only properly swayed when a fellow mudlark asked if I was going to the foreshore.

BBC predicted the tide as 0.00, so we were keen to visit the bottle graveyard. PLA’s prediction was 0.22, but in the end it was actually observed as 0.36, so we were not able to get there, but we did find some interesting items anyway.



In the first picture:

A finger! Don’t worry, it’s a plastic one. Possibly a witch’s finger.

A Codd bottle marble

A button

A pink bead and a blue bead

A brown piece of glass that says 6oz on it. Possibly from a large Bovril jar that was 16oz. It’s a different shade of brown to the other Bovril jar I found though.

A piece of uranium glass that glows brightly under UV.

A Minton sherd with a globe mark. Possibly 1863 - 1872.
https://www.thepotteries.org/potters/minton.htm

A JC Oriental sherd. Joseph Clementson, circa 1850s. It would have originally looked like this:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/186907264126

A tiny opalite

Part of a pork pie inkwell.




And in the second picture:

Another piece of an old Fanta bottle

A Bailey and co sherd:

The Fulham Pottery dates back to around 1672, when it was founded by John Dwight.

Bailey and Co were in operation there from about 1864 - 1889, run by Charles Bailey.

In 1889, they were fined for emitting smoke.

Today, you can still see the bottle kiln from the Fulham Pottery on the site and it is a Grade II listed building.

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A rather rusted blue Mickey Mouse purse. Similar style one here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/389226667721

An SW Dean sherd. They were in operation in Burslem from 1904 - 1910.

A pink bicycle bell.



And in the third picture:

A pair of sunglasses

A green bottle

An R Whites bottle, found by a fellow mudlark.

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

I can't believe I've been mudlarking on 87 days!

It was lunchtime and I arrived at the foreshore just before low tide. There were a group of people who walked up and underneath the wharf. I weren't sure if they were mudlarks, although at least one person was wearing gloves. The easiest way to spot other mudlarks is wellies.

Then after that there were a few tourists about. Much easier to spot, no wellies, no gloves, picking things up with their bare hands.

I stumbled across a very large but sadly no longer living crab.

Finds included a stripey stone, a piece of Metropolitan Slipware and a piece of a Bartmann jug.

Low tide was early that Sunday, but a little later in Chelsea, so I headed there on the first train out.

I reached the foreshore around sunrise, but the skies were grey and cloudy. Just past Battersea Bridge, on the foreshore, you can see the remains of trees that once grew there, a forest that is now submerged.

I found:

The largest intact bottle I’ve found so far! It’s about 18cm tall.

United Glass Bottle Manufacturers) apparently used the UGB mark from 1913-1968.
The marks on the bottom look like they say:
H781
UGB
S 28

It possibly contained disinfectant.



Another rounded bottom bottle, perhaps from the 1880s?

A piece of glass that says “W & M”

A piece of glass that looks like it says “edon” but I am not sure of the letters before that.



A mysterious white cube object with patterns that has broken off something. Possibly a spaceship.

A handle from something (possibly bone)

A piece of glass from United Dairies.

A marble

Two and a half buttons.

Part of a ginger beer bottle by W&W. Western and Wolland (W&W) were in business in Bermondsey from about 1865 to 1896, making ginger beer and lemonade. As this bottle is stoneware as opposed to glass, it’s likely to be from the earlier period.

I likely walked past the premises where this was made on the day I found this sherd but didn’t realise at the time.

Part of a bottle that says London on it.

The base of a bottle that says:
London the property of Id (letters cut off)
Not to be refilled
Regd no
853390
B&Co

B&Co could be Bagley & Co.

A green bit of a Batey bottle.

Part of a torpedo (hamilton) bottle. It says on it “E&C” and possibly “waters” and “street”. It also says “rior” - Prior? It is dark green and quite thick glass. Thicker than the other bits of torpedo bottle I’ve found.

A Van Den Bergh & Co gin bottle fragment. This would have been from a Dutch gin bottle from around the 1870s.



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

It was dark and raining and low tide had already passed. I crossed Blackfriars bridge and hesitated about going down to the foreshore. I found just a piece of Staffordshire style combed Slipware before giving up.



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

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!

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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”

–





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.