A mudlark is someone who scavenges the banks and shores of rivers for items of value, a term used especially to describe those who scavenged this way in London during the late 18th and 19th centuries. [1] The practice of searching the banks of rivers for items continues in the modern era, with newer technology such as metal detectors sometimes being employed to search for metal valuables that may have washed ashore.
Mudlarks would search the muddy shores of the River Thames at low tide for anything that could be sold – sometimes, when occasion arose, pilfering from river traffic as well. [2] By at least the late 18th century, people dwelling near the river could scrape a subsistence living this way. Mudlarks were usually either youngsters aged between 8 and 15, or the robust elderly, and though most mudlarks were male, [3] girls and women were also scavengers. [4]
Becoming a mudlark was usually a choice dictated by poverty and lack of skills. Work conditions were filthy and uncomfortable, as excrement and waste would wash onto the shores from the raw sewage and sometimes also the corpses of humans, cats and dogs. Mudlarks would often get cuts from broken glass left on the shore. The income generated was seldom more than meagre; [4] but mudlarks had a degree of independence, since (subject to tides) the hours they worked were entirely at their own discretion and they also kept everything they made as a result of their own labour.
Henry Mayhew, in his book London Labour and the London Poor; Extra Volume, 1851, provides a detailed description of this category, and in a later edition of the same work includes the "Narrative of a Mudlark", an interview with a thirteen-year-old boy, Martin Prior.
Although in 1904 a person could still claim "mudlark" as an occupation, by then it seems to have been no longer viewed as an acceptable or lawful pursuit. [5] By 1936 the word is used merely to describe swimsuited London schoolchildren earning pocket money during the summer holidays by begging passers-by to throw coins into the Thames mud, which they then chased, to the amusement of the onlookers. [6]
More recently, metal-detectorists and other individuals searching the foreshore for historic artefacts have described themselves as "mudlarks". In London, a licence is required from the Port of London Authority for this activity and it is illegal to search for or remove artefacts of any kind from the foreshore without one. [7] The regulations changed in 2016, making Ted Sandling's popular book London in Fragments out of date in this respect. [8]
The PLA state that "All the foreshore in the UK has an owner. Metal detecting, searching or digging is not a public right and as such it needs the permission of the landowner. The PLA and the Crown Estate are the largest land owners of Thames foreshore and jointly administer a permit which allows metal detecting, searching or digging." [9] The PLA site has much useful information for permit holders including maps, rules & regulations about where digging is and is not permitted, safety and tide tables.
Occasionally, objects of archaeological value have been recovered from the Thames foreshore. Dependent on their value, these are either reported as treasure under the Treasure Act 1996, or voluntarily submitted for analysis and review via the Portable Antiquities Scheme.
A BBC article in July 2020 recommended the Thames Discovery Programme, "a group of historians and volunteers [running] guided tours" for novice mudlarks, and in 2019 the book Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames by Lara Maiklem was first published. [10] The author had considerable experience in searching the banks of the river for historical artefacts. [11] Rag and Bone: A Family History of What We've Thrown Away by Lisa Woollett (2020) is another examination of the subject.
The Museum of London is happy with the outcome of the mudlarks that search the Thames. Finds Liaison Officer, Stuart Wyatt, said "New, interesting artefacts are constantly being discovered by mudlarks and brought to the museum. Finds from the Thames are still giving us new information and adding to the collective knowledge. These objects are continuing to enhance our understanding of London’s history and the lives of Londoners who inhabited the city over the last two millennia." Ultimately, making mudlarks important workers of the museums and archives. [12]
Henry Mayhew was an English journalist, playwright, and advocate of reform. He was one of the co-founders of the satirical magazine Punch in 1841, and was the magazine's joint editor, with Mark Lemon, in its early days. He is also known for his work as a social researcher, publishing an extensive series of newspaper articles in the Morning Chronicle that was later compiled into the three-volume book London Labour and the London Poor (1851), a groundbreaking and influential survey of the city's poor.
Wapping is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in East London and part of the East End. Wapping is on the north bank of the River Thames between St Katharine Docks to the west, and Shadwell to the east. This position gives the district a strong maritime character.
Richmond Lock and Footbridge is a lock, rising and falling low-tide barrage integrating controlled sluices and pair of pedestrian bridges on the River Thames in southwest London, England, and is a Grade II* listed structure. It is the furthest downstream of the forty-five Thames locks and the only one owned and operated by the Port of London Authority. It was opened in 1894 and is north-west of the centre of Richmond in a semi-urban part of southwest London. Downstream are Syon Park and Kew Gardens on opposite banks. It connects the promenade at Richmond with the neighbouring district of St. Margarets on the west bank during the day and is closed at night to pedestrians – after 19:30 GMT or after 21:30 when BST is in use. At high tide the sluice gates are raised and partly hidden behind metal arches forming twin footbridges.
London Labour and the London Poor is a work of Victorian journalism by Henry Mayhew. In the 1840s, he observed, documented and described the state of working people in London for a series of articles in a newspaper, the Morning Chronicle, which were later compiled into book form.
Llyn Cerrig Bach is a small lake located between Rhosneigr and Valley in the west of Anglesey, Wales.
A rag-and-bone man or ragpicker or ragman, old-clothesman, junkman, or junk dealer, also called a bone-grubber, bone-picker, chiffonnier, rag-gatherer, bag board, or totter, collects unwanted household items and sells them to merchants. Scraps of cloth and paper could be turned into cardboard, while broken glass could be melted down and reused, and even dead cats and dogs could be skinned to make clothes. Traditionally, this was a task performed on foot, with the scavenged materials kept in a small bag slung over the shoulder. Some rag-and-bone men used a cart, sometimes pulled by a horse or pony.
Offshore is a 1979 novel by Penelope Fitzgerald. Her third novel, it won the Booker Prize in the same year. The book explores the emotional restlessness of houseboat dwellers who live neither fully on the water nor fully on the land. It was inspired by the most difficult years of Fitzgerald's own life, years during which she lived on an old Thames sailing barge moored at Battersea Reach.
The Mudlark is a 1950 film made in Britain by 20th Century Fox. It is a fictional account of how Queen Victoria was eventually brought out of her mourning for her dead husband, Prince Albert. It was directed by Jean Negulesco, written and produced by Nunnally Johnson and based on the 1949 novel of the same name by American artillery sergeant and San Francisco newspaperman Theodore Bonnet (1908–1983). It stars Irene Dunne, Alec Guinness and Andrew Ray.
A tosher is someone who scavenges in the sewers, a sewer-hunter, especially in London during the Victorian era. The word tosher was also used to describe the thieves who stripped valuable copper from the hulls of ships moored along the Thames. The related slang term "tosh" referred to valuables thus collected. Both "tosher" and "tosh" are of unknown origin.
London Stone is the name given to a number of boundary stones that stand beside the rivers Thames and Medway, which formerly marked the limits of jurisdiction of the City of London.
The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork yet found. It consists of almost 4,600 items and metal fragments, amounting to a total of 5.1 kg (11 lb) of gold, 1.4 kg (3 lb) of silver and some 3,500 pieces of garnet cloisonné jewellery. It is described by the historian Cat Jarman as "possibly the finest collection of early medieval artefacts ever discovered".
The Thames Discovery Programme is a community archaeology project, focusing on the archaeology of the River Thames on the Tideway. The Thames Discovery Programme (TDP) was launched in October 2008 and until September 2011, the project was supported by the National Lottery and a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The project is designed to communicate an understanding and informed enjoyment of the historic Thames to the widest possible audience, and to train and support members of the public to monitor and record the archaeology of the foreshore during the lifetime of the project, and into the future.
Mud Men is a British television series on the History channel, following members of the Mudlarks Society as they hunt for items on the River Thames foreshore. The series is presented by Johnny Vaughan and Steve "Mud God" Brooker, chairman of the Mudlarks Society. In the third season, the last of the series to air, Nick "Rock" Stevens had a recurring role.
A mudlark is a person who scavenges in river mud for items of value, especially in London during the late 18th and 19th centuries.
The Shadwell forgeries, most commonly known as Billy and Charley Forgeries, or "Billys and Charleys", but also called Shadwell Dock forgeries, were mid-19th-century forgeries of medieval lead and lead-alloy artefacts. The name "Billy and Charley" derives from William "Billy" Smith and Charles "Charley" Eaton, who were responsible for the large-scale manufacture of the objects between 1857 and 1870. Some leading antiquarians were fooled by the forgeries, despite their being crudely made, due to Smith and Eaton's limited metalworking skills and illiteracy.
Magnet fishing, also called magnetic fishing, is searching in outdoor waters for ferromagnetic objects available to pull with a strong neodymium magnet. Recovered items may be dangerous, such as firearms, ammunition, and bombs.
The Havering hoard is a hoard of 453 late Bronze-age artefacts found at a site overlooking the River Thames in Rainham, London, in 2018. It is the largest bronze-age hoard to be found in London and the third-largest in the United Kingdom. The discovery was made during an archaeological investigation of the site prior to its use for gravel extraction. The finds included weapons, tools and ingots, but only a small quantity of jewellery. It was unusual in being buried in four separate locations; most bronze-age hoards previously excavated have been concentrated in a single location. Some of the items are from continental Europe, demonstrating links with that region. Several proposals have been put forward for the origin of the hoard, which include a collection of goods for recycling, an attempt by a single individual to control the bronze trade in the area or the large-scale abandonment of bronze goods at the start of the Iron Age. The artefacts are currently on exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands, after which they will be on display at the Havering Museum in Romford.
Lara Maiklem FSA is a British author, editor and publishing consultant, known for her writing and speaking on mudlarking. She was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2022.
The Embanking of the tidal Thames is the historical process by which the lower River Thames, at one time a broad, shallow waterway winding through malarious marshlands, has been transformed by human intervention into a deep, narrow tidal canal flowing between solid artificial walls, and restrained by these at high tide. The Victorian civil engineering works in central London, usually called "the Embankment", are just a small part of the process.
The foreshore of the River Thames in London, England, is the area of the riverbed revealed at low tide, and includes sections known as Tower Beach, Bermondsey Beach, and Folly House Beach, in Canary Wharf. These are tidal beaches that are covered by the water of the river at high tide.