Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames

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So wonderfully crafted and written, it covers the range of this peculiar pastime along the Thames from West to East. That is from Tidal Head to Estuary.

Mudlarking is the act of searching or scavenging in the river mud at low tide seeking items of value. Modern mudlarks forage in the mud in search of items from history - regardless of value - and it's amazing what they find. I saw the River Thames in person for the first time in 2012 but it's always been fascinating to me as a repository of history.This is one of the best non-fiction books I have read in a long time. I am amazed it is Lara’s first move to becoming a published author. I’m sure it was a hard slog and kept her from those hours of solitude and peace beside her beloved river. Her efforts are well received and she can be so proud of her disciplined writing and research. Her approach sustained my interest throughout the journey along the river and I would recommend this book without reservation to all. It’s worth knowing that, per the Treasure Act 1996, all finders of gold and silver objects, or groups of coins from the same finds, over 300 years old, have a legal obligation to report them. The report should be made to the local coroner within 14 days of discovery. Lara Maiklem is a London mudlark, scavenging for what washes up on the shores of the Thames. I thrilled to her descriptions of what she’s found, including clay pipes, coins, armaments, pottery, and much more. “The Thames is England’s longest archaeological landscape,” she notes, and the many layers of the city’s history mingle at the foreshore: Victorian, Georgian, Elizabethan, medieval, and Roman. The jewel of Maiklem’s collection is a sixteenth-century leather child’s shoe she sent to Cardiff University for conservation. Participants are advised to wear sensible footwear and gloves, carry a mobile phone and not go alone. It is tremendously important that mudlarks report their finds to the Portable Antiquities Scheme in accordance with the terms of their licence, no matter how trivial or mundane they seem,” said Stuart Wyatt, Finds Liaison Officer for the London area, who assesses and records the artefacts found by mudlarks for the PAS.

Trigger warnings: mentions of war, death, drowning, descriptions of dead bodies etc. I think that's all? There's one scene where Maiklem discusses how she once had to call the police because two drunk men started following her along the mud flats and she feared for her safety but nothing actually happens. Mudlarker newbies can get a ‘standard’ permit, which is valid for certain locations west of the Thames Barrier up to Teddington. I wish I could say more than that. On paper, this should be right up my street. It's the kind of fun micro-history that covers a nice range of time periods and is filled with fun factoids that I would normally love, but for some reason it's missed the mark. Maybe its the authorial voice? Maybe its the additions of autobiographical details that I don't care about? Maybe it was just that I didn't enjoy the audio book narration? I really can't put my finger on it, but my response to this book can be described as lukewarm at best. A lyrical and evocative narrative history of London and its people, told through objects found on the banks of the Thames by the city's most prominent mudlark

Recommended reading for amateur and professional historians and genealogists; archaeologists; aquaphiles; environmentalists; museum lovers and the curious. I have always enjoyed spending time on the river and those journeys have enhanced my experience in visits to the capital. Now in this one book about a historical pastime I have received a fresh insight. In fact, the educational side, of sharing the stories behind their found items, is important to many members of the community. Overall, it's a well written and constructed work of non-fiction and through it's many varied layers never fails to hold your interest. I tend to have a big appreciation for books that manage to be both informative and entertaining, but sadly they are few and far between; Mudlarking is one of those rare and special gifts. The author has extensive knowledge of the geography of London over the centuries and the Thames tides and her enthusiasm for her subject matter is infectious.

The only thing I would have wished for was more pictures - there were some glossy photographs in the middle of the book that showed some of her finds, but I often wanted to see something she described that wasn't among the photos. As well as searching by eye and hand, digging and scraping, some modern mudlarks also use metal detectors.

I always wanted to know more. So When I saw this book, I initially thought it was about these Victorians. It turns out that Ms Maiklem is a very modern mudlark, but that didn't make the book any less fascinating - moving from the tidal head of the Thames to the Estuary, she describes what she finds on the foreshore and tells fascinating stories about the people who lived, worked and died on the river, and whose lost possessions the tides still erode out of the mud. On a lighter note, Maiklem has a marvellous ability to bring history to life. She uses her imagination to breathe life into the objects she unearths and I enjoyed this immensely. I loved the respect and connection she feels to the people whose lost possessions she finds - often, history books take a callous approach to the people they talk about, as if their misfortunes and often cruel lives and deaths were unimportant or a matter for sport just because they have been dead for a long time, and it always sits wrong with me. With wit and an open writing style, she opens up her world in a way that you can feel her passion, share her enthusiasm and marvel in her imaginations.

Walking along the foreshore of the Thames in central London is not everyone’s idea of a hobby – it can be cold, dirty and just as muddy as mudlarking suggests. Historically, being a mudlark was not a desirable station in life. The terms came about in the Georgian and Victorian periods when the Thames was one of the major routes to transport goods into the city. At this time, the banks of the river would have swarmed with the melancholy figures of mudlarks, mostly poor women and children who would be “up with the larks” to work whenever the river ran low. The exhibition, running until Saturday, October 30, is part of the Cathedral’s River Season. This series features a number of mudlarking tours and relevant talks, with visitors able to bring along their own finds to be identified to the celebration on the final day. Plus, anyone in London or beyond can attend Jason's free webinar talk ahead of the event, starting at 7.30pm on Tuesday, September 21. Another thing that irked me was her belief that a portion of the shore had been taken away from her. When telling the reader about nets of stones placed against the river wall in Greenwich in an attempt to prevent erosion, she says: Armed with this information on just how much this obsession controls the author's life, I formed the opinion she'd make an unreliable friend and frustrating partner but is no doubt a highly experienced mudlarker.This was the opening book for me for our NI 2020/2021 Book Voyage. Thanks to our NI friend, Susan, who says to us "I hope everyone enjoys this look at London's past" - I did! What a wonderfully personal choice! As it is a non-fiction historical journey, I read it while reading other books hence the length of time it took me to finish it. My mother had had a museum of her own when she was a child and would delight me with the story of the cat skull, the pride of her collection. She had found it by the side of the road in a state of partial decomposition and rather than wait for the maggots to do their job and risk losing it to another collector, she took it home and boiled it in her mother’s best milk pan to remove the remaining flesh. I loved that story, but bedtime cocoa at my grandmother’s house never tasted quite the same after I’d heard it.” Thames mud is anaerobic – that means there's no oxygen – so things that fall in thousands of years ago just wash up in the same condition that they were dropped in many years ago.” Want to try London’s coolest new hobby? Mudlarking is the quirky riverside activity that Londoners will love – provided you don’t mind getting a little muddy. In Mudlarking, Lara Maiklem takes us down the river from Teddington to the Estuary and the open sea in a combination of memoir, archaeology, science and history in a narrative non-fiction style of writing. She tells us her preferred method of searching the river bed and banks is to kneel with her 'nose barely inches from the foreshore' where she completely immerses herself in the task.