Andrew Farrell

I attended an Ambient Lit workshop at Voidspace and we were asked to take a walk and take notes and photos. I took a random card and it said “dog” on it.

–

I am a dog.

I walk through a puddle.

I sniff a bag of rubbish with a coffee cup in.

I am curious about a traffic cone.

I am looking at the road and pavement a lot. There's an intriguing drain cover, I look at the bottom of a bollard.

Another bag of rubbish I sniff at.

I see people waving their arms about and wonder about barking at them.

I walk past a flower on the pavement.

I am lingering longer.

I go up a narrow alleyway and end up at a dead end, so turn around.

I haven't seen any other dogs. I hope to.



An interesting Ironworks sign on the pavement.

A drain cover clonks as I walk over it.

There are no balls to chase.

I bark at some pigeons.

I sniff something on the ground.

I chase pigeons

I want to bark at the policemen.



The ground says Shallow.



I think I've found another dog! Woof! Woof!

I run away from my owner to get back to the theatre on time.

Wednesday involved no mudlarking, as the tide was too high, but I did walk along the river past Queenhithe, where you are definitely not allowed to mudlark. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and has the remains of an old dock there. There are signs beside it and a mosaic, but although I’d read the signs previously, I'd never paid too much attention to it.

I could see sherds and pipes and oyster shells on the foreshore from standing on the path beside it though.

The PLA map has Queenhithe marked in red, but intriguingly on their map, it looks like you could mudlark just to the side of it, or in front of it, if the tide was out enough. I would worry though that I wouldn't know where the line was between allowed and definitely not.

I had read that it was possible to get onto the foreshore at Fishmonger’s Hall Wharf but when I got there, I found a ladder which I was reluctant to climb.

I peered over and could see people on the foreshore.

I walked along the river further, wondering if there was another way down, until I found steps outside the Banker pub. Cousin Lane Stairs according to Google Maps. They were decent steps and I headed down to the foreshore. To get to a further bit involved going underneath Cannon Street railway bridge and climbing over a few boulders and I used a soggy algae covered wall for balance. Next time I might take my hiking pole.

It was only about 20 minutes since low tide, but I felt unsure about how long it would remain accessible for. It didn't matter though that day as I didn't have time to linger.

I only picked up two sherds:

I was going to visit the Thames Barrier and wanted to go mudlarking on the way, but didn't quite manage to.

I started at Woolwich - the first set of stairs I looked down were too muddy and the foreshore was similar. The second set, I walked down but they got muddier and I started slipping so turned back. A man saw me doing this and told me there were steps further on that would be better. We walked together to the steps but then found them padlocked.

The steps nearest to the Thames Barrier, outside the Hope & Anchor pub (now closed) seemed to be missing steps and also looked very slippery, so I gave them a miss too.

So mudlarking 19 did not happen that day, and instead the day after.

I headed to Rotherhithe and it was blissfully quiet, I was the only person on the foreshore.

I found a few pieces of shoe soles and picked one up, wondering if anyone had worn it or if it was just surplus.

I found some pottery sherds and a few pieces of glass, and a few bits of pipe.

I headed back up the steps.

“Are you okay?” a man asked after I'd taken my gloves off and wiped my nose.
“Yeah”, I said, nodding.
“Are you a tourist or you live around here?” he asked.
“Neither,” I replied, and he walked off before I could elaborate, seeming annoyed. Then he started cheering random joggers who were running past, who looked at him confused.



I headed to Limehouse after that and there were Canada Geese and goslings, and swans.

I found my first face! I am not sure who he is, although he looks familiar somehow. It may have been part of a Bellarmine jug.



I found quite a lot of sherds with words on:

“Oat” - A part of what looks like a small white pot that says “oat” on the bottom. It seems there was once a face cream called Oatine, so this little pot likely held that. It looks like Oatine was sold in the UK from 1905 to 1960s, but was most popular around the 1920s. Article I found on Oatine: Oatine: The food for the complexion.



“unt” - a small sherd with what looks like “unt” visible. The letter before could have been a “o” so perhaps it spelt county or mount?

“ho” - a sherd where most of the glaze has come off and all that is left looks like it spells “ho”.

Also glass shards with words on:

“ark” - this shard was obviously from Noah’s Ark.

“c.” - a nice letter c and a full stop, but whether the rest of the word was Isaac or maniac or automatic, I don't know.

“by” - possibly, or it could be “ry”, but I think it looks more like “by”.

One where they are obviously letters but what remains of them is too difficult for me to tell.

I found a terracotta coloured stone that looks like it has a little pink heart on it.

I found a button and a blue circle of glass with two holes, which could have been a button also but it could have been on a necklace, perhaps?

Limehouse finds are colourful!

It was just before low tide and the foreshore was busy with people, teenagers on a guided mudlark tour, and others searching.

The foreshore emptied and then there were more geese than humans and the goslings pecked at the wall, green with algae.

That day, I kept finding stripey pottery sherds. As I was going to meet Ingress players afterwards and our team colour is green, I started to concentrate on picking up green sherds. Green triangles!

I found another pipe with an “S” on it, different to the last. The other side looks like it could be a “P” so perhaps it was made by Solomon Price.

Another piece of Staffordshire Slipware, some more pink slag, and a sherd with a letter “E” on it.

It seemed appropriate to go to the Mudlark pub after that to meet friends and show them my bag of finds. On the walls of the pub were pictures of the foreshore and of pipes.