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mudlarking

Mudlarking 69 - Ginger beer

I went to Chelsea, down the steps by the boats and walked between Battersea Bridge and Albert Bridge, on the north side of the river. From the bus, I could see rainbows on the river, caused by the reflection of windows.

I spoke to a person on the foreshore and asked them what they'd found and they had found a ring, although a modern one.

I found a chunk of a stoneware ginger beer bottle - Clayton’s. It would have said on it:
Clayton’s
Old English
Stone
Ginger Beer
London and Kingston-on-Thames

I found two buttons.

The bus stop was still there, as well as a Lime bike.

A crisp packet floated by.

I found two stickers, one of which was a festive bauble.

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

Entry tags:

mudlarking

Mudlarking 68 - Rain and Empires

It was raining so I went for a coffee while waiting for the rain to stop. It eventually did and I walked down onto Ernie’s Beach. It started raining again and I hid underneath Waterloo Bridge for a while. Not pleasant conditions for mudlarking.

Finds included:

Two pieces of Empire Ware. Empire Porcelain Co were based in Hanley and active from 1896 to 1967. https://www.thepotteries.org/allpotters/389.htm
One of these pieces is from the 1930s as Empire conveniently stamped their pottery with the month and year around that time. The 3 is quite visible.

Three pieces of Express Dairies.

It seems it was the river’s birthday. Happy birthday, River Thames!

A lid from something? Or a holder of something. It looks quite new somehow, so could be some kind of religious offering.

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

Entry tags:

mudlarking

Mudlarking 67 - comb

A lunchtime lark and I found some bits of Westerwald, and what looks like a bit of a comb, with nit comb on one side, possibly bone.

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

Look! I remembered to post before December started this year!

Hello, friends! It's about to be December again, and you know what that means: the fact I am posting this actually before December 1 means

karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.

The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.

( The fine print and much more behind this cut! )

Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.

On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.

Entry tags:

mudlarking

Mudlarking 66 - a rainbow and a non-spill ink well

I stood on the foreshore at Vauxhall and saw a rainbow appear over the Houses of Parliament, and that was my best find.

There was also a sculpture of a fish on the foreshore, just a metal outline.

Finds included:

A non-spill ink well! It's like magic, water goes in, but does not go out. This is likely Victorian.

A sherd that says “future” on it. This looks fairly modern but I'm not sure where it is from. Did Orange ever have promotional items with “the future is bright, the future is Orange” on them?

A sherd with a little bit of a Christmas tree on it, ready for the festive season!

What I thought was a bracelet, but I think it's actually a religious item - Hindu mala beads for an idol? I might take them back.

I stroked the lion’s mane as I left.