Searching the Thames Foreshore in the City of London has always been one of my favourite ways to while away a few hours. Wandering about looking for likely spots and employing the time-honoured mudlark's method of 'eyes only' I usually find one or two items worth having in a day's work and occasionally something really very nice indeed.
Objects from Thames mud are usually in fantastic condition due to oxygen free conditions that halt oxidation and corrosion in their tracks so even ordinary copper alloy metal finds that from land sites might be dismissed as 'hedge fodder' come up almost 'as new' and that makes them special. Perhaps the best thing about the Thames though is that it's not all about metal finds. There's plenty else made of other materials, from wood, leather, bone and ivory, to stone, pottery and glass to stumble across.
For a beginner the Thames is daunting. It takes some time to get used to the search methods and only long experience will tell you why you should be looking in the right places rather than the wrong ones. The majority of the surface has been picked clean over the years and in places where erosion has halted it's unlikely you'll find anything much but discover those spots where erosion, no matter how subtle, is taking place and that's where to be.
In those areas you'll likely find collections of nails, wire, small pieces of this and that and mostly made of iron. These have collected in places where the motion of water has swept them and because of their similar weight and size, just like granules of gold in a prospectors pan full of river gravel, they separate from the matrix and end up in the same place. Amongst this iron trash is where far rarer non-ferrous metal finds are most often made. However, non-metallic finds can be almost anywhere because the same laws that apply to metals also apply to them but they have very different weights and sizes so they end up in different places.
It's also well worth investigating any lump of concreted iron you come across. The lovely spur I discovered was locked inside a large brown lump that looked interesting enough to warrant further investigation, but only when I went to work on it at home did I fully realise what I had. The concretions aren't that hard to remove so I'll take home anything that might come good. Inside the rusty prison can be a treasure waiting to escape!
You have to know what you are looking for on any search. There's little point going to look for coins and buckle sized metal finds but expecting to also discover larger objects, and vice versa. Small items and large items require two different stances and two very different kinds of concentration.
The first approach requires you walk about with your hands behind your back, legs straight and upper body bowed over with your nose as close to the shingle as you can comfortably get. This gives you just a small section of shingle in vision at any given time and when I find areas really productive of small finds or I believe are worth taking a detailed look at then I'll crouch or even get right down on my knees in order to focus really close-up. This is hard and focussed concentration.
The closer you get to the shingle the harder it is to appreciate large objects right under your nose and you'll miss everything outside peripheral vision often walking straight past great finds just yards away without having a clue. So, the second approach requires an upright stance from which you'll see large objects clearly, miss many of the smaller ones, but be quite unable to discern anything the size of a Medieval farthing. This is a relaxed and broad form of concentration.
You cannot do both at once but in a day I'll employ both in rotation. I'll cruise for large objects and likely areas of erosion and then crouch over whenever I find those crucial collections of iron. This way I use the brief time available well, don't get back ache, and avoid the queasy motion sickness that walking bowed over all the time tends to create.
Shape and colour are important. If you go with the intention of finding silver and copper coins then expect them to turn up as they do on land sites — silver and green coloured respectively — then you'll probably never find any at all because silver coins from the mud are usually black or very dark grey and copper coins often bright and brassy if they've been freshly washed out or a light yellowish brown colour when they've been knocking about a while on the surface. I've never found anything that was green-coloured but pottery or glass or silver-coloured unless stainless steel!
What confuses matters even more is that coins are rarely spied flat and round but more often seen edge on or partially obscured. The foreshore is smothered in pieces of broken mussel shell that are black in colour and have rounded edges. These fragments need to be investigated when it isn't obvious they are shells because I've lost count of the times that a piece has turned out to be a hammered coin on edge by investigation.
Another consideration is flipping over any object that looks remotely interesting. Often the reverse lays face up and looks anything but special but the other side is highly decorated. The amazing hand carved Viking Age gaming piece I discovered was a startling example because when I first saw it I believed it to be another one of the perforated plain bone disks I'd found so many of. Only when I flipped it over did the decorated face appear.
And then there was the Medieval harness boss that looked just like the modern iron washers the foreshore is strewn with in certain places. I flipped it over and it had a brass face plate decorated in repouse work with a beautiful quatrefoil. That it had been crushed wasn't the point, it was a very rare find indeed and only one other of its kind is recorded!
In short, to make finds you have to investigate anything out of the ordinary and anything within the ordinary too because finds rarely present themselves clearly. If it looks worth the effort then investigate it — curiosity is your best friend down there, believe me.
What works against you is time. The tide waits for no man and all the while the clock is ticking. Get there as the tide ebbs away, exposes the first useful areas and start straight away. Only leave when forced off by the flood. You have just a few short hours in which to locate areas and make finds and those few hours must be used well.
There's are rules to be obeyed. You cannot use a metal detector without a license from the Port of London Authority and cannot dig down further than a few inches without being part of the Mudlark Society and having a special permit. Unfortunately, the society is a closed group, you must be seconded by an existing member and cannot simply apply for membership. The good news is that you do not need permits of any kind to walk on the foreshore and makes surface finds by 'eyes only' methods just so long as you do not scrape the surface with a tool, because that counts as digging and requires the appropriate permit.
It goes without saying that you should have recorded anything interesting enough to warrant it and take anything really interesting along to the Museum of London where the keepers will happily take a good hard look at it. The museum's enormous collections wouldn't be half as fabulous as they are without the many thousands of finds mudlarks have made from the Thames, you know.
Access points are not hard to find but I would not advise climbing up or down any ladder. The drop from the top of the wall to the foreshore can be as high as thirty feet and it's not worth the risk or braining yourself when a flight of stairs is usually nearby. I usually start making tracks toward a convenient exit point when the tide has risen above a certain point covering over the most productive areas, but it's actually hard to become stranded anywhere because the exit points are so numerous. Take a mobile phone in any case.
As for the reputation of the mud — it's not to be feared. Not really that dirty a place to be, it's mostly a very firm shingle and mud mixture with lots of tile and brick in it and walking about safely requires only a careful footfall, a slow pace and the avoidance of slippery rocks. I'll go down even in shoes I'm wearing on a day out in London and just wash the mud off on leaving. I've never hurt myself in any way and have never sunk more than few inches, though I have seen others come a cropper. If it looks too soft then it probably is, so avoid it. You'll get your shoes filthy otherwise but it's unlikely be any worse than that.
And lastly, nobody will be looking at you as if you're some kind of social misfit these days. When I first started as a teenager I'd get coins thrown at me from above but since the South Bank at Southwark and Bankside was regenerated making it so very popular with tourists, loads of people began to enter the foreshore and have a dabble.
Nowadays it's seen as a legitimate pastime for all the family because you absolutely cannot fail to find something of interest. It might not be a treasure, but treasures are certainly there for the insatiably curious to find because London has been a world-class city for two millenia and arguably the world's greatest city for the last 300 years, so on any given day, at any given place, a few good things will always be visible and somewhere, believe me, there'll be a jackpot.
Undiscovered, then tomorrow they'll be in another mudlarks pocket or more likely washed under a stone and rendered invisible perhaps for years to come, but that's the whole point and appeal of 'eyes only' searching on the Thames. With any luck it'll be you who there's at the right place, at the right time, and with their eyes wide open to the chance.
Objects from Thames mud are usually in fantastic condition due to oxygen free conditions that halt oxidation and corrosion in their tracks so even ordinary copper alloy metal finds that from land sites might be dismissed as 'hedge fodder' come up almost 'as new' and that makes them special. Perhaps the best thing about the Thames though is that it's not all about metal finds. There's plenty else made of other materials, from wood, leather, bone and ivory, to stone, pottery and glass to stumble across.
 |
| A Charles I copper farthing in typical condition. Toned, but as fresh as the day it was struck |
For a beginner the Thames is daunting. It takes some time to get used to the search methods and only long experience will tell you why you should be looking in the right places rather than the wrong ones. The majority of the surface has been picked clean over the years and in places where erosion has halted it's unlikely you'll find anything much but discover those spots where erosion, no matter how subtle, is taking place and that's where to be.
 |
| A Tudor period iron spur inlaid with silver. Such preservation is usual for ancient iron objects |
In those areas you'll likely find collections of nails, wire, small pieces of this and that and mostly made of iron. These have collected in places where the motion of water has swept them and because of their similar weight and size, just like granules of gold in a prospectors pan full of river gravel, they separate from the matrix and end up in the same place. Amongst this iron trash is where far rarer non-ferrous metal finds are most often made. However, non-metallic finds can be almost anywhere because the same laws that apply to metals also apply to them but they have very different weights and sizes so they end up in different places.
It's also well worth investigating any lump of concreted iron you come across. The lovely spur I discovered was locked inside a large brown lump that looked interesting enough to warrant further investigation, but only when I went to work on it at home did I fully realise what I had. The concretions aren't that hard to remove so I'll take home anything that might come good. Inside the rusty prison can be a treasure waiting to escape!
 |
| How many finds in this one random picture? The Thames Foreshore in london is half man-made material... You'll notice this is the bowed down approach and even this picture makes you feel a little motion sick. |
You have to know what you are looking for on any search. There's little point going to look for coins and buckle sized metal finds but expecting to also discover larger objects, and vice versa. Small items and large items require two different stances and two very different kinds of concentration.
The first approach requires you walk about with your hands behind your back, legs straight and upper body bowed over with your nose as close to the shingle as you can comfortably get. This gives you just a small section of shingle in vision at any given time and when I find areas really productive of small finds or I believe are worth taking a detailed look at then I'll crouch or even get right down on my knees in order to focus really close-up. This is hard and focussed concentration.
 |
| Medieval Iron chain mail is rare, but it washes up in the iron rich spots as do the very rare brass fringing links from the same garments |
You cannot do both at once but in a day I'll employ both in rotation. I'll cruise for large objects and likely areas of erosion and then crouch over whenever I find those crucial collections of iron. This way I use the brief time available well, don't get back ache, and avoid the queasy motion sickness that walking bowed over all the time tends to create.
 |
| Very large objects such as this fabulous 13th century moulding are there to be found but because the face of such an object will be buried it has to be flipped. |
And then there was the Medieval harness boss that looked just like the modern iron washers the foreshore is strewn with in certain places. I flipped it over and it had a brass face plate decorated in repouse work with a beautiful quatrefoil. That it had been crushed wasn't the point, it was a very rare find indeed and only one other of its kind is recorded!
What works against you is time. The tide waits for no man and all the while the clock is ticking. Get there as the tide ebbs away, exposes the first useful areas and start straight away. Only leave when forced off by the flood. You have just a few short hours in which to locate areas and make finds and those few hours must be used well.
There's are rules to be obeyed. You cannot use a metal detector without a license from the Port of London Authority and cannot dig down further than a few inches without being part of the Mudlark Society and having a special permit. Unfortunately, the society is a closed group, you must be seconded by an existing member and cannot simply apply for membership. The good news is that you do not need permits of any kind to walk on the foreshore and makes surface finds by 'eyes only' methods just so long as you do not scrape the surface with a tool, because that counts as digging and requires the appropriate permit.
It goes without saying that you should have recorded anything interesting enough to warrant it and take anything really interesting along to the Museum of London where the keepers will happily take a good hard look at it. The museum's enormous collections wouldn't be half as fabulous as they are without the many thousands of finds mudlarks have made from the Thames, you know.
 |
| Dead man's man's footprints. A 17th Century high-heeled silk shoe or an 18th Century square-toed leather boot? Experts at the Museum of London will know which or if it's something else entirely. |
Access points are not hard to find but I would not advise climbing up or down any ladder. The drop from the top of the wall to the foreshore can be as high as thirty feet and it's not worth the risk or braining yourself when a flight of stairs is usually nearby. I usually start making tracks toward a convenient exit point when the tide has risen above a certain point covering over the most productive areas, but it's actually hard to become stranded anywhere because the exit points are so numerous. Take a mobile phone in any case.
As for the reputation of the mud — it's not to be feared. Not really that dirty a place to be, it's mostly a very firm shingle and mud mixture with lots of tile and brick in it and walking about safely requires only a careful footfall, a slow pace and the avoidance of slippery rocks. I'll go down even in shoes I'm wearing on a day out in London and just wash the mud off on leaving. I've never hurt myself in any way and have never sunk more than few inches, though I have seen others come a cropper. If it looks too soft then it probably is, so avoid it. You'll get your shoes filthy otherwise but it's unlikely be any worse than that.
And lastly, nobody will be looking at you as if you're some kind of social misfit these days. When I first started as a teenager I'd get coins thrown at me from above but since the South Bank at Southwark and Bankside was regenerated making it so very popular with tourists, loads of people began to enter the foreshore and have a dabble.
Nowadays it's seen as a legitimate pastime for all the family because you absolutely cannot fail to find something of interest. It might not be a treasure, but treasures are certainly there for the insatiably curious to find because London has been a world-class city for two millenia and arguably the world's greatest city for the last 300 years, so on any given day, at any given place, a few good things will always be visible and somewhere, believe me, there'll be a jackpot.
Undiscovered, then tomorrow they'll be in another mudlarks pocket or more likely washed under a stone and rendered invisible perhaps for years to come, but that's the whole point and appeal of 'eyes only' searching on the Thames. With any luck it'll be you who there's at the right place, at the right time, and with their eyes wide open to the chance.
