Mudlarking in Central London. How many objects have been thrown in the River from Tower Bridge?!

i'm just walking along here collecting pottery  to make some cards and then i saw something round   with a really nice or interesting design on it  it's just down there pretty much in the middle here it is look at that it's a bit worn but it's a military  button isn't it some kind of button it's nice made by Firmin in london i wonder who or what that it stands for well it's  a beautiful morning it's so quiet the sun is out   there's no wind and i'm going to jump on an uber  boat just here and take a trip into central london   so i'm waiting for my boat and if you ever come  to london believe me this is the way to travel here's my boat it's just so relaxing  you can even get a coffee or a tea i've just been scraping around in this area  here and i have just pulled out what i first   of all thought was a necklace maybe or a chain  but look at this this looks like a beautiful   large chunk of chain mail i think if i'm not  mistaken just look at that isn't that beautiful i'll have to check to make sure it  is but i think that's what it is wow so i'm scraping around here  and there are quite a few pins   and notably just here that's the tiniest  little bead a tiny tiny weeny little bead isn't that teeny see a coin here actually but that's bound to  be a modern penny yeah that's a modern penny   i shall put my bead away um like i said  lots and lots of pins see a tiny one here   i can put the tiny bead on the tiny pin maybe lovely pin here look oh oh my goodness what's this oh it's a ring look oh wow it's a ring um it probably isn't gold and it looks like the stone's come out doesn't  it it's pretty exciting it's always amazing   finding a ring it looks like there's  something actually etched on there what does that say um i am not sure i don't think it's gold though  it's quite light actually wow still a ring though fantastic i think i'll stick around here  for a while see what else is oh what's this oh now is that a modern penny or not no i  don't think it is i think that's slightly older now that could be a victorian penny  look i'm going to put it in the water   give it a little rinse off shortly  but as i'm on a bit of a roll here   i'm going to concentrate on this spot so  i'm gonna put it in my pocket for a minute i think that's victoria look oh look another coin   what's that oh now that is a modern penny yep  that's a modern penny it's still a coin though now just down here we've got our first  lace shape or lace aiglet of the day we've got an earring here what's that oh look it's a bullet but it's been   kind of torn in two i found quite  a few of these near greenwich a little button can you see it   there it is it looks like a nice cod bottle marble and that  isn't that pretty let's hold it up to the sun i've just seen a coin down here i've got excited  for a moment but it's actually a modern 2p so   i'm going to leave that for a  future mudlark to get excited about let's see if we can find  something a little bit older i've just seen another coin and i know it's modern can you see it down there I'll zoom in and see if you can see it now it looks like it might be a euro   come on i want to find an old coin  let's have a look at this that is a five something! oh it's a polish coin well  there you go it's getting   a little bit more varied there we are this coin just prising out this bit of lead here see if it's anything of any consequence probably not i'll turn the camera off  and i'll come back when i've got it out and i've prized it out and guess what it looks  like um part of some stained glass window which is   uh rather interesting isn't it look at that gosh  i may have to take that with me and clean it off there you can see a green  bit there it's all mangled up   right i'll have to pop that in  my bag i wasn't expecting to   pull out a piece of um stained glass window  i wonder if there's any more down there how interesting i'll have a little bit of a search now what else is there down here the coin just down there looks like a foreign one what's that i don't recognize this one what's that on there it's quite pretty whatever it is looks like it's got some kind of covering  which is peeling off what is that what's this oh it is an artwork let's pop it  up down here and have a look at it an abstract piece of art that  somebody is thrown in the river looks like another piece of artwork here look at  this one so who's been throwing their artwork in   the river thames i think we will have to put  it up against the wall make it world famous i've just seen the edge of something round over  here and it's probably another modern coin but   let's go and check it out just in case it's  something more interesting like a button or a   i don't know another foreign coin or  some gold maybe it's just here look   just there what do you think could  even be an old washer let's get it out   oh it's a button it's a button oh do you know  what it's a button and the good thing about   it is that oh excellent it has a name on it now  that's fantastic because that means that i can now follow up this name find out more about it and  hopefully transform this video of modern and   foreign coins into something fascinating excellent  let's give it a little rinse off but i'll tell you   what i'm gonna have another look around in this  little area first i should put that safely down   there where i don't forget about it there it is  look that's a lovely little button a button with   a name never underestimate it it can take  you to places you never imagined you'd go there are a few pipe stems around but i haven't  seen any bowls it's probably a little bit too   stoney around here so the pipes have all broken up  there's a tiny bit of pipe bowl here it would have   been a basket weave design it's very very small  i do have a few whole basket weave design pipes   and you know sometimes you find a tiny fragment  of pipe bowl and it feels quite frustrating but   you can still get a glimpse of what there was  on there actually and i've got a few um sort of   fragments of pipe bowl at home that would have  been absolutely wonderful if they were whole i shall dig them out and show  them to you. I've got one with a cannon   and one with what looks like a part of a bird okay let's just give this button a little rinse oh that's lovely newstead h  newstead okay watch this space well time to head back now i'm going  to go get the boat and go back home   i have to say that that is a first  i've never pulled a piece of stained   glass window out of the thames mud before  and i'd love to know where it came from i wonder i wonder so now i'm going to take these pieces of art  and put them up on the steps there we are that will do when i left the river  and crossed tower bridge i noticed this coat of   arms in several different places and it reminded  me of the button which i found a few months ago   and which is right at the beginning of this video hi everyone i hope you're well thank you very  much for watching my video i just want to tell you   what an absolute pleasure and a joy it is for  me to be able to share with you something that   i'm so passionate about and that is searching for  history along the river thames and in other places   of course and then just being able to share with  you some of the information that i find out and   the great thing is that sometimes in fact a lot of  the time many of you have lots of information to   share with me about the finds too because i'm no  expert but i do enjoy researching and finding out   what i can about what i find in that mud and some  of the stories and the information that come to   light is just so brilliant you learn things that  you never even knew you needed to learn and you   find out about people that have been long gone and  you can really bring their stories back to life so   i had a great outing there on the river thames in  central london and here in front of me i've got a   nice little spread of some of those objects which  i'm going to talk to you about now and i think i'm   going to start with probably the oldest object or  item which is the amazing piece of chain mail here   which is just amazing i have to say and it always  sort of makes me imagine these knights having a   great big battle all wearing chain mail armour  so i'm not quite sure what it's made out of   it's often made out of iron i was thinking it  was copper alloy but i'm not sure i've also got   another piece here which i did feature on a video  not that long ago it's a completely different   size so probably from bits of mail that were on  different parts of the body but i actually still   need to show them to my finds liaison officer at  the museum of london and so then i'll be able to   find out a bit more but for now let me just read  you a little bit of information that i found on   the good old internet about medieval which i think  it's probably medieval chain mail so here   goes i shall read you a little bit of what i  found out chainmail is a type of armor made of   small rings linked together in a mesh it was used  widely during the middle ages between the 5th and   16th centuries it was labour intensive to create  blacksmiths spent hours of forging tiny metal   rings into a coat of chain mail it was cleaned by  swirling the armor around a barrel full of sand   and vinegar the iron coils helped deflect  jabs from swords and even proved useful   in battle when facing arrows from most longbows  it was expensive and those knights who wore it   definitely had an advantage in battle in the rules  of the medieval templar knights those without it   were allowed to withdraw from battle if injured  while those with chainmail were not allowed to   it declined in popularity in particular  after the invention of the musket ball who   wore it wouldn't it be great to go back in time  and just see who was wearing this chain male armor   so now let's talk about buttons and i do love  buttons which is just as well because i find an   awful lot of them it's quite a common find on the  foreshore and the terms for sure seems to have a   liberal scattering of buttons on it as well as  other things used to attach garments back over   the centuries and so this one here i found a few  months ago and when i was walking back across the   tower bridge and my eye caught the coat of arms  of the city of london i immediately remembered   this button so when i got home i looked it up and  indeed it does come from the city of london police   and the city of london police were actually  officially formed in 1832 so this button dates   um back to the 19th century definitely maybe  not 1832 but maybe something like 1850 or   1860 something like that so i'm very pleased  to have been able to make that connection   now this other button here is just great and  it's a brilliant example of how a small button   can bring back to life somebody from the past  on it it says h newstead from stratford and upon   investigating i found out about henry keen edward  newstead who was a clothier and outfitter he was   born in 1812 and he died when he was 95 i think in  1905. he was married to sarah and he had about 11   children now it's quite interesting because he  was also when he was 20 tried for larceny he   was acquitted it was larceny of a servant so he  was accused of stealing something from his boss   but he was acquitted and interestingly um when i  started to look up a little bit more about that i   came across some old bailey proceedings back also  in the 1830s or the 1840s where he was actually   testifying against people who had been accused of  stealing and one poor woman at the age of 28 who   was accused of stealing a sheet was transported  for seven years and so when he married in 1845   his profession was listed as being a pawn broker  but by 1851 he was an outfitter and so he was   also living in stratford with several of his  children and his wife and so i'm pretty certain   that this button comes from henry keane edward  newstead clothier and outfitter from stratford   and here we have my lovely little victorian  coin which is from 1866 it's a victorian   sixpence i found quite a selection of modern and  modern foreign coins that day i'll put a little   picture up so you can see what i found the tiny  one here which has got george and the dragon on it   or at least a man uh stabbing a dragon fits nicely  into the theme of of chain mail armour actually is   a russian coin it's falling apart i mean it almost  could be a forgery because it seems to be just um   disintegrating very very easily so i don't  know i was under tower bridge when i found   that so i expect quite a few people throw  coins over the bridge maybe for good luck   and now for this really beautiful  piece of lead glass window which i have   unfolded and here it is in all its glory  i don't know how old it is i have been   searching the internet for information about lead  glass window and how to date it i haven't found a   great deal just yet so maybe you are an expert  on this very topic and if you are please do get   in touch and let me know i will take it to my  finds liaison officer he might be able to help   he knows pretty much everything about everything  and maybe he can help to date it too but what's   really lovely about it is this piece here it's got  this beautiful green turquoisey sheen almost like   a peacock feather colour and i don't know whether  that is actually been coloured or whether that is   just because it's been in the mud if i put it a  little closer to the camera there you can see this   gorgeous shade of turquoise and then at other  angles the colour just seems to disappear   all together so it's been somewhat fascinating  me and i would just love to know where it came   from i doubt very much that it came from tower  bridge although that was very nice to imagine   but who knows and i wonder how it got there is  it something uh from the war from bomb damage   or is it more recent than that i don't know  i've got a lot to find out about this piece of   lead glass window i've never found anything like  it before and so i shall keep you updated on that   now i did actually find some things that day  that i didn't film and that was because my   camera was being a bit dodgy when i first  got to the foreshore so i'm going to put   a picture of some of the other finds that i  found that day and if any of you can give me any   information about them that would be absolutely  great there's a few bullets there's a few little   little metal objects and there is a really  pretty piece of lead a tiny piece of lead   with some decoration so if anyone's  got any information on that it would be   great to hear from you the other thing is that day  i also bumped into a couple who were mud locking   and the gentleman of the couple  found a beautiful lead seal and   so i had a look at that i couldn't really give him  any information about it apart from the fact that   it did look really old well what i want to say is  that i found the other half after they left and so   if by any chance you are watching this video then  i believe i found the other half of your lead seal   so please get in touch so that i can give you this  bit i found the plain bit you've got the really   interesting bit but still it would be really  nice if both parts of that seal could be together   and then when you show it to the museum  you'll be able to have both parts of it   so i think that's just about it for now and  i'd like to thank you again very very much   for watching my video i hope that wherever you are  you're having a good day a good afternoon evening   morning whatever time of day it is for you i hope  that the sun is shining i'd like to thank you all   for your wonderful support for your comments and  your feedback and your help with identifying my   finds and for those of you that have sent me  information about finds on my previous videos   it's such a huge pleasure to be able to share all  this with you i feel very very very very fortunate   now if you would like to support me by buying me  a virtual cup of tea then i do have a kofi account   and i will put the details on the description to  this video but there is absolutely no obligation   the main important thing is that you enjoy these  videos that's what i really wish for you all   so have a great week everyone take care and i look  forward to seeing you again very soon for more   exciting adventures looking for history along the  banks of the towns and elsewhere thanks bye-bye you

Channel: nicola white mudlark - Tideline Art

Views: 222,733

Rating: 4.9575019 out of 5

Keywords: mudlarking, best mudlarking videos, mudlarking london 2021, mudlarking nicola white, nicola white mudlark, nicola white, mudlarking in london, tower bridge

Id: hBgByIeNx1o

Length: 32min 28sec (1948 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 25 2021