Mudlarking the River Thames - A Mystery find emerges from the mud (& several military artefacts)

[Music] [Music] [Music] hi everyone it's a bit of a grey morning here on the thames foreshore and the tide isn't particularly low it's about 1.1 meters but it's wonderful to be down here nevertheless and i'm hoping that the river has thrown out some historical treasures so without further ado let's go and see what we're going to find today now come with me over here and see if you can see what i've just spotted down here amongst the stones it's just down there can you see it yeah it's a spoon but it's not any old spoon it's an apostle spoon this could date back to victorian times late victorian early 20th century it's an apostle spoon and there is an apostle at the top here would usually come in a set a set of apostles so i do love these little nails for some reason somebody tell me why why do i love them something very tactile about them right i've just seen something here which looks kind of exciting it's not a button look it's just over there by that white piece of chalk just here look let me show you there it is it's the tantalizing top of a coin now what is it gonna be what's it gonna be right let's get it out ah here we go look at that it's a george v penny 19 18. great what a great find i love it when they poke out the mud like that very very tantalizingly i wonder who last had that in their pocket [Applause] right well it always pays to flip over stones and i've just done that and look what has been revealed down here look at that now that looks like some kind of cat badge doesn't it there again poking tantalizingly out of the mud [Music] i can't wait to get it out i can see the crown there and that looks like a king's crown if i'm not mistaken so oh let's have a look let's see what this is wow how long it's been there oh my gosh look at that how beautiful is that oh my goodness right let's go and wash it let's go and wash it let's find a little puddle here we go we only need a little puddle oh look what's right next to it a lovely lovely echonoid now i think that's a mycrasta isn't it a heart-shaped fossil right next to the puddle look at that how blessed am i today right i'll put that in my bag um let's get back to this little beautiful fragment of history oh goodness army catering core oh my goodness it's the army catering corps now would you look at that isn't that incredible the army catering corps that is just beautiful what a beautiful find thank you thank you river terms i think it calls for a rub on the jeans doesn't it [Applause] okay so i've just seen something which looks kind of exciting over there i'm going to zoom in on it if i can find it in my camera when i zoom in i sometimes lose them let me see right now it's down here let me see if i've got my aim right yep there it is look now can you see that now what is that it's got the broad arrow on it it's going to be a little tag i was thinking maybe a bottle seal but probably not let's have a look let's see what it is whatever it is i love it i haven't even picked it up yet oh look it is do you know what it is a bottle seal it's a bottle seal with a broad arrow on it look at that isn't it beautiful so that signals that it's government properties or ordnance property that must come from i would say mid 19th century but just look at it isn't it resplendent what a beautiful find okay i've got something which is a bit mysterious here it's probably something industrial maybe something to do with ship building and i wasn't going to take it because it's a bit heavy and muddy but i don't know it's quite interesting it looks like i should probably clean it up and investigate it further here we are look the wave's doing a pretty good job actually cleaning it now look at this it's quite nice isn't it in a in a dirty chunky mysterious kind of way okay that's going in my bag simply because i love these shiny coffee nails oh look yes and yeah look there's a broad arrow on there so that denotes that it was probably used by a military or something navel i'll clean it up and see if there's any other markings on there look at that i quite like that it's a good job i've got a big plastic bag in my backpack look at those lovely nails but what was it that's the question looks like part of a bottle stopper here okay it's one of our favorite types of finds in fact i can also see another one out the corner of my eye um but let's look at this one first here we are look a little button is there anything on it oh yes delight of delights there is what is that look at this little button i can't for the life of me see what's on it um there is definitely something on it though maybe it's a small military button maybe it's a delivery button you might be able to see it better than i can actually through the camera i can't see it that's so exciting that will go under my magnifying lamp when i get home and i can make out something there and possibly something written around the um around the inside of the button as well so great that's exciting very very exciting and look there's also another little button here uh a plainer one buttons buttons buttons buttons buttons that looks like a special little button into the bag it goes this looks like a modern penny but it looks slightly different that looks like oh you know what that is a hong kong penny i've never found one of those before just got queen elizabeth ii there and yeah that's from hong kong how interesting oh look what i've just seen there straight ahead can you spot it it is i didn't even need to do an extraction for this one and it's still got the mud in it which is great you never know there might be a a bit of tobacco underneath that mud so i'll dry it out and we'll be able to see there we are already extracted from the thames mud just waiting to be picked up it's funny isn't it in the space of literally a meter or so i've picked up several small bits of metal that used to be part of something and are now just broken lying here on the foreshore there's that this which looks like it might have been part of a pen and this little catch there's just something lovely about them and oh look there's another button here another button i think it's a bun well it's yeah some kind of fastening but all these little bits of metal they just fascinate me really they fascinate me what's that little a little hoop i keep telling myself i'm going to put them all together in a little frame and that's exactly what i'm going to do when i can get around to it what's this tiny little nail another another curious little bit of metal there's something lovely about them isn't there a little piece of art all by itself what is that what's this oh it's a switch look on off it's an on off switch oh i really have to have that i'll get that great big lump of crustiness off of it off on that's a great find i love that i'm just lifting up more stones and then i saw out the corner of my eye yet another button down here look and it looks as if it could well be another military one here it is have a little feel and yes it is now that looks like a general service button wow i've been so fortunate today and found some beautiful things i came out to wander along the thames as i'm thinking about this talk i'm going to give for the totally thames festival on the 19th of september all about my food related finds and so it's also extremely amusing and appropriate that i found the army catering corps badge it really is fantastic you just never know what you're going to find in the river but everything's got story behind it and that really is what keeps me coming back time after time [Applause] can you see it there it is look it's a button and oh the great news is this one is not a military button well that's not the great news but the great news is that we've got a maker on there and i always love a maker on a button because we can look them up i can look him up on ancestry find out a little bit more about the the maker or the tailor the outfitter and it just adds an extra layer of interest so here we are look it's a bit like finding a pipe with a maker on it now this one comes from ryegate knight and sons from ryegate so that's great she'll look them up later and we'll see if we can find something out about them [Applause] well i've just seen something quite exciting down there let me zoom in see if you can see it there it is [Music] it's going to need a very good clean but it looks like an old key let's take a look right here it is here we got this yeah here it is look wow i don't know if i'll be able to do anything with that but you never know i'll have a good go underneath there is an old key i'll pop it in some vinegar and see what happens there are a few bits of pipe poking out here and here is one let's see if it's got a bowl on the end of it yep we're in luck it's a nice fluted one let's give it a little rinse yeah that's lovely that will fade to a nice ivory cream color in no time at all and it may even have some tobacco in it too what's this oh it's from a shotgun isn't it i thought it was a gold coin for a minute no such luck i've just seen another button a pretty button or maybe it's part of a cufflink actually it could be no i think it's a button look at that it's beautiful mother of pearl that's a very special button i'll add that to my pile of buttons which is growing rapidly [Music] [Music] oh look we've got a little flat fish here and it's still alive i'm gonna take it down i'm gonna take it down to the water it's okay little fishy it's okay little fishy let's get you in the water where you belong okay there you go there you go swim away hi everyone thank you very much for watching and welcome to my studio i can hardly wait to revisit the fabulous finds on the table in front of me that were in today's video but first of all i hope that you're all well that you're all in good health and that whatever day of the week it is for you that you're having a good day a good week and that all is well in your world and that the sun is shining so now let's do a round up of these finds and it was such a military naval themed mud larking outing and i'm going to start with this curious heavy object here which i have cleaned up to a certain extent and you can really see these beautiful nails here i don't really know what to say about this because i do not know what it is but i know that it must be something navel because these nails do have the broad arrow on them so hopefully somebody watching this video might know what that is or maybe you can make a guess but let's talk a little bit about the broad arrow first well the broad arrow has been in use over here since way back going back to the 14th century but in particular since the 16th century when it was used to mark objects bought by the crown's money and also to identify objects as belonging to the government and it was particularly associated with the board of ordnance responsible for supplying ammunition guns equipment to the royal navy and that includes nails so that would explain why a lot of the nails that we pick up on the thames for sure a lot of the old copper nails do have the broad arrow on them and again these nails in this very intriguing object here they have the broad arrow and also on that outing something i picked up which i didn't film because i thought that it was just a a long nail which wasn't particularly interesting until i got it home and cleaned it up yesterday is this which presumably was a very long nail and this does have three beautiful broad arrow stamps on it as well so i'm really thrilled with that it's really rather beautiful and of course there is the glass bottle seal which also has the broad arrow or the admiralty arrow on it this lovely seal here i was so so lucky to find that just the way that the sun was shining onto that puddle you know sometimes your eye just catches something and it really is such a stroke of luck it would have been so easy to just walk past this and i have managed to find on the good old internet an example of an entire bottle with this navel seal on it so i'm going to show you that and i do have quite a collection of objects actually with the broad arrow on it because i do find a fair amount of military naval themed objects i've got these shells here which have the broad arrow on the bottom of them and just like all the the bullets that we find as well also i have a collection of military pocket watches all of which have the broad arrow on them i've got this which is a little different i think this could be a convict token and it has the broad arrow with a number on it and yeah so i have various uh other objects including rather a lot of ammunition with the broad arrow so it's something i'm particularly interested in that that military history which is just as well because a lot of the other things that i found um yesterday are related to military history including this rather resplendent cat badge from the army catering corps whose motto was we sustain and they were founded in 1941 and were responsible for feeding the army basically as you would imagine they were started in 1941 and then they were amalgamated into the royal logistic core in 1993 so that's a really lovely piece of history and in particular as i was saying it was quite amusing because my head was full of thoughts of food and drink when i found that as i was thinking about the talk that i'm going to be doing on the 19th of september so a very appropriate find now let's move on to the buttons we've always got to have some buttons amongst the mud locking fines and this little one here which i was having great difficulty reading on the foreshore is actually a button from the napoleonic era between 1803 and 1831 and it's from the royal regiment of artillery and apparently would have come from an officer's coatee now i had to look up a coati and it's one of those very tight fitting jackets with the little tails on the back and so that would have been worn by an officer so it's a really pretty little button and it's so interesting how there's such a diverse array of military history from so many different eras and so many different wars because the other button which i found this one here the general service military button could have come from world war one or world war ii and actually i've got quite a collection of these and my favorite one i'm going to show you here is one which still has some material on the back from where it would have been attached to the jacket and i find that absolutely amazing that after all these years in the river it's still got some of the actual material on so what else have i got here that's military related um now i've got this little shotgun cartridge marked on it is cac 12 nz and the colonial ammunition company was an ammunition company from auckland in new zealand so that's kind of interesting that it's now over here in london so that's that now what else have i got down here i have got a very crusty key i haven't had time to do anything with it yet and i realize that i've run out of vinegar so i need to pop down to the shop and get some vinegar to put this key in and i'll see if um if i'm going to have any success in finding out what's underneath all that crustiness wish me luck on that it might just disintegrate but we'll see i've also got this very nice on and off switch which is great i wonder what it came from i don't know any ideas it's a lovely chunky brass on and off switch though that's all i know oh the coins i almost forgot the coins so i've got a couple of interesting coins and some modern coins and by the way on the subject of modern coins i'm going to start finally because several people have suggested it and i've always let it go by the by but i decided that i will do this now with the modern coins i'm going to collect them i'm going to put them in a charity box here and i'm going to see how much money i've managed to collect after a year so i've got my first 5p in the form of two peas and one piece to put in the thames charity box and we'll see how much we've got at the end of the year but for the other coins that i found which are quite interesting there's the old george king george the fifth penny from 1918 in really good condition as well and then going forward 60 years a coin which features his granddaughter the queen queen elizabeth ii and it's actually not a penny it is a hong kong 1978 10 cents and it's the first one of those that i've seen we are now going to move on to the clay pipes it's really strange isn't it the last things on the list the clay pipes the poor clay pipes have taken second place for once so here they are here's a pretty standard clay pipe which dates from about 1840 to 1870 it's got a little seam here at the front which would cover up where the mold was and then another one here nice little fluted design i've got a few of these it does have initials on the spur a w and a c and it's a very flouncy little clay pipe design and i think it does have some tobacco in it so we're in luck there so what's a glorious array of finds and like i said many of them are linked to military or naval history and there's so much more we can find out about those and oh i've just remembered i forgot a button i forgot the non-military button which was knight and sons from ryegate in surrey and again i've written a few notes about that because i did look it up and so let me read you what i found out about it right knight and sons of ryegate james knight and sons of ryergate were established in 1885 and they were tailors costume ears i'm not sure how you say that costume is costumier anyway one of the two costumiers milliners and drapers and they also provided military buttons to the volunteer training corps during the first world war and so they were slightly linked to um to the military as well so a fantastic array of fines from the river thames on a tide which wasn't even particularly low in fact sometimes it's going up to that high tide mark which is particularly fruitful it's an area that i often ignore but it's a place where things do get caught in amongst the rocks and things and so always worth looking and it doesn't necessarily mean that if it's a low tide that you're going to get fantastic fines some of the best finds could be further up the beach so yeah thank you very much river thames for all this and i've just glossed over them but there's so much more that we can learn about all these objects and yeah somebody tell me what this is please so that i can picture what it used to do where it was there we are so now i want to tell you about two really lovely things in fact i want to show you them and the first thing is clay pipe related now you may remember in some of my previous videos i have shown you some of the marvellous clay pipes that my mud locking friend amanda speedwell has found she has a real magical knack of finding rather magical let's say clay pipes the last one i put on my video was one of a little dog and this one is a mermaid themed pipe which is very appropriate if you go back to the beginning of the video she found this little clay pipe stem a couple of weeks ago it's on her twitter as well if you want to go over and see jamanda's twitter it's it's it's brilliant it's always full of very quirky finds from the river thames and um well worth a follow but it's a mermaid pipe it's a it's a stem it's just a stem but even a pipe stem can be absolutely fabulous it's a poor little mermaid clinging on to the pipe stem looking very very desperate and after all this time in the river over 100 years finally jamanda found her and took her home gave her a bath gave her a cozy home and here she is and i just absolutely love it jamanda has some brilliant clay pipes and we often marvel at each other's clay pipes so it's great to have somebody to to do that with so that's germand's pipes like i said go over and have a look at her website and also her her twitter account and give her a follow if you want to see some marvellous mudlocking finds second thing i want to show you which i've had for some time and i've kept wanting to show you and then kept forgetting or not getting around to it but is this marvellous barbie or cindy doll here which has been made by the very talented jennifer kelly you may have seen her propped up behind me on occasions on my chest of drawers there now she is just great she kind of looks like me don't you think maybe just slightly slimmer um but anyway she has her little trowel there she is and her pink boots she has a camera she has a bag she's got her little pouch here for her camera she's um yeah absolutely wonderful i really love her but also i'm going to show you all the accessories that came with her including the tiniest clay pipe you've ever seen in the whole wide world and little teeny weeny little bits of pottery little weeny bottles there's even a tiny tiny little onion bottle here it's a little mud locking tie line art doll so thank you very much jennifer well i think that's all for now i'd like to say a very big thank you to you all for your comments and your feedback your suggestions your ids on my previous videos i'd also like to say a very big thank you to everybody who has donated to my kofi account now if you would like to donate a small amount to my kofi account for a virtual cup of earl grey tea then i'll put the link here on the screen but absolutely no obligation whatsoever the main thing is that you enjoy my videos that's what gives me the most pleasure of all so i hope that you have a fantastic week ahead and i'm very much looking forward to seeing you again very soon with some more mud larking outings and some more magical finds from our wonderful river thames thanks bye [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: nicola white mudlark - Tideline Art

Views: 96,882

Rating: 4.9659953 out of 5

Keywords: mudlarking, mudlark, timeteam, best mudlarking finds, best mudlarking videos, mudlarking in london, nicola white, tidelineart

Id: 5VkmLwG4BLw

Length: 38min 53sec (2333 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 29 2021