Mudlarking the River Thames - Which one of these Thames Mudlarking Finds has an Explosive Past?

foreign [Music] [Music] well today i'm here with tom harrison who is a professional photographer and he's been doing quite a lot of photographs with the community of thames mudlax and you'll probably know quite a lot of them lots of them are on instagram there's london mudlark there's sci-finds anna borzello all sorts of people so he's just done my photo i hope it's going to be good tom i'm very vain but anyway tom can you just tell me a little bit more about your project so um a few months ago i was looking to do a nice personal project on an interesting and quirky kind of subculture of people and i came across model arching and have subsequently shot about 15 different mud lockers all across the thames and it's basically a series of portraits showing people in their kind of happiest place um focusing on them as people really more than the fines themselves um and yeah hopefully you enjoyed the results brilliant well i can't wait to see mine i've seen a few of the other ones you've done and i really love them they're so atmospheric so where can people take a look at these photographs so the pictures are primarily going to be published on my instagram feed and on my website and the links will be in the bio i guess okay brilliant well thank you very much and i guess you've been all up and down the thames from putney down to now where we are a lot further south east in greenwich so it's probably been quite a nice project for you to yeah learn about the thames yeah it's been a great um great excuse to explore different parts of the thames i've never visited before and to do it at the level of the foreshore you get a completely different perspective on the terms as i'm sure all of you guys will know something about the oh i like those yeah i kind of prefer those ones [Music] so [Music] so yeah thanks for thanks to everyone who's taking part so do you think this experience has tempted you to get your permit tom it has i think um it's when i've been shooting i've had quite a few people have just happened to spot things as i'm taking pictures of them and i've been amazed at how when you know what you're looking for you just can find the most amazing random things um so yeah definitely got attempted to do it but i'm not quite sure my historical knowledge is there yet to know what i'd be actually looking at but small steps i guess right so i'm going to go off now and see what i can find i'm just having a little scrape around here and all sorts of weird little bits and pieces popping up there's a very crusty little round thing here i'm wondering if it's a coin or a button i need to give it a little tap with my trowel some of that crustiness off there we are look got it off ah it's just a washer there you go a little washer disguised as a potential coin i'm just having a scrape around in this area here i haven't been here for a while and since i've last been here the surface has really been stripped of a couple of layers i think now down here there's a couple of things or maybe even maybe even three things that might be the top of the key because i can see a hole in it or it could just be some kind of bolt or something let's have a look first of all this which is just an old lid to a tube of something [Music] i'll take it anyway just so that we can see what it used to be screwed on top of and um yeah look got the coin here now what is this i looks like a ship's hay penny i found one of these the other day and this is a more recent one this is queen elizabeth ii queen elizabeth ii ship happening 57 i think 19 or 52 not quite sure one of the two so let's have a look and see what this is i have a feeling it's going to be a really bent key because i've moved it and it's it's uh moving here so let's just pull it out oh what is that what is that interesting little piece of metal isn't it oh it looks like part of some kind of hook doesn't it to go on the wall to be screwed on the wall quirky little piece of metal now i've seen a couple of things here i have seen a couple of things which have piqued my interest now there's something down there that looks like the back of a pin doesn't it just down here i've also seen a little piece of metal over there which i want to take a closer look at but first of all let's have a look down here oh look it's a little cook it's a little it's cute isn't it i can't for the life of me see what it says on there it's in really good condition isn't it considering it's been washed up and washed around on this part of the terms for so long it's even still got the enamel there where the lettering is cool right well there's that the little and chain let's just have a look at this thing it's probably nothing actually let's see watch this well i don't know it could be part of something it could have been something at some point but i shall take it because eventually when i make this assemblage with all the metal i've got which i keep on going on about that might come in useful so look at that so tiny part of a clock maybe now down here is what looks like the back of a button can you see it just there here let's have a look now is there anything on the other side there definitely is something on the other side i can feel it let's reveal it oh oh that is special it's the a-r-p now that is and i've got um a couple of these that i found in the past is the i think it's the air raid something or other oh the arp i can't remember now the air raid precaution or something like that what a great little find lots and lots of history associated with that the arp [Music] down here is that a tiny weeny little buckle oh look it is it's a teeniest little thing look at this tiny weeny little buckle teeny tiny oh look it's another button there's nothing on this one i don't think it's just a little little plane or playing button so look at this lovely chunky stopper it's nice isn't it let's get the sun right through it someone look down here so oh what's that now did you see what i've just seen look at that down there can you see it it's like a oh a ring it is a ring look gosh it's very very delicate but it's still got the stone in just about gosh that is really delicate and bent isn't it that has been subjected to the tides for quite a long time i'd say but look at that delicate little bit of metal work there oh there look i wonder if i can unbend it that's rather special okay watch this space and as always when i find rings i wonder why they're in the river were they thrown in deliberately or lost this one's really pretty it's obviously not a precious gem but it's it's a really pretty delicate little ring i wonder who once wore it what is this it's quite heavy well now that's interesting it's a really heavy lead button i think and i think it's one of those ones that used to be put in the hem to keep the dress hanging down properly i don't know what are your thoughts now can you see what i've just seen down here just there can you see it it's another coin look it is another coin oh look would you believe it i think it's another ship happening yeah it is now who is on here who is on here oh it's another it's another queen elizabeth it's another queen elizabeth that's two hey pennies with queen elizabeth ii on them on them both what's this that's interesting what is that the end of a magnifying glass or something do you know what that is let's give it a little wash in this handy little pool something rather pleasing about that i just need to get all that chalk and mud out i'd rather like that whatever it is look i've just pulled this out of the mud the remainders of a can of strike american cola how old is that i wonder strike american cola [Music] [Music] well just look at this lovely little handful of fines to go home and sort out we've got a little we've got an arp button we've got a couple of coins we've got a ring we've got some miscellaneous metal bits and what else yeah that's about it so i'm going to head home now the tide's on the way in and the sun is going down the sun is going down over there behind the buildings and so it's actually going to start to get dark soon but you know the good news the good news is that the evenings are beginning to slowly become longer thank goodness so back home to look at these i'll see you back there i'm on the way home now but take a look at this [Applause] it's the bleak reality of plastic pollution in the river thames and in so many of our rivers this is a notorious little hot spot here it really collects so much plastic waste waste in general particularly on a really high tide and when you see it all together like this you really realize the extent of the problem bottles lighters toys wrappers bags bottle tops so much stuff that really doesn't need to be here at all and talking of plastic waste the other day i went to whopping to meet up with a young lady called emmy lou she participates in her initiative called project cod so today i'm here at whopping with emmy lou and we are doing operation cod now emily lou can you tell me a little bit about operation cod please well it's to clean up any rubbish which is has well washed up on the thames show here in walking and just so that more people get mud lacking excellent and have you found a lot of plastic today lots i think so far we've got at least three bags what was your inspiration for doing this plastic clean up what gave you this great idea well in summer i went with a friend even who's also here and we went mad luck in here and we saw a swan which almost ate plastic which then sort of got a thing going and who are you here with today emmylou i am here with my family three friends and welcome so let's go and collect some plastic let's go [Music] [Music] now emmy lou when did you start mud larking the first time i ever went mud was with a friend called robin who is also here and her mum charlotte and when i was five and we just went i don't know where we went but there was lots of pottery and that's one of my memories but then in lockdown in 2020 um as our one hour per day me and my family went out to the show and that's how i started and do you have a favorite find i ask everybody that what's your favorite find i think my favorite find is probably a pipe bulb with some lettering and things with a certain mark i don't know where it's from but i quite like it and what would you love to find have you got something you'd really love to find i'd love to find a whole pipe bulb which is quite long well i might be able to give you some advice on that now i understand you've got a little brother called edgar who also does a little bit of mud larking yes do you think we could meet him as well [Music] well you know i don't know but that looks like it could be part of some kind of machine i wonder who had their dinner on that plate once upon a time long time ago [Music] what's your favorite thing in there do you think do you have a favorite i don't know so many things i agree i agree and these glasses well done emmylou and also you've got a blog haven't you you've got a website what's it called uh it's www.emmylivinmadluck excellent well i'm going to put that up on the screen so hop on over and take a look at emmy lou's blog well done emily you're doing a fantastic job and it means that we're going to have a thames in the future which hopefully is plastic free so keep up the good work [Music] hi everyone how are you i hope you're all really well thank you very much for watching this video i hope that you've been enjoying a bit of sunshine recently the sun has been out over the last few days here and the sky has been blue and even though it's been really cold it's just been so nice to get outside and enjoy the sun and you can just sense that spring isn't too far away we've just got to hang on for a little bit longer and the evenings are gradually getting lighter and it just makes so much difference i think it's just so uplifting with the sun and the blue sky and the promise of spring one of the things i really love about mud larking is not just the opportunity to meet other mud locks but it's the opportunity to meet such a wide variety of people from so many different walks of life it was a great pleasure to meet with tom harrison the photographer and when you get a chance do go over to his website or his instagram site to see the full portfolio of the photos of the thames mud locks that he has taken there's some beautiful colors all those greens and browns and he just captures the atmosphere of the tents really well and all of those mud locks have found some absolutely brilliant finds so it's worth checking out their instagram sites as well it was also such a great pleasure to spend the morning with emmy lou and edgar and their friends um they did such a fantastic job of clearing up the plastic on the whopping for sure so well done to all of you again and if you're interested in helping to clear up the thames for sure then there is an organization called thames21 who are absolutely brilliant they are often doing clear-ups on the foreshore and you can volunteer with them so i'll put the website here so you can take a look and it's also another great way of meeting people so now i'm just going to go through briefly some of the fines from today's video and i'm going to start with this little button here which is an arp button now i have found a few of these and rather stupidly i found one of the ones i found on a previous outing this morning picked it up put it down so i would have two of them to show you and now for the life of me i cannot find it anywhere but i have got at least two more of these buttons so it's an arp button which stands for air raid precautions and they were worn by air raid wardens who were responsible for protecting civilians against the threat of air raids by sounding the air raid sirens and then showing people into the air aid shelters and they were also responsible for the the blackouts during the blitz for example when everybody had to have their lights off so if anybody had their light on the airaid warden would go up and ask them to turn their lights off so they also reported on bomb damage so they had quite an extensive amount of duties i've written a little bit down about them here i think i've said most of it but um yes they were dedicated to the protection of civilians from the danger of air raids during the blitz the arp services were key in reporting bombing incidents managing air raid sirens and directing people to shelters they also enforced the blackout to make it harder for enemy bombers to locate their targets there were 1.4 million arp wardens in britain mostly volunteers they had a uniform which included a steel helmet often with a w on the front and in fact you can see some of them in this footage here a very short clip which i'm going to show you i've discovered fed flicks [Music] that's the sound that became part of the life of every man woman and child in britain [Music] so obviously a lot of valuable work done by those air raid precautions people the air raid wardens so now a quick look at some of the other objects so i've got here this little pin and on it of course many of you probably knew already it says courage and so this refers to the courage brewery now the courage brewery was founded by john courage in when was it 1787 and the cockrell is its trademark and what i hadn't known actually was the cockrule does apparently represent courage and honesty and you can still find courage ales today what else have i got here um so there's this lead button type thing here which is actually like a lead hem weight would have been used to keep the hems of skirts or even curtains down they apparently came into use in the 18th century but you can still get them today let's take a look at this beautiful ring here now as you can see i did actually bend it back into shape it was a bit of a risk because it's extremely extremely delicate but it's rather lovely and you know what fits me fits me rather perfectly so they are rather nice isn't it and i'm supposing it's probably georgian um victorian round about that era it's it's really nice that the stone hasn't been lost or the piece of glass so a lovely ring and i wonder who wore it and i wonder how it came to be in the river thames now i cleaned out this item here it's rather pleasing lovely chunky dome of glass and i have found a few things similar to that over the years like this here i'm not quite sure exactly what they are but i'm sure some of you do so maybe you could let me know i've got my two coins which i have shined up i know people don't like it necessarily when you clean up coins but as these are relatively modern they're from 57 and 59 um you know it's it's not like they're gonna spoil the value of them or anything and i rather like them i like to see that lovely ship there the ship happening coins um what else have i got oh yes so um this which is essentially a bit of modern junk really but it dates back to about the 1970s so it's still quite you know it's still it's still a piece of history and apparently it used to be very popular in fish and chip shops back in the 1970s and if you search on youtube you can find a single which was made by the poets to promote strike cola made by bars by the way um it's strike cola by bars made in 1971 so even this old piece of coke can does have a history to it i think that's all i was going to talk about i don't think i've got on anything um no so a nice little handful of finds you just never know what you're going to find on the river thames as you can see such a a handful of miscellaneous things here all of them sometime worn or owned by somebody so you know it's great these things they do get your imagination going so that's that for the fines on the video now i am not yet drawing the winner of the thames glass fish so you'd still have some time to win a thames glass fish all you have to do is go back to the video i made a few weeks ago on the thumbnail there is a picture of a fish and you can watch that and find out how to win it and in a couple of weeks or so i'm going to be drawing the winner of that thames glass fish so you could be very lucky and have a glass fish made with glass picked up along the banks of the river thames hanging up in your home very soon i think that's it really um i'm working on a project at the moment which is a little bit different i had the opportunity to interview some people in the channel islands who grew up under the german occupation and so i'm really busy working on that at the moment i'm hoping to finish it by the end of january and i really can't wait to share that with you because it's just so absolutely fascinating and it's a little bit different to what i usually do so um on that note i'd like to say thank you to you all for your comments and your feedback and suggestions on my videos you're such a brilliant community i appreciate each and every one of you thank you to everyone who has donated to my kofi account i wish you an excellent week ahead i hope the sun stays out and we can all continue to enjoy it wherever you are in the world take care look after yourselves be happy and see you again very soon bye-bye [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: nicola white mudlark - Tideline Art

Views: 61,555

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

Id: 5wPL8dwS44k

Length: 36min 33sec (2193 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 16 2022