Two or three weeks ago my daughter and her partner took their children for a day out at the seaside. The beach in February can be a bit daunting but they weren’t going paddling or building sandcastles. They were looking for sea glass - pieces of glass, and sometimes pottery, of different shapes and sizes and colours which have been tossed to and fro by the tide and smoothed and polished by the sand until all their sharp edges have disappeared. It’s not an uncommon pastime. My daughter knows someone who makes and sells jewellery made from fragments of sea glass. Others make various sorts of art work out of it.
On this last occasion they made quite a haul. My six year old granddaughter proudly showed off prize finds: a pale lilac piece and some apparently very rare blue glass. We were talking about it with my daughter-in-law last weekend, showing off photos of the collection.
She recalled reading about people “scavenging” the mud of the Thames at low tide. I too had heard about this practice but we couldn’t for the life of us remember the name of this odd hobby. We knew it had something to do with mud. And then this morning the term “mudlarking” popped into my head, as these things do.
I looked it up just in case I was fantasising. Apparently it began in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Somehow I expect people have always scrabbled in river mud in this way, looking for something useful, but it’s only relatively recently that people have seen it as a way of finding stuff to sell. And nowadays, of course, metal detectorists are joining in as well.,
There are even organised mudlarking sessions: among others, “Mudlarking Tours and Guided Walks The Thames Discovery Programme, a nonprofit community archaeology organization, offers occasional guided walks of archaeologically significant areas of the foreshore. Thames Explorer Trust offers guided mudlarking expeditions at the Millennium Bridge, Rotherhithe and Greenwich.”
Don’t go thinking you can simply keep any treasure trove you come across: “Should you be lucky enough to find something extremely old, rare or valuable on the foreshore, you are legally required to report your find to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, a governmental department dedicated to tracking and documenting archaeological finds made by the general public. Here's how to contact them:
Finds Liaison Officer for London, for any significant mudlarking finds made within the greater London area.
Finds Liaison Officers for other areas outside of London for finds made anywhere else in the UK.”
There you go.
I also verified my belief that there was once a pop group called The Mudlarks, back in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It seems they had two Top Ten UK singles on 1958, not that I have any memory of that. They didn’t have anything to do with mudlarking, as far as I know, but took their name from the founding members Fred and Mary Mudd. They even appeared on “Six-Five Special! And there is Jeff Mudd - surely the last of them - living out his days in Cornwall. There you go!
I cycled to Uppermill this morning as is usual on a Wednesday. I almost gave up on the idea as it was was rather wet and drizzly. In the end, though, it eased off enough for me to don my cycling gear and set off. In the co-op in Uppermill the cashier asked if I was on a “push bike”, a term I have not heard in years. A delivery lorry was struggling to park in its usual place in the side street next to the store as there was a parked car blocking the way. Could the co-op staff check if it belonged to a customer, please, and ask them to move it? the driver telephoned to ask. But it seems I was the only customer: “There’s just one lady and she’s wearing gear that suggests she’s on a pushbike”, the cashier told him. He then turned to me to ask: “You are on a pushbike, aren’t you? Or are you just really safety conscious and wear a helmet all the time?” Such a joker!
So we had a little chat about cycle helmets and I told him about a broadcaster called Dan Walker who was recently knocked off his bike by a motorist and swears his helmet saved his life. He has no memory of the actual accident, as often happens in cases of concussion, apart from waking up to find himself on the tarmac surrounded by paramedics. His bike is a write-off but he has managed to escape without broken bones but with a good deal of bruising. Walker, who lives in Sheffield, said: “The helmet I was wearing saved my life today so – if you’re on a bike – get one on your head.
“Smashed my watch and phone, ruined my trousers, my bike is a mess but I’m still here.”
South Yorkshire police described it as a “minor injury collision” - not so minor for the cyclist and it is to be hoped that the motorist’s insurance buys him a new bike, and a new helmet, not to mention his watch, phone and trousers!
Yorkshire ambulance service NHS trust said its staff “do an amazing job every day helping thousands of patients”. A spokesperson added: “We are very proud of the care they provide and would like to send our best wishes to Dan Walker for a speedy recovery.”
Indeed!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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