The Mudlark

click photo to enlarge
I've done my share of mudlarking as this post of 2010 explains.

The usual definition of a mudlark is someone, often a child, who in Victorian times scavenged the muddy fringes of the River Thames in London in search of anything of value that could be sold for cash. The pub sign in Southwark, London, near the river, that is the subject of today's photograph alludes to these "valuables" in the grubby hand and items shown in the bordering circle.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) shows that mudlark has not always carried the meaning that it usually has today. The first entry from 1785 defines the word as slang for a hog, and we can see how that might transfer to Thames-side foragers. The next entry dating from 1796-1800 describes a mudlark as someone who prowls around ships in the mud, receiving plundered goods from them which they sold. Again the connection is apparent. The 1801 definition most closely matches today's understanding of the term. However, there are others. Apparently in the nineteenth century the Royal Engineers were sometimes so called. This must have been due to their often muddy work being equated with the urchins who searched the Thames mud.

I was quite pleased to see this elaborate, original and obviously quite expensive sign advertising the pub. All too often today the traditional pub sign is being replaced by a cheaply printed glossy advert, or the old design is replaced by a "tasteful" often almost monochrome updated version.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Pub Sign, The Mudlark, Southwark
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 150mm (300mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec
ISO:640
Exposure Compensation: -0.3EV

Mudlarking

click photo to enlarge
On a couple of recent visits to London I've done a bit of "mudlarking". For centuries the banks of River Thames, when they are revealed by the tide, have attracted "mud larks"; people who have scavenged in the mud, sand and shingle for whatever they could find. In Victorian times it might have been scrap metal, stone, bricks, timber for re-use or for the fire, lost money - in fact anything of interest or that could be sold. Today people look for historical artefacts as well as more recent items of use or value. In 1980 the Society of Thames Mudlarks was founded with the express purpose of unearthing archaeological objects and making them known to the Museum of London. Over 200 items have been given to the Museum so far including jewellery, Tudor bricks, clay pipes and coins.

My mudlarking was much more casual - no metal detector or other high-tech aid - only my eyes and a spare half hour or so. Nonetheless we have found quite a few pieces of Victorian clay pipes (the smoker's variety) and a brick marked with the Star of David not unlike this one. The design on the brick marked it out as one made by P. & S. Wood of the Pump House Brickworks, West Bromwich, a firm active in the nineteenth century, who sold their wares over a wide area of the country.

One of the difficulties in mudlarking is the constituent materials of the bed of the Thames. The mud is very sticky, with regular areas of firm (but also sticky) clay. Banks of sand and pebble are easier, and it's these we searched. However, the ducks of the river have no problems with the mud, or with the modern detritus that finds its way into the water. Near the area where we had been looking I came upon these mallards - a male and female - going about their business regardless of the fact that their immediate habitat was a topless 40 gallon drum, a discarded and discoloured plastic road cone, and a piece of driftwood. In fact the female's head regularly disappeared under the water in the expectation that she would find food there. And who knows, perhaps she did!

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 150mm (300mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/2000
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On