I mudlark on the River Thames - a type of beach combing with a lot of added layers of history! Twice a day the River Thames reveals a hidden landscape, beneath the city's famous skyline centuries of history lie waiting on the foreshore - fragments of everyday life that gives a glimpse into the lives of the people who lived and worked alongside this vital waterway.
mudlarking
The Thames foreshore is much more than an archaelogical landscape, it is a place of quiet reflection. For me as a ceramic artist, I find endless inspiration in the fragments of everyday lives revealed by the tides.
They remind me that even the most ordinary objects can outlive their makers, and it intrigues me how such apparently humble artefacts can conjure up and hold so much nostalgia.
One of the greatest pleasures of mudlarking is simply being there. The exposed foreshore has a unique atmosphere, where modern London fades into the background and history lies scattered underfoot. Standing on the foreshore, surrounded by weathered timbers and centuries of debris, it's easy to imagine the countless lives that have unfolded along these banks, the Thames is so much more than a river - it is London's greatest archive patiently revealing it's stories one tide at a time.
A licence is required to search the River Thames foreshore (Port of London Authority).