Nowadays, though, the activity is more of a hobby than occupation, with current day participants often looking out for pieces with interesting histories, rather than simply monetary value. In a time when many of our historical novelists are filling our heads with what can surely be called highly unlikely drivel,the lives of ordinary people are now warranting much more of our attention. You immediately feel comfortable with this author in her hobby, obsession and delight for Mudlarking. It was a fairly dangerous occupation then, with broken glass, raw sewage and even the corpses of animals or humans known to wash up. Those run by the Thames Discovery Programme, for example, offer you the opportunity to explore the foreshore under the guidance of an experienced archaeologist at a reasonable price – and without the need for a permit.

A Richard III boar badge likely worn to the king’s coronation by an attendee – also discovered by Jason in the Thames – is now used to teach schoolchildren about artefacts at the King Richard III Visitor Centre in Leicester. I always wanted to know more. So When I saw this book, I initially thought it was about these Victorians. It turns out that Ms Maiklem is a very modern mudlark, but that didn't make the book any less fascinating - moving from the tidal head of the Thames to the Estuary, she describes what she finds on the foreshore and tells fascinating stories about the people who lived, worked and died on the river, and whose lost possessions the tides still erode out of the mud. In fact, the educational side, of sharing the stories behind their found items, is important to many members of the community.One of my favourite finds from the book was the legend of the Doves Type. A bookbinder by the name of Cobden-Sanderson tipped 500,000 pieces of lead type into the river at Hammersmith. Following a dispute about the ownership of the type with Emery Walker, he bequeathed the type to the River Thames between 1913 - 1916 and mudlarks have been searching for them ever since. Such a fascinating story. Pretty much everything that humans have made used and thrown away will be here forever. Often these possessions have ended up in middens and now we bury vast quantities of our unwanted stuff in the ground in dumps. If you know where to look these relics from a time long gone can be found, especially along the foreshore of the tidal Thames.

What makes this book so special is Lara’s writing and insights. She has that wonderful ability to let her mind wander, way beyond the present, and we follow in her imagination the provenance of her finds. Making up scenarios for how the objects came to be in the river; they have been preserved by the mud and spotted on the foreshore. I still have little interest in metal-detecting but the sense of being so close to the soul of the river, teasing out its bounty by effort and a good eye and reconnecting the present with the past has a value beyond the items themselves.I'm amazed that so much 'stuff' is still being found although Maiklem explains how building, erosion etc can constantly reveal new treasures. Recommended reading for amateur and professional historians and genealogists; archaeologists; aquaphiles; environmentalists; museum lovers and the curious. This is a wonderful idea since modern day scavenging isn’t for coal, food or items just washed into the river but a history lesson and more akin to river archaeology.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book and I am full of envy for all the wonderful things the author finds on the shore of the Thames. Participants are advised to wear sensible footwear and gloves, carry a mobile phone and not go alone. Walking along the foreshore of the Thames in central London is not everyone’s idea of a hobby – it can be cold, dirty and just as muddy as mudlarking suggests. Historically, being a mudlark was not a desirable station in life. The terms came about in the Georgian and Victorian periods when the Thames was one of the major routes to transport goods into the city. At this time, the banks of the river would have swarmed with the melancholy figures of mudlarks, mostly poor women and children who would be “up with the larks” to work whenever the river ran low. Plus, anyone in London or beyond can attend Jason's free webinar talk ahead of the event, starting at 7.30pm on Tuesday, September 21.

Lara Maiklem is a London mudlark, scavenging for what washes up on the shores of the Thames. I thrilled to her descriptions of what she’s found, including clay pipes, coins, armaments, pottery, and much more. “The Thames is England’s longest archaeological landscape,” she notes, and the many layers of the city’s history mingle at the foreshore: Victorian, Georgian, Elizabethan, medieval, and Roman. The jewel of Maiklem’s collection is a sixteenth-century leather child’s shoe she sent to Cardiff University for conservation. It is a real pleasure to read. In all these endeavours and historical asides she reveals more of herself and her journey into collecting things the river offers. Author Lara Maiklem is a proud London mudlark and shares her finds in Mudlarking - Lost and Found on the River Thames. First, some interesting facts about the Thames from the book. Mudlarking’, the practice of scavenging through river mud for lost items of value or historical significance.

I wish I could say more than that. On paper, this should be right up my street. It's the kind of fun micro-history that covers a nice range of time periods and is filled with fun factoids that I would normally love, but for some reason it's missed the mark. Maybe its the authorial voice? Maybe its the additions of autobiographical details that I don't care about? Maybe it was just that I didn't enjoy the audio book narration? I really can't put my finger on it, but my response to this book can be described as lukewarm at best. Time was when mudlarking was the reserve of the destitute, but these days a mudlark permit is needed, for which you have to belong to the Society of Mudlarks (founded in the 1970s), and to be eligible to join the society you need to have already held a standard permit and reported your findings to the Museum of London for two years. Even then, you may not be given membership because the society “maintains a deliberate air of mystery and exclusivity”. Firstly, people who are casually searching the Thames foreshore may fail to report significant finds. By regulating mudlarking with permits, it help to protects the historical integrity of the riverbed, and makes it more likely that people will respect the archeological significance of items they find. My story was similar. Always tempted to play the archaeologist as a child, I dreamed of striking it rich by finding King John’s lost golden treasure that sank in a river. One day, long after I should have given up such fancies, I read about mudlarking online. I ran down to the Thames and pulled out my first treasure: a broken clay pipe last smoked by someone in the 18th Century. Now I can be found under London Bridge looking for Roman pottery; in Rotherhithe searching for industrial relics; and around Putney for prehistory. The joy of mudlarking is that you never know what might turn up or where.MUDLARKS: Treasures from the Thames by Jason Sandy is a great book if you are new to mudlarking. It shows the findings of 80 different mudlarks, and contains lots of photographs and information about the history of London. However she makes mention several times throughout the book that she won't share specific locations. By omitting them the reader can join the dots on their own (or not), but openly stating she won't share the locations made her seem arrogant in my view.