iguana | Reading

Beaumont Stairs in Chelsea have been my go to place when I want somewhere quiet, where I'm definitely not going to be bothered by tourists, and there probably won't be any other mudlarks.

I saw the remains of trees that once grew here and it amazes me that they are still here. The bus stop was also still on the foreshore. I thought once it was gone, but no.

After the tide had turned, I walked along, wondering if I could find the Saxon fish trap. I had seen a picture of it near some boats. I couldn't see any way down to the foreshore near the boats though. I think the tide was just too high on this day to see it. I walked on and found myself in Cremorne Gardens which used to be pleasure gardens from 1845 to 1877. They have saved the grand gate and it's in the little park there still. There used to be all kinds of entertainment there - from tight-rope walkers across the Thames, to hot air balloon rides, fireworks, dances, a marionette theatre, and so on.

Further on and I could see a mudlark on the foreshore but I couldn't work out where steps were to get there. There looked like there was a range of stuff down there.

Finds:
A piece of an Express Dairies milk bottle
A piece of a bottle that says Wells on it

Two patterned pipe stems - one looks to say “d market” on it and “nny” on the other side.

An original vulcanite bottle stopper from Barrett & Elers.

Part of a Hartley’s jam jar

A few pieces of mocha ware

A nice piece of Staffordshire style combed slipware

A chunky glass stem. I have another of these and liked to imagine it might once have been part of a penny lick.

A Bourne & Son stoneware base
A Doulton Lambeth stoneware base

A saucer shaped like a teapot, which I think i modern

A plate with a diamond mark - this shows the plate was made on 6th April 1868.

A toothbrush, missing the handle, made of bone.

Keys, attached to a Lego keyring.

(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

squirmelia

Custom House Lower Stairs has been my lunchtime haunt, when the tides are amenable, so I had one last session there. There were a few tourists wandering about and the tide was not low enough to be able to get underneath the wharf, even at low tide.

Finds included:

White horse distillery bottle base

A piece of glass with a curious shape

A squashed pipe

A black thing with green circles, which may be from a fire bucket.

(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

denise posting in

dw_maintenance

I keep forgetting to post about this: we've been troubleshooting the "missing notifications" problem for the past few days. (Well, I say "we", really I mean Mark and Robby; I'm just the amanuensis.) It's been one of those annoying loops of "find a logical explanation for what could be causing the problem, fix that thing, observe that the problem gets better for some people but doesn't go away completely, go back to step one and start again", sigh.

Mark is hauling out the heavy debugging ordinance to try to find the root cause. Once he's done building all the extra logging tools he needs, he'll comment to this entry. After he does, if you find a comment that should have gone to your inbox and sent an email notification but didn't, leave him a link to the comment that should have sent the notification, as long as the comment itself was made after Mark says he's collecting them. (I'd wait and post this after he gets the debug code in but I need to go to sleep and he's not sure how long it will take!)

We're sorry about the hassle! Irregular/sporadic issues like this are really hard to troubleshoot because it's impossible to know if they're fixed or if they're just not happening while you're looking. With luck, this will give us enough information to figure out the root cause for real this time.

squirmelia

It was Easter Sunday and I headed back to Gabriel’s Wharf and along to outside the National Theatre and underneath Waterloo Bridge, and I found so much!

The tide was lower than predicted and I was able to get to the bottle graveyard.

There was a giraffe toy but it was too sad and mud covered so I left it.

To start with I was the only person on that section of foreshore, but other people appeared later.

I was glad to be back at this section which always has plentiful finds, but it seemed like it had less pottery sherds this time and the line of coal/brick debris is shifting along. It was great for bottles though.

It also seemed to have more waste, particularly sanitary towels, than most occasions, which is always sad to see.

Finds included:

Blue sticklebrick - I used to have some of these when I was a child.

Boots Cash Chemists piece of a glass bottle. Boots used this name as at the time, most places accepted buying things on credit, but Boots didn’t. This meant that they could offer items at a cheaper price. They also took part in a court case as they were the first chemist that allowed customers to pick items up off the shelves and take them to the cashier, as opposed to having to ask the cashier for them as they were kept behind the counter. The Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain took them to court for this in 1953 and Boots won.

A piece of a glass bottle that looks to say “ale Bros” on one side and “r hi” on the other side. I wonder what the rest of it said.

Half a small cup

Two vulcanite bottle stoppers. One is unbranded but has an orange band on it. The other says White Ltd, so would be from R White’s.

A sherd that says “sapph” and W & co on it. Probably Whittaker & Co from Hanley, who were in operation from 1886 - 1891.

A sherd that has blue and white leafy patterns on the front and possibly says “ssen” and “England” on the back.

In the second picture:

A piece of a white plate that doesn’t look very interesting from the front, but on the back, it says:
Stone China
E & C Challinor
England

It also has the Royal Arms on it.

It dates from circa 1891, made by Edward & Charlies Challinor in Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent. I wonder what was eaten off it and who used it.
–

A nice piece of mocha ware

A glass bottle lid that looks to say Calder - probably Aire and Calder Glass bottle works of 83 Upper Thames Street, London and Castleford.

A base of a bottle that says “J.L. & Co.” - John Lumb & Co. They were also from Castleford.

Half a bottle base that looks like it said “New Cross” on the side. Possibly Kent Mineral Waters Co.

A large piece of an ink bottle - "Encre Japonaise" by N. Antoine & Fils, Paris, from around 1870 - 1900. It must have been a large ink bottle, so I wonder who was using that much ink.

A 2 Player Championship Golf LCD game, made by Tandy, circa 1991.
There was also a Radio Shack branded version that appeared in their 1992 catalogue. It's on page 163 and says: "An entire 18-hole golf course you can hold in your hand and play anywhere! Musical sound effects add to excitement."
https://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/flipbook/1992_radioshack_catalog.html?fb3d-page=163

A broken Orange Dew bottle. Sparkling Orange. Manufactured by Anchor Springs.The Anchor Brewery in Littlehampton started making mineral waters, under the name of Anchor Springs, when Henty & Constable Ltd took it over in 1921. I can’t find any mention of Orange Dew, apart from an American brand, but Anchor Springs is at least detailed, and there’s a long list of Henty and Constable pubs.

A Schweppes bottle. I often find R White’s bottles, but rarely Schweppes!

An LWD (London Wholesale Dairies) milk bottle.

A Wallingford mineral waters bottle.

A curious red broken bottle. I am not sure what it would have contained.

A plastic City Cruises coffee cup depicting London landmarks.

There were a number of records strewn on the foreshore, as well as their cases, which were separated from the records. It seemed like they probably hadn't been there long. I picked one up and found the matching cover to it. When I got home I listened to the piano music on YouTube: https://youtu.be/32lbp3uylk4

Part of a broken bottle from the Pure Water Company (PWC), Battersea. They had a mineral water factory built around 1870 in Queens Road, Battersea. Advert: https://gll-libraries-production.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/qqh7i5r8teknbg7cb1d4lqtqhx6u

Postcard on Ebay:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333449128241

A United Dairies bottle.

(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

squirmelia

I had imagined that my hundredth day of mudlarking would be spectacular and I would find the most amazing things. In reality, I went to Kew Bridge station and down the ramp at Kew Bridge Draw Dock. The ground was silty and slimy with algae and there were geese who were not keen on me being there. There was little to be found and I picked up one sherd before heading back up.

I walked along a bit and found steps down. I then found a few more pottery sherds but gave up and went up the next set of steps.

It was the day of the boat race, but that was further down the river.

I then walked to Gunnersbury Park and it was an interesting park with a giant wooden Bartmann jug in the garden and the actual one in the museum. There were ruined gothic arches and a bath house. I enjoyed walking around there.

The green and white piece with circles says “ton” on the back, can’t quite make out the letter before, possibly a ‘c’.