Scouring river foreshores, beaches and fields, bands of amateur detectives revel in the hunt for the history beneath their feet
FEATURE ELLIE TENNANT
All over the UK, communities of metal detectorists, bottle diggers, beachcombers and mudlarks are thriving. They may have different hunting grounds and varied methods and tools, but the aim of the game is always the same: to unearth a fragment of history.
Of course, such treasure hunting is nothing new. Over the centuries, poor people in London – often women and children – scratched a living searching the river mud and sewers for detritus such as coal, rope and anything else they could sell. Mudlarker Lara Maiklem often thinks about the unfortunate people who walked the riverbanks before her, aware that she and her fellow hunters are lucky to do this as a hobby and not as a means of survival. Not least because the financial rewards are minimal – it is forbidden to sell objects found on the foreshore, and field discoveries are subject to the Treasure Act.
It’s the thrill of the chase that drives the hunters – the mudlarks, the bottle diggers, the metal detectorists – they share the same goal and ‘addiction’, albeit in different forms. But their ‘treasure’ is always the same: the stories behind the fascinating items that they find.
Lara Maiklem Mudlark, River Thames, London
I discovered mudlarking about 20 years ago when I moved to London after university and found myself searching for peace and quiet, which is virtually impossible in a city. One day, while waiting for a friend by the river, I wandered down to the foreshore and discovered this solitude few people see or consider: when you go down the river steps, you’re in another world. The excitement never wears off. You never know what you’re going to find, and it’s the gift that keeps on giving because you then have the thrill of researching what you’ve found.
I always find the three Ps: pottery, pins and pipes. I don’t keep everything I find, but it’s rare that I come back without something unusual. I store my best finds in a vintage 18-drawer printer’s chest.
If you go down desperate to find something, you won’t find anything. You need to relax: it’s a skill you have to hone. It took me years to find my first coin but, once I did, something imprinted in my brain. Over time, you get your eye in.
Mudlarking is about more than finding stuff – it’s about the time you get for yourself;
