In the news

A bite is a bite. Being put down is the only reasonable outcome.

Yeah, I agree TBH...

I disagree there. The guy entered the yard with a dog in it. He could have just refused to deliver.

Not the dogs fault.

Not the dog’s fault. It’s an animal.
But no fault of the owner for having a dog that can’t be trusted to not attack a delivery man?

People order things and the bloke was just doing his job, perfectly reasonable for him to expect hazards to be pointed out. The issue is that the dog bites and by default is dangerous. Yes it's sad and the owners are probably the root cause but we're not allowed to put down idiotic humans in this country at least.

"Bull arabs have a very strong hunting instinct and when left untrained can become aggressive and a threat to humans"

seems like a good dog to just leave out front for the postie

No idea to be honest, this was over in Belfast and I was at uni in London at the time. Felt a bit ridiculous given the nature of another animal coming onto our property.

mudlarking in the hertford union canal

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-56498299?fbclid=IwAR3Vgh8-C3fioo0a9WHfGbWtaSVMARzPAVdAwzeP0cvRgKGBayee6A1_ZT8

had a look on tues and seemed like there was so much crap dumped in there, scooters seemed prevalent, tyres galore, didn't get right in there for the more interesting stuff

In January, the Hertford Union Canal in East London was drained for
essential repairs for the first time in 20 years

I cycled past the last time, must have been 2001. Loads of old bikes, shopping trolleys and an empty safe. That black mud stinks something awful.

Recognise the names of some of the people in this as I'm currently watching this very cool YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwy8Uu-3vx0
and reading a book on mudlarking. Getting a pair of wellies for my birthday tomorrow to start getting in amongst it. Quite excited.

When I lived in Kingston they dredged part of the Thames up towards Surbiton (by Ravens Ait if I remember correctly). No vintage finds but they did bring up a mobility scooter

I've always wanted to give mudlarking a go to the Thames has such a history. Post up what you find.

@Dropout introduced us to mudlarking a long time ago. When we lived by the river we went several times per week.

Our best find was a bone wax tablet stylus. Photo attached. One end has a small hole for a piece of wire and the rounded end is for rubbing out mistakes.

Not our identification, we sent it to Museum of London and they confirmed what it was. They couldn't date it but obviously was from a time before widespread use of paper and pencils. They said they are a relatively common find. Their theory is that people stocktaking as cargo was loaded and unloaded occasionally dropped their stylii into the river by accident.

We also found a few at beads. The MoL said they could be anything from 500 to 1500 years old. Virtually impossible to date.

My personal favourites are the industrial finds we made. Things like bits of medieval shoe and leather offcuts around the old tannery district at London bridge and waste glass chunks next to Blackfriars bridge where an early glass bottle factory was located.

There's also a shit load of 1940s rifle ammunition in the river at Greenwich although probably best if I don't say exactly where.

1 Attachment

This pipe fragment is pretty cool.

Imprinted with the logo of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes. Would have been smoked and tossed into the river in the mid to late 1800s. Plenty of far older (16th c onwards) pipes to be found bit this is the only decorative one we came across.

1 Attachment

You know The Anchor And Hope pub by the Thames near Borough Market? The pub off Mission Impossible at the end? Outside there is a ladder down to the foreshore right by the pub tables and you can clamber over the wall and climb down and pick up clay pipes from 300 years ago.

Amazing that pipe is great and the Stylus is v cool. When I get back to London gonna get me wellies on!
Mudlarking / historic finds thread???

Shirley you mean The Anchor....... no hope.

The Mayflower in Rotherhithe has good beach access too although most of the industry there was shipbreaking so it's mostly iron nails and timber plus the usual pipes and centuries of broken crockery. Still worth a lazy few hours though.

Mates in Battersea seem to do okay on the southern shore around Albert and Battersea Bridges... They're always pulling interesting things out of the mud...

That's it. Pepys watched the Great Fire from there.

I expect most people know but if you are new and thinking of mudlarking you need a permit and there are exclusion zones too. More details at https://www.pla.co.uk/Environment/Thames-foreshore-permits

I think picking things up from the surface is allowed without a permit but if something is slightly buried then you are digging and so need the paperwork.

the mayflower in rotherhithe has steps to the river down one side of it, lots of clay pipes to be found on the beach in front of that one

They used to sell those pipes pre-packed with baccy I think, so two or three hundred years ago a Londoner had a ruminative smoke and then heaved his pipe into the river, you'd be the first person to touch it since then. Spooky.

A Mudlark friend brought me his ammunition finds to identify, he had about 40 rounds only about half of them were military calibers (including 9mm).

Somewhere in the Thames there is a Suzuki GSX-R 750 it was the pride and joy of a Controller at a courier company. He pissed off the wrong person who had it stolen and thrown in the river, apparently there were photos of it going in.