Peas in a podcast: Mudlark along the Thames

You're in London, away from the blistering heat. Why don't you step outside and roll up your sleeves for some mudlarking - scavenging the banks of the Thames to find what could be a valuable item. Using old maps as guides to old boatyards, bridges and jetties, summer mudlarks/mudlarkers scour the Thames shore to look out for Roman-era brooches, Victorian shoe buckles and mesolithic flints.

To prepare for your first mudlarking expedition, you gotta tune in to the episode, What's a Mudlarker?, of the podcast, 'Stuff You Should Know', hosted by Josh Clark and Charles W Chuck Bryant. This is great edutainment, using so much pop culture as reference.

In this 17-min episode, SYSK hosts discuss the history of mudlarking, and why it became a popular pastime. The two also meander through the Thames clean-up story, the kind of 'treasures' that are found, and whether mudlark finders are legally keepers.


By mudlarking on the Thames, who knows, you may even get a clue as to how poverty in Victorian London driving 'manual scavengers' to pick up filth could turn into a   pleasant expedition in the sunshine in Viksit Britain.