The Strangest Find! Disappointed or Delight!!

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-17

[00:00:01][music] >> Hello there. My name is Nicola White.

[00:00:04]Welcome to my YouTube channel where you will discover the magic of mudlarking along the River Thames at low tide.

[00:00:12]I have a creative mudlarking [music] permit issued by the Port of London Authority and I'm passionate about searching [music] for history and researching the stories behind the objects I find.

[00:00:24]Come along with me and let's see what treasures [music] the tide has left out for us to find today.

[00:00:48]It's a nice way to start the morning, look.

[00:00:51]A little piece of willow plate.

[00:00:55]Broken in just the right place.

[00:00:58]Got two birds there.

[00:01:06]>> [laughter] [screaming] >> Now, can you see what I have spotted here?

[00:01:14]It's definitely a very nice Victorian pipe nestled there in the mud.

[00:01:23]We can see a pattern on the bowl there and I don't know if that's lettering around the edge or part of the pattern.

[00:01:33]As always, I'm wondering how much stem there is.

[00:01:38]Let's take a little look. Loosen it up a bit.

[00:01:42]And out it comes. Not much stem, but a really nice a really nice bowl there.

[00:01:54]And yeah, nice little pattern.

[00:01:59]Let's see if that's lettering or whether it's just part of the pattern.

[00:02:04]Let me give it a little rinse off here.

[00:02:19]That just looks like part of the pattern, doesn't it?

[00:02:22]Pretty.

[00:02:24]That's going to be Victorian.

[00:02:28]And probably from uh the mid-19th century.

[00:02:35]These aren't the best gloves to wear mudlarking, are they?

[00:02:41]I'll keep the mud in there just in case we get a bit of tobacco at the bottom.

[00:02:49]I just want to show you the remains of this basket here, just eroding out of the mud.

[00:02:54]Look at that.

[00:02:56]It's incredible, isn't it, how the mud preserves these things for so long, hundreds of years.

[00:03:19]Now, I've also spotted something down here which has got my heart racing slightly because I can see something round and I can also see some lettering on it.

[00:03:32]Oh my gosh, could this be something with a name on it that we will be able to research?

[00:03:40]Oh my goodness, can you see it?

[00:03:44]Can you see it just down there?

[00:03:46]It's here. The light's caught it in just the right place.

[00:03:51]What is it? What is it?

[00:03:56]It definitely has some lettering on. Why is there a hole there?

[00:04:02]Okay, the hole is supposed to be there.

[00:04:04]That's good news, so we won't be missing any letters. There's two holes where it would be attached to something.

[00:04:10]Now, maybe it's just something like a brand of whiskey or something.

[00:04:14]Or will there be will there be a person's name?

[00:04:21]Oh my goodness, I love it finding things like this and I just kind of savor the anticipation.

[00:04:27]It's going to necessitate a little jeans rub.

[00:04:35]Ooh, well, you know what? That lettering is quite quite fancy.

[00:04:46]And it does look as if it could [laughter] be a name.

[00:04:53]Something like J J D something.

[00:05:02]Oh my goodness me.

[00:05:08]Wow.

[00:05:10]I wonder if we're going to be able to find out anything about that person.

[00:05:14]Well, you know what I'll be doing as soon as I get home.

[00:05:19]Watch this space. Watch this space.

[00:05:30]Right, I've just put it down here. What looks like an earring or a brooch.

[00:05:37]Just here.

[00:05:42]Oh, a little brooch. And oh, it's a little It's a little cockeral. And you know what? It's funny because I found one of these in this area before.

[00:05:53]A little cockle pin.

[00:05:55]Some kind of ale, isn't it?

[00:06:06]It's been quite stormy recently, and it looks as if it's really washed out a few little treasures.

[00:06:14]But you know what I'm most excited about, don't you?

[00:06:18]That little plaque.

[00:06:26]I've just seen something down here which looks like a beautiful marble.

[00:06:33]Now, can you see it?

[00:06:39]Just there.

[00:06:41]Let's take a look.

[00:06:45]Ooh. Oh, wow, it's not a marble.

[00:06:48]It's a little bead.

[00:06:51]What a glorious color.

[00:06:56]Oh, that is stunning.

[00:06:58]This calls for a definite glass bead in the sun shot.

[00:07:05]And I'm happy to tell you that there is actually some sun here today.

[00:07:11]Right, where is it?

[00:07:16]Oh, look at that.

[00:07:21]Oh, that is statening. Look at that beautiful color.

[00:07:27]A real gem.

[00:07:30]And there's something red here. Now, that looks like it could be coral.

[00:07:40]Either that or plastic.

[00:07:42]Curious. It's something anyway.

[00:07:48]I've just turned over some stones and there is a coin underneath. Now, it could be a modern coin.

[00:07:58]Let's take a look.

[00:08:01]Nope. Well, I mean, it's not terribly old, but that is one shilling.

[00:08:10]And yes, Queen Elizabeth the Second.

[00:08:18]I've just seen what looks like a decorative piece of metal down here. I haven't picked it up yet.

[00:08:25]It's just there.

[00:08:29]Now, could it be part of a brooch?

[00:08:32]Part of a cap badge?

[00:08:37]Ooh, I can see some lettering on there, actually.

[00:08:44]What is it?

[00:08:47]It's part of something, isn't it? Oh, look, there's a little crown on the top.

[00:08:56]And I can make out that George the Fifth or George the Sixth.

[00:09:05]Can you see that there?

[00:09:12]Ooh, I wish it was in one piece. What could that be?

[00:09:17]Maybe something commemorating George the Sixth or George the Fifth.

[00:09:23]I can't quite work it out.

[00:09:26]Something to do with the coronation, perhaps.

[00:09:32]Hmm.

[00:09:35]I'm going to zoom in down here to a tiny treasure that I've just seen.

[00:09:41]I haven't picked it up yet, but it's definitely something decorative. Just there, look.

[00:09:49]Just there.

[00:09:50]What could this be? Is it part of something?

[00:09:56]It's so small, whatever it is.

[00:10:01]Oh my goodness, what is that?

[00:10:05]It [laughter] looks like um part of a a branch or something.

[00:10:17]That really is tiny, isn't it?

[00:10:25]I thought for a minute that it was um three thistles, and now my mind's beginning to play tricks on me and I'm seeing little people on the top of the branches, but I don't think I'm I don't think I'm right there.

[00:10:40]Okay, another little Thames mystery.

[00:10:52]I've spotted some bone over there. Now, there's lots of bone on this part of the foreshore, and I'm not by any means a bone expert.

[00:11:02]This looks to me as if it could have been fashioned into something.

[00:11:11]What do you think?

[00:11:20]It looks very deliberately shaped there to me, or cut.

[00:11:28]Luckily, I know some people who are pretty good on worked with so I'll run it by them and see what they say.

[00:11:48]So, if you look down here, we've got a bullet and it looks as if it's live. I will throw it into the river, but let's have a look first and see if we can identify it. It doesn't look like a.303.

[00:12:01]So, bullet experts, what is this?

[00:12:08]Can you help to identify it?

[00:12:10]It's a Clean the end off because usually there's a bit of info on there, isn't there?

[00:12:30]What's the verdict?

[00:12:47]Just seen something down here. Looks modern. Let's pick it up and see what it is.

[00:12:57]Oh, oh dear.

[00:13:00]Right.

[00:13:02]Daddy's slave.

[00:13:09]All right. Well, that's a first.

[00:13:15]Daddy's slave.

[00:13:19]Don't know what to say about that, really.

[00:13:27]So, just down here I can see a bottle emerging from the mud.

[00:13:33]Just look at that color.

[00:13:36]Isn't that nice? Oh my gosh, I wonder if there's a seal on it.

[00:13:40]Um oh, maybe not.

[00:13:41]>> [laughter] >> Let's not get too excited, Nicola.

[00:13:44]I mean, obviously we can see it's broken, but let's see what kind of a bottle this is.

[00:13:53]It could be 18th 19th century.

[00:13:59]An old wine bottle.

[00:14:02]Not an onion bottle, anyway.

[00:14:05]Unfortunately.

[00:14:09]Let's see.

[00:14:11]Let's see what we got here.

[00:14:15]I love seeing things like this emerging from the mud.

[00:14:29]There we go. Oh, look, that lovely bottle-shaped hole there.

[00:14:36]Well, that's probably a yeah, a Georgian bottle, I should think. Actually pretty plain. I'm not going to take it.

[00:14:49]But, it was exciting, anyway, doing the extraction.

[00:14:56]But, uh no, I'm I'm I'm not going to take that.

[00:15:01]So, I'm just having a little scrape around here, and there's a few things.

[00:15:05]There's this, which is a little chape, which um is a little bit like what we get on the end of shoelaces now. They were used a lot in clothes back in post-medieval times. So, there's that.

[00:15:21]It's a little tiny thing here.

[00:15:25]Some people think that they were used for bundles of pins, but I'm not sure if that's true. And then here we've got a little little button, a plain button.

[00:15:41]Now, I picked this up because it looks kind of bullet-shaped, but is it a bullet or is it just a piece of lead?

[00:15:49]Bullet experts, what's your verdict?

[00:16:09]So, can you see what I have spied over here?

[00:16:17]Oh, it's a nice 18th century pipe. Looks like early 17 hundreds.

[00:16:27]Lovely. See if we can Look at that. Isn't that great?

[00:16:36]So, I've just seen something else really lovely over here.

[00:16:43]Look.

[00:16:44]It's a bird.

[00:16:48]Aw, look.

[00:16:49]Okay.

[00:16:56]Aw.

[00:16:58]Now, he is a beauty.

[00:17:02]Let's take a photo.

[00:17:21]>> [music] >> Hi everyone. Thank you very much [music] indeed for watching my video. Welcome to my studio and if it's the first time that you've watched a video of mine, then I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you'll come back again. And for those of you who watch me on a regular basis, well, thanks for coming back. And I'm looking forward to talking to you about some of the objects which you saw me find in the mud. But first of all, I just want to check in with you, find out how you're doing. I hope that all is well in your world wherever you're watching from. And if it's not so good, I hope that things get better very, very soon.

[00:18:08]So, let's have a look at some of these objects. As usual, there's quite an interesting a centric little mix here in front of me.

[00:18:17]And actually the first thing I want to talk to you about is the little fragment of willow plate that I picked up right in the beginning with the two birds on.

[00:18:27]It's It's a common Victorian design and we often find fragments of willow on the Thames foreshore.

[00:18:33]Uh but it's always nice to find a piece with the two birds on, so I tend to keep those.

[00:18:38]Now, my grandmother used willow plates back in the day and I inherited all her plates. I've got um some larger plates and some little plates and this is one of the plates. I mean, at first I didn't use them cuz I thought, "Oh, you know, they're very old. I'd better better be careful and not use them." But then I thought, "No, come on, you know, you need to use things in life that you get.

[00:19:01]There's no point in having them sitting in a cupboard as they are." So, I use them a lot now and there are a few chips on them, I have to admit, but this one doesn't have any chips and you can see the birds there.

[00:19:11]And um thought that for those of you that don't know, I would just give you a little synopsis of the story behind the willow pattern, the story behind the birds.

[00:19:23]So, it is actually based or inspired apparently by a Japanese fairy tale and it's about two lovers. So, a beautiful girl, the daughter of a wealthy mandarin, fell in love with his lowborn assistant.

[00:19:40]And when the mandarin found out, he banished his assistant and built a big fence to keep his daughter in and Chang, the assistant, out. He then arranged a wedding for his daughter with a rich duke who arrived by boat with a cask of jewels as a marriage offering.

[00:19:58]So, as it happened, the mandarin and the duke got drunk and whilst they were drinking, Chang broke in back in across the fence that was supposed to be keeping him out and took the jewels along with Koon See, that's the name of the young girl. So, he broke in and then she left over the fence with him and they took the jewels. So, they got away and went to a faraway island, but unfortunately, the mandarin found out where they were and had them killed.

[00:20:30]And the gods, seeing their plight, turned the two lovers into birds. So, that is the story of the willow pattern. So, these two birds were lovers killed by the mandarin, the father, and then turned into birds by the gods.

[00:20:50]And I suppose that this here is the fence that was built to keep Chang out and his daughter in.

[00:20:59]So, there you are. Now you know the story of the willow plate pattern.

[00:21:04]Right, what should we look at next?

[00:21:06]Well, I have here in front of me the clay pipe that you saw me find.

[00:21:13]And I was debating to myself whether there was any lettering on it. So, at the time I didn't think there was.

[00:21:19]But actually, when I got home and had a closer look, there are indeed letters all the way around the middle of the bowl. So, that's pretty exciting because I always love to find out about new clay pipe makers.

[00:21:34]And this says on here E. Goodwin of Ipswich. So, I went on the good old internet and found that Peter Hammond of the Society for Clay Pipe Research has actually written an article about the Goodwin Pipe Kiln in Ipswich. So, that's brilliant. So, thank you very much, Peter.

[00:21:57]So, E. Goodwin refers to Edward Goodwin who was born in 1814 and he died in 1865 at the age of 51.

[00:22:08]And this pipe was probably made in around the 1840s or 1850s.

[00:22:15]That that kind of time, anyway. And the the good thing is there was some tobacco in the bottom.

[00:22:22]I've got it here. I I pulled it out with the little little cocktail sticks. I've got a a little bit of tobacco here and isn't that incredible that that is from that dates right back to 1840 or 1850 and here it is right in front of me.

[00:22:38]So, I shall keep that safe because as I keep saying from time to time, it'd be really interesting to get the tobacco tested to see where it's might have actually originated from more precisely.

[00:22:51]So, yeah, Edward Goodwin, he had a son called James. He was married to Mary and at one point he was described in one of the censuses, I think it was the 1851 census, he was described as a grocer, a tea dealer, and a cheesemonger. So, a man of many talents is our Edward Godwin, um pipe maker, cheesemonger, tea dealer, and grocer.

[00:23:16]So, that's that for the pipe.

[00:23:18]Now, let's move on to this piece of metal that I got extremely excited about. I do tend to get overexcited when I see something that might have a name on it.

[00:23:26]And um it's got lovely script actually on here. And it says J. Della Torre. I think that's how you say it.

[00:23:35]And underneath it's got Perth. Well, of course, my imagination went into overdrive, and I was hoping it was somebody that was going to be traveling to Australia, and this came off of their luggage um case, perhaps. But, that's not the case, actually. Not the case. So, J. Della Torre, it actually refers to Joseph Della Torre, who manufactured barometers. And so, this piece of metal here would have actually been attached to a barometer. And I've got an example of a barometer that J. Della Torre made, a rosewood wheel barometer.

[00:24:14]And he worked in Perth between 1820 and 1850.

[00:24:20]So, you know, it it it is a real person, but there would have been a lot of these little plaques on all of his barometers.

[00:24:26]So, not quite what I was hoping, but still, you know, it's it's it's interesting, isn't it? And I wonder what happened to the actual barometer that this was once on.

[00:24:38]Um oh, next up is this lovely little pin, which I've cleaned up now, and I could see that there was a George on there.

[00:24:45]So, the cleaning has revealed that it's George the VI, and then it says May 1937.

[00:24:52]Now, George the VI was actually crowned on the 12th of May, 1937. So, this little pin is obviously to commemorate his uh coronation. In fact, um that's almost now, isn't it? 12th of May.

[00:25:05]So, 12th of May 1937, he was crowned at Westminster Abbey. And the ceremony was the first major royal event to be broadcast by television.

[00:25:17]The big moment the crowd has been waiting for. The King and Queen leave Buckingham Palace on their way to the Abbey in the famous coach of state. The ornate golden carriage with its crystal windows. This coach, built in 1761, is the symbol of regal pomp and ceremony. Inside the Abbey comes the crowning of George the VI.

[00:25:37]George the VI, his most excellent majesty, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland, and of the British dominions beyond the seas, King, defender of the faith, Emperor of India.

[00:25:53]8,000 have crowded old Abbey to witness the ceremony that is as old as England's King.

[00:25:59]Without doubt, the coronation and this magnificent procession is one of the greatest displays ever presented.

[00:26:07]And also, did you know, a little fact about George the VI, is that he suffered very badly with anxiety and a stutter.

[00:26:15]But, he managed to give a 10-minute radio address from Buckingham Palace on the coronation day.

[00:26:22]So, a bit of information about George the VII. I don't It's not the VII, sorry.

[00:26:27]>> [laughter] >> George the VI.

[00:26:29]George the VI, and then of course we've got a little coin here, um with his daughter on it, Queen Elizabeth the II.

[00:26:37]A little, um shilling.

[00:26:40]One shilling.

[00:26:42]And what else have we got here? Oh, this is very odd little thing here that I thought was a load of thistles. I think this must actually be a toy flower um that would have once upon a time maybe been in a little flower pot or a little doll's garden or something. I'm not sure, but it's definitely definitely some flowers, a little sprig of flowers.

[00:27:09]Um oh yeah, the so the cockerel here, the cockerel. So on the back it's got take courage. And of course this refers to the Courage Brewery. It's the logo of the Courage Brewery, which was established in 1787.

[00:27:26]And the rooster symbolizes the French origins of the founder of the Courage Brewery, who was John Courage.

[00:27:36]And um yeah, it's very nice.

[00:27:39]So I think there's any more information about that, but uh yeah, that's nice. I have got another one somewhere as well.

[00:27:49]Um oh yeah, so now we move on to the bone tool. Now I have searched my studio and I could not find the bone tool. I found lots of other bones. There's lots of skulls and various bones from other parts of animals' bodies, but I couldn't find that particular one, but I think that that bone was probably made into a fid um possibly to splice ropes. That's my feeling anyway. Yeah, so some kind of bone tool I think. It just looks that it's definitely been worked a bit.

[00:28:23]So yeah, it could be a a fid for splicing ropes.

[00:28:26]And talking of bones, the last thing we have here, we're going to move on to um this bone.

[00:28:33]Daddy's sleeve. So this is a good example of of of just well, you never know what you're going to find on the Thames foreshore. You you really don't. And I'll let you do your own research on this.

[00:28:48]Um all I can summarize is that Daddy's slave got fed up with being Daddy's slave.

[00:28:56]Uh and chucked us in the river. And I I really hope that she is now living a free life with or without Daddy. And of course I haven't um I haven't shown you the names on this to protect their confident confidentiality, but I thought it would be fun to show it to you anyway. So, yeah. I hope you're running free now, Daddy slave. You're no longer a slave.

[00:29:20]So, that's all for my finds on this occasion.

[00:29:24]Um just a few other things. So, if you're in the USA uh or maybe elsewhere, I'm not sure. Um it's not here in the UK, but I believe it's Mother's Day. So, all you moms out there, happy Mother's Day. And also stepmoms, um people who look after children, moms-to-be, people who would love to be a mom, grandmoms, all of you that take care of children, and um uh you know, would like to have children, whatever. Happy happy Mother's Day to you all out there. I hope you have a lovely day, and I hope you're really spoiled and looked after.

[00:30:02]And the other thing I wanted to say is that um very shortly it's going to be open studios at the studios where I have my studio, which is the Art Hub Studios in Woolwich. And so, I'll put the details up on the screen. It's on the 6th of June.

[00:30:20]And I think it's from about um 11:00 till 6:00 p.m. There's also an event on the 5th of June in the evening from about 4:00 or 5:00 to 8:00, where you can come and have a glass of wine and and meet some of the people who have studios, uh also make a postcard or a tote bag. And if you want to come along to that, if you can drop me a message, then, you know, if there's space, uh I'll send you the details of how you can come along to that.

[00:30:54]Now, I'll be there on both days, the Friday and the Saturday, and I'll be showing my new fish. Well, I'm saying new.

[00:31:02]Um the way that they are now displayed has changed. And I I'm so so happy cuz I was always thinking, "Well, you know, they're glass fish, but how can we display them so actually the light comes through?" And one of the other artists in the studios, he designed some boxes.

[00:31:20]And so this one here is in the box. And what he did was he's actually put a light um inside, and there's a switch here. Where's the switch gone? Here it is.

[00:31:37]So you turn it off. You can't really see that well, of course, cuz it's not that dark in here. Maybe if I turn the light off a second, then you'll get a better sense of what it >> [snorts] >> looks like. Give me a second.

[00:31:50]I'm going to turn turn that off, and I'll turn this off as well.

[00:31:58]So now, if I turn it on, you'll get a better idea of what it looks like. So look, isn't that amazing? I'm just so so so happy. So so happy. So I'm going to be my mounting my fish in these boxes now. And um yeah, I'm just so happy with how they look like.

[00:32:18]So if you can make it and come along and say hello on the 6th of June, Saturday the 6th of June, to Woolwich, book your flights now and come on over.

[00:32:31]And it would be lovely to see you. And I'll also be bringing along some clay pipes to to give to visitors.

[00:32:40]So, hopefully that will tempt you to come.

[00:32:43]And also, there's lots of other artists there who do brilliant work. So, it's a good opportunity to have a nice creative day and meet some interesting people.

[00:32:54]Um right, well I think that's about it, really.

[00:32:57]So, thank you very much again for watching, and thank you for all your support and your messages and your comments.

[00:33:06]Uh let me know what your favorite find is, and if you've got any more information, or you want to tell me anything about any of these finds, then um yeah, put them put it in the comments below. Thanks to everybody who has donated to my coffee and my super thanks. I really appreciate it. And thank you for being your wonderful selves. I hope you go on to have an excellent week ahead and do something that you really enjoy doing.

[00:33:33]And uh take care of yourselves, and I'll be back again very soon with more adventures looking for history in the mud. Okay. Take care. Bye-bye.

[00:35:22]>> Mhm.