As a child I had always been fascinated with the idea of a low tide tour of the Thames. Going out on the flats you can find anything, from last weeks trash to bits of pre-Roman history. Muck-raking yesterday’s garbage doesn’t sound exciting to most, but I always wanted to do it.
By the time I made it to England, the tours had been changed. The tides of time, as they say.
I took a new low tide tour. Pre-flood 21st century – Not quite as romantic as finding bits of medieval or iron age flotsam and jetsam, but still fun.
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Read here about mudlarking.
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Word count = 100
Friday Fictioneers is hosted by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. This week’s prompt is here and uses a photo © Sandra Crook. Read more or join in by following the InLinkz “linky“.
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I’m not here right now… I am pretty much out of the blogging loop this week, so I apologize ahead of time if I miss your FF post this week.
Never knew of this but a form or archaeology with a lot of possibilities.
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It is a pretty cool form of archaeology and one that is very accessible to a lot of people.
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I learned something new … “mudlarking.” Sounds very interesting!
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Mudlarking does sound interesting, though I am not sure if I’d be one to do it. But then, I love history, so….
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I knew about mud larks but didn’t realise they had actual tours to do it, thanks for enlightening me.
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I doubt if I will do one the next time in London, but they do look interesting.
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I didn’t know about those tours, but it sounds interesting, Trent. A good story. :) — Suzanne
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I think those tours could be very interesting. Thanks.
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A light-hearted story with a sombre message. I wonder if we’ll have learned anything by the time they’re digging up our mess.
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Looking at the past, I doubt if we’ll learn much, but there is always hope!
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I would find it fascinating, I’m sure. So much history in, around, and all through the length of the Thames :)
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It is interesting what people find. Yes, a couple of thousand years being exposed a couple of times a day – it is pretty col to think about.
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One man’s trash is another’s treasure. Some times change is a shame.
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Change is inevitable, though hopefully the large scale sea level changes can be stopped…
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I have an equal desire to go to Fundy’s Bay in New Brunswick. As you may know, they have the highest tides in the world and there is a hiking trail that crosses Fundy’s Bay at low tide. You have to know what you’re doing because you certainly don’t want to be caught on the trail when the tides start to come in. I’ve seen pictures and I’m fascinated by it.
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I’ve seen some good pictures of the different tides, including some my parents took while visiting a few years ago. It would be interesting to be so far from the high tide mark, a place normally underwater.
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Man is a creature of habit. Glad you found an alternative to your childhood passion. I think finding things on river bed may be easy, sifting trash from artefact is more difficult.
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Some people have a great eye for finding those artifacts. Not sure if I’d care to do it – I think I’d just see the trash ;)
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Just goes to show anyone can find beauty in something.
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Yes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, which is truer the older the trash is…
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There was an area… down by the ‘flax’ ( a small, man-made waterfall for the old papermill)… a little sidelet off the main creek… an indentation in the limestone walls that made up the creekbed… Anyway, down there, every spring, right after the spring floods, you could find stuff… little miniature bottles that had once held medicine, perfume, etc. Nowadays, the same style sells at antique stores for quite a penny. I collected them, for every five, I got a quarter which seemed like a lot to me at the time. I also found old scalpels, clamps, etc. Years later, I learned that there used to be a pharmacy/doctors office just above. So wonder I didn’t kill myself with an old dormant disease of some sort. I still like to walk along the river bank where I live now and look for things… Mostly it’s trashy beer bottles. But, sometimes, I find a real treasure.
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When I was a kid we used to dig through what I now assume were trash heaps behind places where the houses had been gone for over 100 years. One thing I collected were shell buttons – I used to have hundreds of them (I grew up 2 miles from Lake Erie, so “lake shells”, not “sea shells”) Yeah, it is surprising that we didn’t find some ancient disease in our treasure hunts… The old pharmacy, though, is scarier – all of those sharps!
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Oddly, I never found a needle, and in truth the scalpels were so rusted with age that they’d not even cut wet paper. hehe! I used to have a whole collection of shell and wooden buttons all found along the creekbed and down through the gorges between Clifton and Yellow Springs, Ohio. I’m actually hoping to pick up a button this weekend at the living history event in Williamsburg, Ohio.
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This could very well be the future. At least now you’ve given us a business idea for those who survive the flood…
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“Visit pre-icecap-melt world!” Yes, a tourist industry for the twenty second century ;) I hope we are smart enough to not let it happen, but I am not holding my breath.
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He’ll get to trawl through places people lived… a couple of years ago! Not quite Roman-era, I suppose.
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Not quite as interesting as the Roman era, but there must be something about our lives today….
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What did you think of London Trent.💜
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Actually, I haven’t been there in over twenty years and I really want to go back! I don’t know if I will do any of the low tide much tours, but they do sound interesting….
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Yes they do don’t they💜
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We used to do that on the beaches in Israel, especially the ones that were originally Roman or Greek. I found all kinds of coins, mostly Roman, but occasional Greek or Arab or Jewish. But at the beach, it’s less like mucking and more like … swimming?
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I’m not too surprised, though I know these days Israel keeps a very tight rein on artifacts found in the country. I’m sure it would be much better than the Thames in many ways – being on a beach in balmy Israel would be better than in the much in cold, wet England ;)
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What a cool idea! Enjoy your week!
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Thanks, Dale!
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You tell a big story by telling a small one. London, New York, Kolkata, they’re all vulnerable, and may be inundated within fifty years or so
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There are a lot of cities that are vulnerable. I forget what percent of the human population may be in trouble by the end of the century, but it is pretty high.
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Great concept, I wonder what future generations will discover about us from the rubbish and fossils we leave behind.
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I don’t want to know what they find out… just like the K-T boundary, I think there will be a layer of plastic in the fossil record that shows the ending of human kind….
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I didn’t know these trips existed until I read your post. Messy and fascinating with finds going so far back in history. I enjoyed the BBC article, thank you for enclosing it.
Miriam
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I read a couple of BBC articles about it, but this is the only one I could find when I Googled it. It is fascinating, isn’t it?
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Nice story.
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Thanks.
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“Last weeks trash to bits of pre-Roman history.” I loved that line
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Thanks. I have read a few articles about people who do this and they do find a bit of everything.
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Pre-flood history… plastic bags, plastic straws… I wonder if anything we throw away will fascinate historians of the future.
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I think just as there is a layer in the rock strata, K-T boundary, that is full of extra-terrestrial debris that shows where the dinosaurs became extinct. I think 65 million years from now there might be a plastic layer that shows where the humans became extinct….
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Hah, that’s an intriguing thought. Would it really last that long?
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Some stuff would. I guess the mud is anaerobic, so things stay preserved for a long time.
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Most interesting take on the prompt, Trent. I’ll have to explore your link.
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I read a few articles on it, but this was the only one that came up from BBC. There were a lot of videos, a actual tour sites. Thanks.
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I love the term “mudlarking”! Sounds like great fun to me! :)
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Hi Penny – you somehow got sent to spam! Anyway, I rescued you ;) It is a great term. I do think it sounds cool, but not 100% sure if I’d be up for it. Not all of it is ancient artifacts – there is a lot of modern garbage mixed in. Oh well,but when you do find something old…
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Cool! Thanks for rescueing me! ;)
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Naah. Won’t happen. We’ve got the Thames Barrier
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Hoho!
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I still think if both Antarctica and Greenland thaw, it won’t hold it all back… OK, I’ll move it to another city next time ;)
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If Antartica and Greenland melt, we’ll have a 60 meter/200 foot rise in sea level. The Thames Barrier might not make it ;) (I just Googled it and they are looking at upgrades to take sea level rises into account. Oh well, maybe this was New York …)
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Dear Trent,
At least he made it to England. Loved the story. Have a good week.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Yes, after Greenland actually turned green ;) Thanks. Hope you have a good week as well.
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