FINDERS STORIES: CAROLINE NUNNELEY

Spotted on the Foreshore, a look into the Mudlarking World

South Bank, The Thames

Every time Roman Found makes the trip down to London we make time for a mudlark. We haven't got those permits for nothing and have to get our treasure hunting fix from somewhere. Quite the mudlarking novices still we don't have any favourite spots yet and have plenty of items to tick off the mudlarking bucket list. Top of the list being a Bartmann's Beard!

Sliding down the stairs just as the tide was going out we were searching each inch of shoreline as it was being revealed and rewarded with some pieces of Samian Ware each. That's a Roman find ticked off the bucket list. Tearing our noses away from the dark Thames mud we spotted a figure in the distance waving from underneath a bridge. It was none other than Caroline Nunneley, she had spotted us, recognising us from Instagram. We must have stuck out as quite the pair! Kindly she took us under her wing and we were introduced into the mudlarking fold all gathered in their favourite spots recognising many friendly faces. 

We were lucky enough to see a hammered farthing that had been plucked from the banks that day and were taught the tricks of literally finding a needle in a haystack. This mudlarking business is an art form, there’s no digging here, nothing telling you where to look, it's all down to your levels of observation.

With the tide coming in and the available search area narrowing we sat clutching our muddy bags of treasure (no Bartmann’s Beard this time) learning all about the mudlarking world from Caroline. 

Roman Found: We still can’t believe we ran into you today Caroline, and we can’t thank you enough for agreeing to answer our questions!

Caroline Nunneley: It was great to see you on the foreshore. You certainly looked the part although I hadn’t really thought about how different our environment is from yours, for searching for history. In spite of this, you both did amazingly! Thank you for the opportunity to talk about my favourite subject!

RF: You very kindly took us mudlarking rookies under your wing today and we have had a great time meeting all the mudlarkers and learning the ways of the foreshore! We are still chuffed with our tiny pieces of Samian Ware not something we find often in the fields. Lets get into it shall we …

Have you always been compelled to find things, how important is this to you?

CN: I had a recurring dream as a child that I found a hoard of silver coins in my garden...no idea where the idea came from and I haven’t found one yet, and I’m sure I never will, but somehow I had the idea that there were things in the ground to be found.

RF: Can you tell us a bit about your background and your journey into mudlarking? Do you have any inspirations that led you to it?

CN: Ive come to mudlarking much later in life than most of my foreshore friends. I’d studied Old English, Old Norse and some archaeology at university but never followed these interests up. I’d vaguely known about mudlarking for years, and knew about the Victorian poor scraping a living from the river, but it wasn’t until I was given Ted Sandlings’ brilliant London In Fragments that I realised people were still doing it and finding remarkable objects, so I bought my licence and went to find a tiny 16th century pipe bowl, the object I most desired from the book. I found two on my first visit and was hooked!

RF: Is there a particular object that you’re always looking out for?

CN: I certainly have a wish list, as I think we all do. I’m obsessed by Pilgrim badges so always hope to find another piece of one, but I’m desperate to find something that makes a sound...a ringing crotal bell or a hawking whistle. To hear a sound from the past would be the most magical thing.

I let all my pipe bowls dry out and periodically empty them to see if there are tiny twists of tobacco left over, which there often is. My son and I once filled a tiny 1620s pipe with the tobacco we’d collected and lit it.  It was an incredible moment...so strong we had to open the windows. We smelt the 17th/18th century, now I want to hear it too!

RF: You’ve found an incredibly significant object on the foreshore. Will you share with us how you found it and its history?

CN: My most significant find is a late medieval, exquisitely carved bone memento mori rosary bead, showing a beautiful young woman’s face on one side and a shocking skull on the other. These were frequently seen in sacred objects in the medieval period and onwards ; a reminder to live a good, law abiding and god fearing life, in the hope of reaching heaven in the afterlife. This was a surface find, as all my finds have been. It must only recently have washed out of the mud when I found it as apart from one crack, it’s almost perfect. Found a year ago, this find has already had quite a lot of attention! It’s been shown in the Museum of London, on display in Southwark Cathedral and St Pauls Cathedral and I’m waiting to hear if it’s won it’s category in The Nations Greatest Finds of 2021 in The Searcher magazine! ( It was the runner up for The Most Significant Artefact category! )

These were frequently seen in sacred objects in the medieval period and onwards ; a reminder to live a good, law abiding and god fearing life, in the hope of reaching heaven in the afterlife.

Ellie, Caroline and Lucie after a long day mudlarking

Bone dice

Thomas Beckett pilgrims badge

RF: What has been the most unusual thing or unusual experiences you’ve found on the foreshore?

CN: The day after very heavy rain there are often lots of dead rats on the foreshore which is a gruesome sight. I hear that people are finding lots of dead eels too right now, a combination of the heat and the sewage levels in the water. 

But the funniest things have been the lingerie shoots that take place in the winter!

RF: What object do you think tells the best tales about the past, coins or artefacts? Have you got any personal favourites that you’ve found that tell such a tale?

CN: I would say that Traders tokens can give the most away, often enough information to enable a deep dive into the personal lives of otherwise forgotten 17th century tradespeople. I have one that was issued by a Henry Gibbon in 1650. He worked in Fetter Lane alongside chessemongers, other candle makers, grocers and tavern keepers, all of whom issued their own tokens. He was buried on January 14th 1652 in the parish church of St Dunstan...so much information gleaned from a small copper token.

RF: Research is one of our favourite parts of finding. Has finding out the history behind the find ever changed your perception of it?

CN: Re research...I’m really not very good at it!  I often rely on friends who have specific interests or look back on IG at saved posts to find references . We are so lucky to have some experts we can send images to when we draw a blank who are always hugely generous with their time and erudition. Mudlarking really is a great community and people love to share what they know. 

My favourite find of all time, the fragment of the Thomas Becket badge showing his leg on his horse, was changed  for me when I was told by our FLO that  the marks on the back were a graffitied initial ‘A’ . The 14th century pilgrim who bought it not only decorated the front of it with stars (an already highly decorated object) but laid claim to it with his initial. If only he’d scratched his whole name on it! It changed from being a beautiful and rare object, to being an incredible one...a relatively inexpensive object that held such significance for the owner that they marked it, to distinguish it from the others that were bought and worn on the same pilgrimage.  How completely personal and mesmerising is that!

RF: What is the most important part of mudlarking to you is it the finds, the people or the history?

CN: I think the joy of Mudlarking really is a combination of all three. When I started I knew no one. It was a solitary and very quiet activity which suited me well. I knelt and looked intently at the ground for hours, noticing shapes and patterns and trying to distinguish the edges of oyster shells from the edges of coins! And slowly I became part of a tribe of similar minded people who love history, generously share what they know and celebrate each other’s finds. It is still often a quiet, solitary thing to do, but it can also be the best fun, sometimes hilarious and always celebratory if someone has found something glorious. 

The day after very heavy rain there are often lots of dead rats on the foreshore which is a gruesome sight.

RF: You also use the Portable Antiquities Scheme to record finds. What responsibilities do you think we have as finders?

CN: It’s such an honour to have finds recorded by our FLO Stuart Wyatt actually at the Museum of London. Because of Covid,  the backlog of things to be recorded is immense and although we’re obviously free to go to any other FLO, I’m more than happy to bide my time. These objects are already ancient so they can wait a bit longer to be recorded and it seems right that my objects that are mostly from London, are recorded there. I really love my meetings with Stuart and learn very niche things from them.

And it is of course critical that people report their finds, even if it takes a long time to have them recorded. The PAS database is an invaluable resource when researching an object and as we are privileged enough to be allowed to collect these ancient objects, the least we can do is let the museum know about them.

 I also have two pieces of Tudor gold going through the Treasure Process right now. One has already taken two years but because of the backlog, I’m sure it will take a while yet. I’m in no rush to get them back.

RF: Do you think there will be a time when mudlarking becomes too popular?

 CN: Mudlarking has recently become immensely popular following some very lovely books on the subject and a lot of social media and press coverage. This has certainly presented some problems for the PLA and the foreshore itself. I think that mudlarking must be like detecting in as much as we might all see the wonderful find but not the hours, days, months of finding nothing at all and getting heatstroke, soaked to the bone and exhausted. I think many people expect to turn up, find what they can by any means, and go. The reality is we need a licence to pick up anything at all on the foreshore and there are many necessary rules about how to respect and treat each area we visit.

There’s also been an issue recently with people selling their finds which is strictly forbidden as nothing from the foreshore can be monetised. It all effectively belongs to the Crown, even when it’s in our display cases in our homes.

The PAS database is an invaluable resource when researching an object and as we are privileged enough to be allowed to collect these ancient objects, the least we can do is let the museum know about them.

RF: Do you have any questions for us?

CN: I’ve been curious about how you found it on the foreshore. You tried both sides, the heavily protected north and the easier to search south side. How do you feel it compares to your usual detecting sessions?

RF: The North and the South Side are like two sides of a coin, the same river yet totally different experiences. We can’t quite decide which one we like best. The South Side we have visited multiple times and is normally our go to, we feel more at home as it was the side of our first ever mudlark! However there was something lovely about the eyes-only experience of the North Side becoming more in tune with your vision and really getting nose close to the foreshore! Mudlarking is akin to field walking which is a practice we actively do in between dig spots so it's not too far stretched from our normal strengths, but we do miss the space we have in the fields often not seeing another person or distraction for hours just solely focused on the task and the tones. I think we will always feel slightly at odds, Lucie without her metal detector and Ellie without her spade, but the challenge and thrill of only having that 4 hour window on the foreshore and what might just be waiting for you pulls us in everytime!

CN: Was the time constraint difficult to manage?

RF: Roman Found and time aren't quite the best of friends and better time management could always be needed. There have been several instances when we've been mudlarking, getting wet feet because we lost track of the times and the tides. When out digging the time always gets away from us as well. We find it hard to stop getting hooked on that sense of finding, often digging into dusk, pushing ourselves beyond our limits, so maybe, in a way the time constraint of mudlarking might be good for us!

CN: Did you find it difficult being around other Mudlarks as it must usually be just the two of you on your permissions?

 RF: We wouldn’t say it was difficult, just a completely different mindset to metal detecting. We really enjoyed the chat and the community of mudlarking, it was just as lovely talking to everyone as it was finding things! Normally out digging it's just us and the finds and that’s what we are used to but if you’ve watched any of our YouTube videos then you know that Ellie can chat for England. 

CN:  And what’s your favourite ever find? (I think I might already know the answer to this! ) 

RF: You might just know the answer to this one already! But personally we both have different favourites. Lucie’s is the Series E Plumed Bird Saxon Sceat we found last harvest and it will take quite the find to knock that off the top spot in her eyes; they are just so unusual and prehistoric looking. Whereas Ellie’s is the find you would guess, the 1502-1504 Henry VII Half Angel, there just isn’t much that is going to top late medieval gold! Both finds were real heart stopping moments, ones that make you clutch the soil and think just god it can’t be, day makers, bucket listers and ones we will never forget. 

CN: It’s been lovely chatting with you both. See you next time you come to London!

RF: Keep an eye out for us we will be back we still have that Bartmann’s Beard to find!

You can follow Caroline and her finds over on Instagram: @carolinenunneleymudlark