Mudlark Jodi

Date: Thursday 28th May 2026
Area searched: South Bank

Items found: pottery sherds, pieces of glass, two bottles, a Gameboy game, fake leaves, a cowrie shell.

A very hot evening, with many people on the foreshore, sitting on the sand, enjoying the weather.



I like the mysterious Game Boy game that it’s not possible to tell what game it was. I doubt it would still work though.

There’s a piece of a Dudson teapot there, the blue piece. Mosaic ‘pale blue’. https://ridgwaypatternbook.org.uk/other/dudsonpinetp.html

There’s a piece of ABC crockery (Aerated Bread Company), where only the A is visible.

The blue and white words are from G Phillips, Longport, who was in operation from 1834 to 1848. This broken piece of pottery could be almost 200 years old.

George Phillips:
https://www.thepotteries.org/allpotters/797a.htm

Edward & George Phillips' Pottery at Longport:
https://www.transferwarecollectorsclub.org/bulletin_previews/articles/09Winter-Longport.pdf



An R White’s bottle.



A Presta bottle.

Presta was made by Apollinaris and they made squashes and other drinks.

Apollinaris date back to 1852 in Germany and became the leading table water. The brand is now owned by Coca-Cola.

Wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollinaris_(water)

Presta advert:
https://www.reddit.com/r/vintageads/comments/1qqg13o/ad_poster_for_presta_sparkling_orange_and/#lightbox

Apollinaris company: https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/cp122659/the-apollinaris-company-limited

This article, on page 14 of the PDF, has some interesting information on the Edenbridge Factory:
https://evmt.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/32-EVH-Newsletter-2018.pdf

In 1875, Apollinaris were listed at 19 Regent Street in London, originally as wine and spirit merchants, and then also mineral water.

The article says that they became Apollinaris and Presta
in 1932 and then Apollinaris and Co in 1952 until 1955, and they manufactured Presta squashes and table waters at Sardinia House, 52 Lincoln's Inn Fields.

So this bottle is probably at least 70 years old.

(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

Date: Wednesday 27th May 2026
Area searched: South Bank

The sun shone on the day I returned to mudlarking. The waves, created by the boats, crashed onto the shore, and I stepped back, smiling, so glad that I’d got another chance to look for treasure.

This time I have a creative permit, so I'm looking at the foreshore differently - what can I make from this? Is this piece of china going to be a sail on a boat? Is this pretty coloured glass bottle going to be repaired with words? It's a fun thing to think about and my mind is buzzing with ideas.

Items found: Pottery sherds, pieces of glass, a glass bottle stopper, lipstick, an eraser, a button and a piece of a brush.

I like the glass bottle stopper, which is varying shades of green, that almost looks like it has been covered in algae, but I think it’s just where the glass has got damaged.

I wonder what words the eraser rubbed out.

One of the pieces of glass looks like it once said “ointment” on it, so would have been from a chemist.

Another has Western written on the base. I thought perhaps this was Western & Wolland as they sometimes used just “Western” on bottle stoppers, for example, but there are bottles that have Western written on the side, but R White’s on the bottom and R White’s bottlestoppers. So that doesn’t quite make sense, as R White’s was a rival to Western & Wolland. I have yet to find more details of Western than this.

The lipstick is pink and there is still some left in there, kind of soggy.

(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)