Mudlarking

Books

Sep 5

Scavenging the Thames in Victorian Times

In my new release, The Bride of Blackfriars Lane, heroine Kit Turner often takes risks, for such is her nature. This is quite the anomaly for a proper Victorian woman, though she’s never actually accused of being proper…probably because she’s not. In fact, her landlady often laments Kit’s appearance, being so bold as to tell Kit’s sweetheart that Kit looked as if she were about to go mudlarking the Thames.

But what in the world does that mean?

A mudlark is a reference to someone who scavenges in the foreshore of a river for all manner of things that might wash up or be lodged in the silt. During the 18th and 19th centuries, a mudlark specifically meant a person who operated on the London stretch of the Thames River. Any of the items found would be sold to make money.

Usually mudlarks were those who weren’t working at another job, generally the young (those between 8 and 15) and the elderly, though you’d have to be relatively spry to manage the muck and bending over so much. Many were men but there were some girls and women who scavenged as well.

And lest you think that’s a thing of the past, mudlarking still continues today, so next time you’re in London, slap on your muck boots and go snooping around for treasure. Who knows? You just might find some!

But if you’d rather play it safe, you could simply read about Kit’s adventures in The Bride of Blackfriars Lane. Here’s a blurb:

Detective Jackson Forge can hardly wait to marry the street-sly swindler who's turned his life upside down. Kit Turner is equally excited to wed the handsome detective, and what better way to show her love than providing him with a gift any man of the law would love? She determines to bring to justice the men who years ago maimed his brother despite Jackson's warning to leave the past in the past. As she digs into the mystery of what happened, she unwittingly tumbles into her own history and endangers her future happiness with Jackson.