Hands-on history

The ‘Mud God’ Steve Brooker makes a living from  trawling the banks of the River Thames for treasures  

Steve Brooker answers to nothing except the ebb and flow of the tides and the muddy banks of the River Thames. Star of the History Channel’s new show Mud Men and a devoted “mudlark” (a member of the society of amateur archaeologists who are licensed to scavenge the banks of the Thames for historical artifacts), Brooker’s passion lies with the “hands-on history” he finds in the sludge and sand on the historically rich River Thames’s north side.

“It sounds quite sad,” he concedes, with a laugh, “but I work according to the tides; my diary is the tide tables. If you invite me out and it happens to coincide with low tide, I’ll probably come up with an excuse.”

Brooker made headlines in 2009 when he unearthed a 17th century ball and chain, but strangely it’s the “little” finds that  fuel his enthusiasm – items like a perfectly-worn child’s Roman sandal or a Georgian coin  rubbed smooth and engraved with a winged penis by a sailor headed for the brothels. on London’s south side.

“Mud Men is really about normal people – my ancestors and your ancestors,” he explains. "The foreshore was where the normal men from the street spent their time, and the foreshore  tells a million stories. The world loves those stories. These discoveries don’t have to be for archaeologists and academics. People at home watch the show and feel as though they could also do this. And sometimes, very occasionally, I do take groups around.”

While anyone can obtain a permit to search the five or so miles of the river’s southern foreshore, there are only 51 licensed mudlarks that are allowed to excavate the north side.  Strict rules, including one that states that all objects older than 300 years have to be taken to the Museum of London to be logged, are in place to preserve history and ensure  stories don’t get lost, Brooker says.

“Imagine someone came down willy-nilly, found something that may not have seemed valuable or interesting and took it away to store in their back cupboard. Then we’ve lost a piece of history. We need to have all the pieces, all that remains, to piece the story together,” he says.

Brooker loves sharing his finds with the cameras on Mud Men, but there are a few secret spots that he likes to keep to himself; spots that he says have taken years and years of experience to identify.

“The foreshore works in very strange ways. Sometimes it’s sandy, sometimes rocky, sometimes muddy, and you learn to look for certain things in certain places. I walk the foreshore with my trowel and I can see just by the way that the sand has eroded overnight that I will find something there,” he says.

The first episode of Mud Men airs on the History Channel (DStv channel 254) on Friday September 2 at 8.30pm. For more information on the show, visit www.history.co.uk/shows/mud-men. 

This article first appeared in CitiVibe in The Citizen on Wednesday 24 August 2011.