Gold, Gold and more Gold

The rivers are overflowing with gold rings. But why? And what is 'mudlarking'?

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/well-that-happened--6149297/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's a thing which is increasingly popular these days, and
with hard times and everyone scrabbling for the next penny,
seems to be taking off, and that's mud larking. Now.
Mudlarking is as old as the hills. It's literally composed
of much of the same sort of stuff. And the
truth is you can find some great stuff in amongst
the filth and the slime if you like to get
your hands and knees dirty and everything else. Gold rings

(00:22):
are one thing which are common in the ooze. The
glint of the yellow treasure makes sifting through the sludge
and excrement almost worthwhile. Almost The thing is, there are
just so many rings down there, it's like a Tiffany's
made of pool. Over the years, there have been a
horde of gold rings discovered from the murky depths of
the Thames, some of them lost, others have been thrown

(00:44):
into the water by newly re singled people, and others
have a more symbolic meaning. In days of yours, throwing
gold into the waters to the divine entities was believed
to give people good fortune, and the symbolic nature of
the rings was thought to bring those whose relationship was
represented by these trinkies a good and happy life together.
There's no record that had actually worked. That was the supposition,

(01:05):
you were just out of pocket. Some have inscriptions and
names embossed upon them long since gone. Others are plane,
but they did from anywhere around the thirteenth century up
until around last Tuesday. The increase recently in these finds
is mainly due to the processes occasionally invoked by the
government and the powers of b to clean up the
capital's waterway, although this has to be said any value

(01:28):
in actual gold will be outweighed by significant laundry bills
and being made to sit alone on the tube on
the way home.