At the beginning of October, we visited the foreshore at Woolwich to meet with mudlarker and artist Nicola White (Tideline Art). She’d noticed a large anchor with lettering and symbols on the stock, emerging from the mud there and got in touch with us about a visit to see if we could find out more.

The anchor is a timber-stocked admiralty-pattern anchor, roughly 3.5 metres long and the stock about 2 metres in length. The stock is a convex wooden overstock (i.e. it surrounds the shank rather than passing through it). One of the arms has been removed and the other driven into the foreshore which suggests it had been repurposed as a mooring feature. This makes it impossible to describe the structure of the arms and flukes of the anchor. However the hole at the centre of the crown places it in the ‘fishbuckle’ category.

Image used with kind permission of the Nautical Archaeology Society

The inscription on the stock appears to read 29 + 1•0 (or 29 + 1•Ɵ) followed by the broad arrow symbol initially used by the Board of Ordinance and subsequently the War Office and Ministry of Defence.

Given its location between two dry-docks, it may have been used to moor vessels prior to them being brought into the dry-docks or to help pull them in. A diagram of the dockyard from 1854 shows a number of capstans near the shore which could link with this function. Woolwich Dockyards were a major centre for the refit and repair of ships being fitted with steam engines during the last years of its operation. We are, as yet, unsure of how old the anchor is, admiralty-style anchors appear to have been in use from the 10th century to the mid-19th century.

The anchor is visible from the Thames footpath and can be found between the two dry docks of King Henry’s Dock. This part of the foreshore is accessed by steps behind locked gates and is not as easily accessible than other foreshore areas.

If you are interested in anchors, check out the Big Anchor project by the Nautical Archaeology Society on the web and on Facebook which is aiming to record anchors around the word.