As we can’t get out on to the foreshore at the moment, we’re sharing some of our #ForeshoreFavourites on our Facebook and Twitter accounts. We’ll do a regular FROG blog round up too, as an archive and for those of you not on social media. Here are our posts from the 25th April – 1st May 2020.

Vauxhall jetty revisited

#MuseumsUnlocked featured Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments this week which gave us another opportunity to visit an old friend – the Bronze Age bridge or jetty at Vauxhall. Here’s a picture of the site from the Thames Archaeological Survey during the 1990s.

Dangerous medical practices!

A post from the Mary Rose Museum about Tudor medical treatment reminded us of the discovery of a syringe used to treat syphilis found on the Tower Beach during a survey with the Portable Antiquities Scheme in 2010. We have a short film about the work there which you can watch below:

River walls, art and graffiti

Watching the film about the work at Tower Beach again was a good reminder of a number of our research themes – from studies of riverfront defences and access and the river as a place for artistic expression of all different kinds, including graffiti. There’s a wonderful article about graffiti at the Tower of London by the Gentle Author online here.

Drawing by Peter Baistow

The movement of sediments…..

The work at the Tower Beach was also a wonderful demonstration of the crucial role played by the FROG in regularly recording the features and structures exposed on the foreshore by the tides. You can read Eliott’s blog about the results of the survey work here.

And fabulous finds

In addition to recording the structures on the foreshore, we also worked with the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the Thames and Field Metal Detecting Society and the Society for Thames Mudlarks to undertake surveys of the artefacts being exposed on the Tower Beach. Find out more here.