I have been a mudlark for over 15 years. For me the foreshore is a place of peace and solitude where I can re-charge from the demands of life and the city. It is a world within a world and a portal into the past. I find objects that have been left for me by the river, I don't metal detect, dig or scrape, I only collect what I can see by eye, what is here on one tide and gone on the next. In this way I have recovered a complete Iron Age pot; scores of old coins; Roman beads, game counters and hair pins; children's toys dating back to medieval times; and a 16th century child's shoe. The lost and discarded objects I rescue from the mud are direct links with the past and each one tells the story of a forgotten Londoner.