Page 8 - Simon Bourne News Today

Advertisement A cheeky Georgian button depicting two people having sex is one of the many fascinating treasures which have emerged from the mud of the Thames. The piece, which is believed to date back to the 18th-Century, was found by a mudlarker. The term is given to the people who comb the 100-mile foreshore of the Thames and pick up objects and artefacts revealed in the mud by the twice daily changing tides.   Anna Borzello, 54, found the erotic miniature button, which is small enough it s...

Transport Scotland has now said it is “reviewing” further options to deal with the ice risk. Before it opened in August 2017, designers of the crossing from Arup and Jacobs claimed it would not be closed by high winds, with barriers installed to protect it from high gusts. Since then the risk of falling ice has, however, proved a problem. Transport Scotland said that following these earlier incidents, it undertook a review of measures used on other bridges affected by ice. A spokesperson sa...

For decades now, the diminutive but delightful Shire classics have been the niche collector’s best friend. These little books, whose subjects have included clay pipes, pewter, samplers, historic ships, ceramics and even the Victorian domestic servant, for me evoke pleasurable hours browsing in village bookshops. So it is with great affection that I picked up their latest publication, Jason Sandy and Nick Stevens’s Thames Mudlarking: Searching for London’s Lost Treasures – which was eve...