This term, we will be learning about rivers so what better introduction is there than to carry out fieldwork investigating the River Thames with Thames Explorer Trust?
It was a long journey to Chiswick but it was definitely worth it and we learned a lot about our home city’s river. We began by looking at the river from the bank and working out the direction of the mouth and the source before looking around us to find evidence of pollution and man-made additions to the river. We then moved into Thames Explorer Trust’s classroom to do a variety of interactive activities about rivers:
- Firstly we identified the UK on a world map and on a map of the UK we located London before plotting the journey of the Thames from the source to its mouth
- We were then given images of London from the Bronze Age to modern day which we had to match to dates and place in chronological order.
- We discussed reasons why people would live on a river and volunteers came to the front to act out the reasons they had suggested. This included washing, transport, drinking and many others.
- Lastly we were lucky to be given lots of artefacts found in the River Thames, which date back as far as the Stone Age, and it was our job to classify those objects and organise them into groups according to their purpose.
After lunch it was time to go to the foreshore because the tide was sufficiently out and there was lots of space to explore. It was very slippery and we were under strict instruction not to touch our face as we would be handling objects of interest that have been washed up by the river. We looked for wildlife that belonged to the river (such as clams, leeches etc.) as well as artefacts that have been washed up by the river. Most of what we found was uninteresting except for one exciting find which was a small piece of Victorian pottery! We even got the chance to wade into the river (as long as we were wearing wellies!) and use nets to see what we could find.
It’s amazing to think how many people have been doing this over the last 200 years – looking for anything that might be valuable. People are still finding things today, proving that the river has many untold stories and secrets!
