The sea defence diaries 25/03/12 - lead work

I didn't plan to have a dig around the stone pier this morning but I woke up at 4:00 am this morning in old money and just couldn't get back to sleep. So I decided to drive over to Margate and catch the low water at daybreak. Overnight the wind had been from the north east and the tide was a strong one so I knew there had been plenty of tidal action overnight around the square head washing through the spoil from the underpinning works. I was not to be disappointed and it was one of those mornings that the finds kept coming up like a production line. In fact I found so much it was just to much to carry back to the car so I had to cherry pick the best with the intention of retrieving the rest later at a later date.

Top of the list today had to be examples of lead work used in the construction of the stone pier. In the past I have found and photographed many examples of the stone work and today I came across an excellent example of how the mortise and tenon joints were secured by using molten lead. On the left of the photograph is a lead block with a piece stone tenon that obviously has snapped off in the storm of 1953. On the right is another example how the iron work was secured into the stone work using molten lead.

Other finds today include another copper keel bolt, a lump of wrought iron ballast, a row lock, more clay pipe stems, old lead weights, some iron work and a shard from a General Steam Navigational Company plate.

This piece of terracotta I have featured before when I photographed it in the water. I now have it at home trying to the decipher what the markings and number mean.