It is now getting to that time of year again when there is a noticeable change in the tides. One being the lack of very low tides for the next few months plus this time of year this is also the beginning of a silting process off Margate main sands. These two factors combined do reduce the chances of finding historic items on a industrial scale to a trickle. Even with the helping hand of the sea defence works excavations I doubt if there are going to be many finds until the works around the Margate harbour slipway area begin. As it stands at present the vast majority of finds coming up are around the square head of the stone pier on the good low waters which are going to be few and far between for a while. The tide backed by a North East wind has brought in a few surprises like this piece of Margate Jetty photographed that is gradually making its way on to the main sands.
Today 14/04/12 I walked all my favourite search sites in the harbour area only to find a few items like a clay pipe bowl, a piece of a jug bearing the New Palace Steamers logo and a part of a cup bearing the Letheby & Christopher design. All the rest of the finds being a few clay pipe stems, a few bottle stoppers and copper boat nails.
It is nice to see that the Harbour Arm / Stone Pier is open and one bonus is that most of the smelly sea weed has disappeared for a while. Inside the harbour I am amazed how the sand/mud/silt has returned back to very much how it was before the deep excavations for the underpinning took place. There a very few items now to be found but that is not surprising going by the foot prints in the mud of other people having a look for items themselves. I must admit I did make one miscalculation, being that I forgot to take into account that in 1947 2000 cubic yards of silt were removed from inside the harbour entrance which explains why some areas where barren of old items.
Anyway that's in the past and I still have found enough items to mount some kind of exhibition in the near future.
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