When I first started researching the story of Sarah Dazley, the Potton Poisoner, one of the aspects of the story that fascinated me was her escape to London and then capture at Broken Warf, Thames Street. An address that still exists though is much changed since 1843.
It was a great excuse to go down to that part of the Thames right next to the very modern Millennium Bridge (still thought of as the wobbly bridge by me) and explore. I checked the tide times to make sure I got there for low tide and could access the shingle. It was obvious that the course of Thames Street had been changed since the 19th Century and Broken Wharf is now a modern complex. But those old stairs and wooden remains of old wharves visible at low tide, actually on the mudflats and shingle of the Thames were probably the least changed part of that area. I really wanted to feel what it was like down there. Also I wanted to capture the sound of the water on the shingle and footsteps across it.
I’ve read recently that not so long ago the remains of a 14th century wharf was discovered exactly at Trig Lane Stairs. Maybe some of those old rotten looking teeth of wood (pictured above) that poke up at low tide are part of that complex. But most probably they’re remnants of 19th century jetties and wharves.
I’d decided that meeting on the very edge of the Thames there was a good place to imagine Super Intendent Blunden meeting with old colleagues from the Met Police and any informants that were going to tip him off to the exact whereabouts of the absconded Sarah.
Of course I could have used stock sound effects but part of me wanted to be somewhere close to where I knew Sarah Dazley had been. I’d never been down at the side of the Thames before even though I lived in London for 12 years and worked on the banks of the Thames opposite the Tower of London for three of those.
The shore is strewn with old bones, bottles, bricks, shells and pottery. The ultra modern mixes with the ancient washed in and out and disturbed twice a day by the tide. Apparently, some of the bones are as old as the Roman period being animal bones from feasting.
There’s a modern hotel and hip coffee shop in Broken Wharf now, so I’m guessing there aren’t many poisoners lurking in the vicinity any more. I’m glad I visited though and captured the sounds of the waves and the shingle.
Incidentally while I was there a helicopter flew overhead and I recorded it. I ran the noise of it backwards through audacity, the sound recording software I use, and played around with some reverb and other distortions and it became one of the sounds used for the UFO in the Flying Saucers Over Biggleswade episode!
Weird In The Wade 