The murky waters of London 's River Thames have receded to reveal hundreds of grim discoveries over the years . And residents of Gravesend , next to the mouth of the famous waterway , feared they had stumbled upon another gruesome find this morning when this apparent skeleton turned up on the muddy banks . With two bone-like sticks appearing to be bent at the knees lying below seeming ribs and a skull , morning walkers thought they had come across the watery grave of a long-lost soul . This gruesome-looking object was found apparently washed up on the banks of the Thames this morning . But as they approached the object , which was lying beneath the town 's pier , witnesses realised the supposed skeleton was just an optical illusion . Photographer Rob Powell , who was at the pier taking pictures of a ship for website OnTheThames.net , said : ' I had to double take at first as it 's not the kind of thing you usually see by the riverside . 'Obviously , it looked like a skeleton , which was a bit grim , and it was only when I got closer that I realised it was metal and old rope . ' The objects became the talk of the town after Mr Powell posted a photo on Twitter . Gravesend town centre manager Graham Long tweeted : 'We 've not seen anything like that before - how bizarre and intruiging . ' And the town 's RNLI spokesman Alan Carr said the find looked 'very sinister ' . The object , spotted beneath a pier , turned out to be rope and metal poles which look like a skeleton . As well as a reported 50 corpses a year , the Thames has given up a series of mysterious objects over the river 's long history . In 1857 , the 4th century BC 'Battersea Shield ' was discovered during dredging for the Chelsea Bridge , and is now seen as one the UK 's most significant pieces of Celtic ancient art . Prehistoric animal remains have also been discovered on the riverbed and banks , including the tooth of a 28-metre-long Megalodon shark thought to be 1.5 million years old , and a section from the skull of a 30,000-year-old woolly rhino . In 2013 , river-users thought they has spotted an alligator living in the river - but it turned out to be a lost prop from the film set of James Bond film Live and Let Die , which had been washed away from its owner 's garden . Flotsam often washes up at Gravesend , a town situated at the mouth of the famous river , in Kent .
Residents of Gravesend find gruesome-looking discovery on riverbank . Arrangement of rope and metal makes it look like skeleton lying in mud . It is the latest in endless stream of objects found in river over 1857 .