First Day

After an induction that was late ending, it was off to another, briefer, induction to then get on with peering into an old chest. This is part of the work I'll be doing. I thought it might be the duller part, but actually it wasn't dull at all. Having looked at some hefty and somewhat worse for wear Bibles and a prayer book (with one Bible containing notes and essays that displays belief in the 1700s, plus images), I opened the first ring binder file I saw that contained local church magazines from 1972 and 1973.

There is a lot of what historians call witting and unwitting testimony in them. There is discussion about area clerical numbers and structures - that is abroad at the moment - and they were rather optimistic in their pessimism, and "a few" Sunday School children in a photo were fifty or so in number... There is the approach to and failure of the Anglican Methodist Unity Scheme. A local church building was closed, and the organ rapidly removed that would soon become unplayable anywhere, never mind in its original setting. There was the change in local authorities, with Humberside coming: the Humber Bridge was not yet built and there was fear of the town being lost and forgotten. There was a new choir leader and they did not want any more children taking part - 45 adults and children present.

So I spent my time making many notes, and thinking about how to catalogue, and what to present as an electronic archive, and then came home to scan some text and images for immediate transmission and consumption.

The image above: I need to find the original again. That above was from me playing around, as if the church was being reflected in one of those high-rise glass fronted offices. However, it interested me that the original has been used on these monthly magazines, so I need to find the original - as a scan of the magazine exposes its greyscale reproduction method and text is visible from the other side of the paper.