In the
record office in Ipswich I almost abandoned any theory around the starting
points and resorted to reading the descriptions within the folders opposite the
desk (the second stage of searching after the card index). This has been a
really successful research methodology as it has turned up a number of
excellent things to think about from being able to view a very specific way of
adding a seal to a document that I have been looking for to a revelation of new
ways of fixing or joining individual papers together, HD/42/7/2/8 – a will and
documents held with a metal pin joining. I was particularly absorbed by
HD79/AA1/6/1-19 which had an interesting ways of joining with slits a number of
folded documents that had been signed within and over the fold and slit.
The never
ending record of names, places, dates and human activity – sitting in the
record office and at this moment I am subsumed within the legal world of deeds
and the documentation of exchanges of property and money between people – totally
overwhelming and trying to find the individual narrative is challenging as
there is so much individual activity in the form of names long forgotten that
there is little space to find one’s own story. There is so much stuff – an
almost endless tide of human activity.
The
physicality of the objects I have requested today have heavily imposed on my
soul – I have felt the presence of the people who owned them, embellishing and
burnishing their covers with repeated use, touching and handling, - HD79/B3 – a
blacksmiths account book – an aged tool representing hours, days, weeks, years
of toil, metal, heat and sweat. HD79/B7 a small note book with examples of
Suffolk silk lovingly held in with slits cut from the actual pages. These are
annotated with notes about the diet of the worms. This is probably something
that my project isn’t about – but.......... one can’t help but be moved by
their presence.
