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How we started
The participants
The pleasure principle
The end result
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The pleasure principle
Location: Essex
It is important to explain that people found the project very exciting. This was an original piece of research, those who had never before been published anticipated that as a pleasurable new experience and the arrival of unsolicited information was in fact like receiving treasure. ‘Treasure’ was a much used group word. Added to this was the sensation of revelation, a place where people had lived, sometimes for many years opened itself up, revealed its secrets, secrets that seemed to have been waiting to be uncovered.
This sense of discovery and excitement was an important driver - an encouragement, and aided essential momentum. The arrival of the runouts from the design team was exciting; interestingly participants only wished to check their own work, not look at the rest, savouring the arrival of the whole book - which was intensely anticipated - as a new whole experience.
The process culminated in a launch to which the whole parish was invited to collect a free book per household, each author an extra copy, together with copies given to those in whose debt for help we were (copies have also found their way to museums, libraries and schools). This convivial occasion lasted three hours and was a high point of the project, followed by a talk in the evening by Adrian Gibson, both occasions were extremely well attended.
New and not so new technology
We learnt to use the dreaded neck breaking fiche machines in libraries and record offices and to familiarize ourselves with the various means by which the ERO offers knowledge about previous eras. Maps, court and patent rolls, alehouse recognizances, hearth tax returns, church and parish records, birth, death and burial registers the wonderful archive of letters and images and the plethora of secondary sources; idiosyncracies of early writing and spelling became eventually familiar to us. We visited other counties’ ROs and came to appreciate the wonderful resource we have in the ERO at Chelmsford and the virtue of its offshoot which was local in Saffron Walden
During the three years many participants came on-line with Broadband, which enabled access not only to the ERO on-line catalogue but also many other resources, aiding research. The use of the Internet and computers became essential to the project, nevertheless, those without email were always posted information by hand and posters, and a monthly review placed in the parish magazine giving dates of meetings and current mini projects was a vital tool.
Computers, digital cameras and the Photoshop software meant that the speed with which work came to fruition was increased and the meetings ensured that participants were aware of each other’s progress, possibly a spur. IT skills meant that the quality of images could be enhanced before delivery to the designer, i.e. work which otherwise would have had to be bought in at a high cost. Additionally not only research and writing skills of the participants were utilized but many others on offer.
Negotiating permissions and the cost of purchasing them as well as the files they came on became increasingly important, especially as it became apparent that our document was becoming larger. Negotiating the blue pencil with authors was an area for diplomacy where space was tight.
Offshoots
Treats, exercises and outings arising from topics as they arose were devised to maintain interest. A photostat found in Saffron Walden Library led us to the Valence House Museum in Dagenham to see the 1773 diary of Littlebury vicar William Gretton. Teamwork revealed a link between Gretton and the vanished House of Wonders of our famous resident Henry Winstanley.
A small group visited Sutton’s Hospital at The Charterhouse in Smithfield, a six acre oasis of peace in the heart of London founded by Thomas Sutton, who bought the manor of Littlebury in 1601, and where the original deed of purchase still hangs. Audley End Estate and the farmer gave permission for a field-walking day in September 2004. Over thirty people under the expert guidance of Dr. Tom Williamson of the University of East Anglia scoured a grid of twenty-seven 10m by 10m squares, collecting evidence of human activity from the Iron Age onwards.
The find of the day was a magnificent Celtic gold coin that had lain undisturbed for almost 2,000 years. Adrian Gibson came to the parish on many occasions to give detailed advice on the houses of the parish. A pensioner, who became expert about Henry Winstanley, gave a talk to local schoolchildren. A grounding in the history of Audley End was useful as evidence in opposing an unwelcome planning application.
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