Saturday 1 May 2010

16. Wednesday, 28 April 2010

Another sunny Spring day and the Whitfield Sike survey continued.

Alan spent a lot of the day on his knees, taking close up photographs of various plants for the botanical survey. Spring has definitely arrived.

Alan pays attention to the minutest detail © Jane Lunnon


Ruth, Jane and Vera continued with the survey of the millpond. Phil, Peter and Pat (and Alan when he wasn’t involved in photography) made rapid progress on surveying the area to the west of the mission building and by the end of the day had declared themselves to have almost finished that area.

Over lunch, Jane showed us a fascinating document about the mill’s history, which really brought to life some of the working conditions there in the nineteenth century. There was some discussion about the implications of the answers the mill owner gave to the Factory Commissioners in 1833, the census returns, and contemporary newspaper advertisements when the mill was sold in the 19th Century. This is all fascinating and we look forward to presenting these findings in our final report and information leaflets and displays at the end of the project.



© Alan Williams


The photo above shows the windows of some of the mill workers’ cottages, incorporated into the boundary wall.
Several passers-by asked us questions - it's good to know there's such interest in the project.

Vera Breary, Field Survey Volunteer

No comments:

Post a Comment