- THE ULVERSTON LOCKDOWN ARCHIVES 2020 - 2021 -
SOFT DRIVE PROJECT WITH ARTSPACE
When I was first invited to participate in Soft Drive Mediators of Communal Memory, my initial response was one of cautiousness. As someone who moved to Ulverston only 12 years ago, there was the concern that I didn't know enough about the history of the town, and that I hadn't lived here long enough to consider myself part of its history. So I felt the best starting point was to explore the collection of artefacts and ephemera in the attic of Sir John Barrow Cottage, and to act more as a researcher into what these objects could share with me about Ulverston's history and identity.
The object that I immediately felt the most affinity with was a large copy of The Pilgrim's Progress. Not being religious, this was perhaps an unusual choice as the story is one of the most famous and recognisable Christian allegories. Written by John Bunyan and first published in 1678, I can't really tell you much more as I have never read it. Instead, it was the physical book itself that I was drawn to. Bigger than the average book, it was the size of a small box and very heavy, in part due to the large metal catch holding it's pages together. It's dark blue cover was an intricately gilded collection of ornamental patterns combined with decorative text and small insets showing figures, coats of arms, and buildings.
When I carefully opened it to look inside, in the front end papers I found a list of the marriage and birth dates of the family it had belonged to. Reading more about this, it seems it was common practice for a family bible to be used to house such important information, and in this case it seems The Pilgrim’s Progress was used instead. This book would most likely have been something that was read to the family by the head of the house as an act of worship, with the dates written inside showing it’s importance to this specific family.
As a book collector, this use of the book as something to both regularly read but also to actually write into fascinates me. We have a complex relationship with books. I love to open a book I found in a charity shop and discover that it has the name of the original owner in. Occasionally there will be more exciting details like an address, or the date, and sometimes even a note that it was awarded as a school prize. Common are handwritten notes, underlined sentences or highlights, alongside bookmarks and folded page corners. Other book bounty I have found include handwritten lists of species found by nature enthusiasts, pressed wildflowers and once even a small hand made plastic wallet containing three Jay feathers. Rather than seeing these extras and annotations as vandalism, I celebrate them as signs that the books I now carefully store and handle were once regularly used for their purpose as study aids or bearers of practical information. Although I think nothing of making notes or lines in cheap modern books, I would never do this to these books. When I ask myself why, I think it's because they have lasted long enough to become an antiquarian book, meaning the physical aspects of the books binding and design, alongside it's date, edition number or some other attribute make it more than just something to pick up and read. By standing the test of time these everyday books have accumulated value to me.
That fact The Pilgrim's Progress contains the most important of dates for it's original family of course makes it even more special. Objects in any historic collection are interesting in the physical properties of their design, or the materials or processes used to create them. But for me it's when I start to think about the people they were originally owned by that they begin the transformation from an object of the past, to a representation, a guide, a clue holder, or a key to the people that once used them. This led me to thinking about guest books, a book many people write in as a record of those who have visited a specific place.
When working in the cottage people would often enter the building and share a story of the last time they were there as teenagers getting sweets, or collecting a newspaper with their dad. As the building has had many different functions and identities, it has become part of the communal memory of people living in Ulverston. Of course for some it was their first visit, and many made comments that they had never been inside but often been curious. Although there are of course those who have a strong interest in Sir John Barrow and his story, it seemed that the cottage through it's age and the gravitas it evokes has become a place where the everyday or personal history of Ulverston can be shared and celebrated. And at a time when we are as a society are facing with more honesty the problems of British colonial history and its key figures - which is very necessary and requires time and asking lots of difficult questions, a task I intend to focus on in future projects – for this project I was keen to refocus the attention of my work on the people of Ulverston and their own stories rather then on the figure of Sir John Barrow himself.
From this I began to think about what I could create for the project. I decided rather then making a guest book – and I should add the cottage already has a rather nice guest book already – I wanted to make an object which could house the individual experiences and memories of people who had visited the cottage in its many forms over the years. I planned to make a box, about the same size as the copy of the Pilgrim's Progress, inspired by the design of the cover but with images relevant to Ulverston and the cottage site. My intention was that people could write down their memories of the building, and these could be stored in the box for others to read in the future.
However of course mid-project the Coronavirus pandemic began, and for a short while I wasn't able to see what use my memory box could be. To continue as I had planned seemed silly given the context, especially as it was unlikely people would be able to visit the building or add their contributions for some time. At a time where the ways our community communicates was changing so suddenly it felt like it would be best to focus on other areas of the project for the time being.
A few months later lockdown had become an established part of our lives, and I saw many comments on social media sharing posts of daily walks, the new local places people had discovered, and the role nature had played in offering relief in such a difficult period. I began to think about how lucky I was to live in a small town with such a wonderful community and so many beautiful places only 10 minutes walk away. The pandemic has caused so much trauma, loss and difficulty, but the tiny ways people have found to make the day to day more manageable seemed like they were important and should be acknowledged in some small way. From conversations with friends and John Hall I came to the idea of the book box being a place to collect stories of the local places people have visited, and the walks or daily routines that they created in the lockdown period. We invited people to send in stories of their journeys, walks and wanders around Ulverston during lockdown, and also of the regular routines and rituals that they created during this time. It was also important to me that we included people who had been shielding or were unable to leave the house, so we also invited stories about what people had seen through the window or in their garden, and where they were most looking forward to visiting locally again. By collecting these my hope is that this will act as a record of the town and by the town of how we all navigated the various stages in the lockdown period as it happened, and also as a guide that others can use as we enter lockdown or a similar situation again in the future.
The stories people have sent in have been very beautiful. They seem to acknowledge how spring and summer of 2020 were extremely difficult for many, while also capturing the little moments of peace that people have found in the park, or sitting in their yard. How working on an allotment or watching chicks in nests has aided people in getting through the first stage of the pandemic, and a reminder that having a creative hobby or the company of a pet can be a help on difficult days. I would love for the project to grow slowly over time and perhaps evolve into a small book one day. So I'd like to end my essay thanking anyone who has shared, or goes on to share, their lockdown story with us.
