Self Medicating

I spent the day at the archives, which was great fun as always, but after a day of bowing my neck over the fine details of tithe files my head protests a little. Not much, but enough to warrant an easy night in.

The most exciting part was when I looked up one map, saw it was accessible only 'with the assistance of the conservation staff' but that there was a photo version. 'Aha!' thought I, 'I shall get the copy, and save the hassle!'. But no, I handed in my request form and two minutes later the archivist was at my shoulder, slightly bemused and apologetic that the photo version was apparently unfit for production. 'Riiiiight' I said, 'well, it will have to be the real one then.' He nodded and explained I may have to go to the conserving room to look at it, but would get right on to sorting it out. 'Oooh, to the conservation room!' - I was a little worried - my task for the day had similarities to the hunt for that long lost needle. Before too long I was told one of the team members would come down to help me look at it in the main room. Slightly less pressure to make good use of this difficult document then.

At 3:10 I turned around to see a pair of people bristling with conservation brushes and picks carrying an enormous roll up to my table. 'It'll need the whole table' they declared as I quickly pulled my sprawl of notes, books and pencils into order. I quickly understood just what difficulties this document posed. It was the size of a small quilt, and wasn't too keen on being seen. As they unrolled it, weighting it as they went, a beautiful 1770s estate/parish map was revealed, complete with crest and compass. It wasn't complicated, it wasn't difficult, but it was wonderful to look at.

Whether I had found it useful or not I would have spent a good hour looking at it. As it happened it was very useful, although I'm still a little uncertain of its pinpoint location. The boundaries seemed to be a little skewed compared to modern maps, and what was an obvious landmark on two maps only served to confuse it when another was added in. But that doesn't matter, it showed me yet another example of what I was hoping to find, and gave me a little moment of joy to see the pride taken almost 240 years ago.