On Mon, 15 Feb 1999 01:46:40 -0500 "Tony.Brewis"
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hence my questions to Peter Claughton -- who does bother, and why
should
> people care?
Tony,
I recently gave a presentation at the ARC, in York, on MEdieval
lead working. As a result of the press release to the Yorkshire Post,
three people came in to speak to me about the history of lead mining in
Swaledale (embarassing, because I'd told the Yorkshire Post I was to
talk about lead smelting. I'm no expert on mining). Two of these
visitors were chasing information about their family histories, because
they came from Swaledale originally, and had traced their families back
to there. What they wanted was to be able to picture the life of their
ancestors, in terms of actual daily life, and they wanted to be able to
empathise with the way of life that their families developed in.
The other lad was a photographer, who had spent a lot of time
in Swaledale, and wanted to know, basically, what he was photographing,
how it came about, and why. Swaledale is quite a good area for that,
because there is a lot of obvious, easily explained workings. Lawrence
Barker does a lot of tours around the area, billed as tours of the
lead-workings, and the ones I saw were well subscribed (despite
appaulling weather, on one occasion). I remember as a child (I come
from the Lanarkshire coalfields) being fascinated by the effect of
mining on the landscape, and I think that is a factor in terms of why
people care.
> So how can this interest be converted into (financial) support for
> mining historians?
If I knew anything about money, I wouldn't be an archaeologist.
Hope this helps
Ken
----------------------
Ken Hamilton
c/o Department of Archaeological Sciences
University of Bradford
Richmond Road
Bradford BD7 1DP
West Yorkshire UK
(01274) 235906
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