Laserdisc, you say? Format of the future, you say?Once upon a time, a weak-willed boy called Kristian was press-ganged into doing some high-level geekiness for the 1986 reinterpretation of the Domesday project.
Following a breathtaking lack of interest (globally, nationally or. even more damning in a county of spectacularly unexceptional news, locally) and the almost immediate obsolescence of the technology involved in recording it, this plutonium-grade example of my total lack of cool as a teenager was buried, seemingly never to be rediscovered.
Unfortunately, this did not factor in two things: one, the persistence and diligence of the National Archive in pursuing the restoration of the data and two, the eye for detail, hitherto unrecognised in Mr Julian Cosson, for bringing my contribution (and the evidence thereof) back to my attention.
My reserved thanks are tossed idly in the general direction of both these parties.
Just so we're clear, I didn't do any work on it. I would've been smoking fags and pulling chicks with the cool kids down at Kelly's Arcade (please note, may not actually have happened) - I probably got Paul Matta and Simon Twining to do my bits in exchange for one of my sandwiches.
And with that grubby example of revisionism in action, I shall leave you to ponder the nature of history and subjectivity, particularly with reference with the Domesday Books (of both the 11th and the 20th Centuries). Or not.
6 comments:
i remember taking the very photograph you feature there. Mr Smith and I drove round the parishes trying to find a good spot and arrived at Penpillick hill.
Also remember that although Poltair was in St Austell, that square on the map had already been taken so we got Par instead
I'm back.
This gave me much pleasure. Though the text does become boring I think we can consider it a high watermark for those admittedly very low watered times.
I particularly like what was written about the dirty council houses in St Blazey. A priceless record certainly equal in value to the original domesday book.
Your memory does you credit - I recall so very, very little.
Now you mention it, the fact that we got to talk about Par, rather than St Austell does ring bells - I can remember there being some resentment about this, no doubt fuelled by hormonal imbalances.
That resentment is now back up to a tidy simmer - the task of detailing important contemporary information about St Austell was given to Mount Charles Primary School; who saw fit to write predominantly about bus routes.
And it's a travesty that so much of the county has no textual records at all.
thanks for reminding me of something all the subsequent years of smoking and drinking at VI Form College had managed to erase from my memory.... How did we get roped in for this Kris? I certainly don't remember willingly volunteering for this..
after further reading i am very happy to say that i disctinctly remember interviewing Farmer George.. Give me another week or so and i could probably pick him out in a line-up...
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