Archives: "there is something about the smell and feel of a one hundred and twenty year old piece of paper.."

 

Greetings to all the readers. My name is Dennis Bourne and I am a second year history student at the Manchester Metropolitan University. I have had the pleasure of working with the staff at Bury archive for the past 3 to 4 months; and have been blessed with the opportunity to do some research work on the Bealey archives. Myself and my research partner Ashley Parkes ( whose blog you may have already read) have been tasked with finding out as much as we can about the Bealey bleach works and the trade marks they used.

One of the colourful images which were stuck onto wrapped bolts of cloth for export.

This has been a blessing as we have had the chance to gain access to a wealth of original documents, which you just don’t get to access at university, unless they are online. Trust me, there is something about the smell and feel of a one hundred and twenty year old piece of paper which a computer screen will never replace. One of things I found most interesting were the large leather bound catalogue books of what we believe to be Trade Marks, Combination Marks and Bolt labels. Here is a sample of some of the designs contained in one of the catalogues.

One of the catalogues was in a really bad state when it was presented to the archives, and had to be sent for repair and restoration. This gave us the opportunity to meet Nic in the conservation department at Greater Manchester County Records Office (Nic you’re a legend!!); see some of the designs in the damaged volume; and learn about some of the techniques in restoration (I now know how to bind a book).

 

I won’t ramble, but I would like to thank Joanne, Gill, Karen, Kirsty and Donna at Bury for making us feel at home, and hopefully (or maybe not) you will hear from me again soon. Goodbye readers.

Dennis

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