I love stories of ancient texts getting discovered in wall plaster of old houses being restored. Poems scribed by builders back in 1880-something not to be re-read until a few centuries later.
When I put in a new (period-correct Amsterdamse School) door in my last house, I hid a newspaper with 9-11 front page inside the paneling.
When I moved my young family to Bristol, we bought an old dresser in Bedminster, and the drawers were lined with 1950's promotional newspapers printed by the local Wills Tobacco factory for their workers, extolling the heath virtues of smoking fags. Fascinating.
It's only taken me 10 months to lay a reclaimed parquet floor in my kitchen extension. The cherry, next year, will be plumbing in a hand-me-down Danish ABC Pejse wood burning stove. Before I put down a new steel hearth plate, I couldn't resist mummifying a classic front page from The Sun - the first and last time I will by this comic. BP
Can't beat an unexpected link to the past. Last week I was trying to track down a leak in the roof and came across a local newspaper tucked into the rafters from 1897. I imagine the builder had read it during his lunchbreak and just left it there. Sadly, I couldn't move it without the pages falling apart but I can tell you that the local news on the Isle of Man hasn't changed much in the last 100 years or so. Which will come as no surprise to anyone who's visited the place...
ReplyDeleteNice stove. We miss not having one. Stoves make open fires seem laughable in their inefficiency and it makes you wonder why stoves weren't the norm in Britain.
ReplyDeleteBen if you ever get bored of motorcycles you could do a lot worse than starting a diy blog. Love your tales of ren-in-ovation
ReplyDeleteI worked in some tunnels under ministry buildings in London many years ago and in one brick recess was an old wooden chair with a newspaper dated the Monday after the famous first Wembley Cup Final of 1923 neatly folded on it.
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