All That Mighty Heart

Engineers Report Book January 19^th 1875

I beg to report the current wages at the Goldstone works;

J Baker 2/10/- a week Engineer

T Waite 24/- day Stoker

G Cosham 20/- day Stoker

King 22/- day Stoker

Adams 22/- Labourer

R Alderton 1/- a week Office boy

A Colessida 26/- Is a fitter and repairs meters and fixes the same, and sluice and sometimes assists the turncock

My Notebook September 2009

Ladies and Gentlemen, I beg to report that the mountain of material in the store changes the shape of the undertaking. Plans and documents have been clarified free from copyright and reproduction issues, -and importantly costs, thus the publication has taken on a new life. The Jackdaw and the Engineers Notebook Series inspire and Waterworks memo’s, notes and plans have been scanned and reviewed over this recent school holiday.

On a recent visit to the workshop ideas were discussed. Whilst partaking of a beverage with the Goldstone workers ‘Brass’ as a title is now discarded on discovering it is an alloy and not present in the machinery (only on plaques around the building.) After talk of the true description of a cog I returned to notice the silence of the building and the sound of the Edward Funnell clock. I proceeded to film the situation. Adding this feeling of standstill to my mind map a clear theme and final title emerge – in the words of Wordsworth ‘All that Mighty Heart Stands Still’

My thoughts no longer feel compromised, but fed, by all the findings which now, through their own quality and quantity, find their own life in a unique pubication.

Here I am thinking I’m following a new direction when it appears that my past is just re- emerging! ‘Art and the Industrial Revolution’ (Klingender), which kick started my reading, is the book I discovered during A level Art.

Recent attempts at more technically accurate drawings reminded me of my Rotring pens and my nostalgia for once tracing out Future Bold on a light box, before the days of computer typography. I’ve dug out my much cherished pens (some were my Father’s from his mine surveying day) and abandoned any thoughts of charcoal (a fleeting ‘coal like’ consideration) Revisiting old sketchbooks (hunting down a drawing I once did of a Lego man- for my little boy!) I found the Sheeler like drawings I made of the steelworks in my native Yorkshire.

It all stacks up! A deep affection for the industrial landscape and people combined with the satisfaction I get from a graphic meticulousness. I am about to do a timeline of my life and list all my past creative obsessions and see if there is anything else that sits comfortably amid all this research.