Kingsdown House Graffiti Tony Hack September 2018
Above: Inscription on window
Tony Hack is a specialist in medieval graffiti, leading the Wiltshire Medieval Graffiti Survey, part of the Wiltshire Archaeological Field Group. Tony came to Box recently and had a look at the markings on buildings at Kingsdown House. He wrote to us with some initial thoughts and may be able to undertake more work on the house. We hope he can. This is his initial report.
Here are a couple of images produced after the Box Library talk in the summer about Kingsdown House. They were generated on the fly as we only had a small lamp with us. The inscriptions as you are aware are in some of the outhouses. The inscription above reads: Was but my Celia kind, Then nothing in the world I'd mind. March 1758 and endorsed June 1760. There are other marks on glass windows, shown below.
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Understanding the Inscriptions
We've had a chat with our friends at Minerva Stone about the origins of the stone and a quick appraisal suggests they would be from the Box Mine with no specifics on area as once the stone weathers it becomes very generic. The inscriptions may have been done to order, locally as well. We do find a lot of re-use of stone that shows a different original purpose and the obvious answer would be to use something that is freely or cheaply available.
We've had a chat with our friends at Minerva Stone about the origins of the stone and a quick appraisal suggests they would be from the Box Mine with no specifics on area as once the stone weathers it becomes very generic. The inscriptions may have been done to order, locally as well. We do find a lot of re-use of stone that shows a different original purpose and the obvious answer would be to use something that is freely or cheaply available.
What is interesting is the number of styles that could be recorded and typed accordingly, this extends to the font and writing.
An interesting project that we'd be happy to help with. If you'd like to suggest some future dates then we'll do our best to accommodate them. Wall inscriptions above and below (courtesy Claire Radnedge and Tony Hack)
An interesting project that we'd be happy to help with. If you'd like to suggest some future dates then we'll do our best to accommodate them. Wall inscriptions above and below (courtesy Claire Radnedge and Tony Hack)
Incidentally the following comes from a lady in Canada who got in touch about her great grandmother:
Thanks for pics! Kate Bull died several years before I was born but was told she was a stern woman, she took no guff !
She & g-granddad immigrated to Canada in 1907. Her dad Thomas was a stone breaker who died in 1900 in Kingsdown, Box.
Can anyone help find details of Thomas and Kate - did they live at Kingsdown House?
Thanks for pics! Kate Bull died several years before I was born but was told she was a stern woman, she took no guff !
She & g-granddad immigrated to Canada in 1907. Her dad Thomas was a stone breaker who died in 1900 in Kingsdown, Box.
Can anyone help find details of Thomas and Kate - did they live at Kingsdown House?
The contact for Tony and the Medieval Graffiti Survey is: www.wiltshire-medieval-graffiti-survey.com
Tony is giving a talk to Box NATS 15 January 2019 entitled Enigmatic Inscriptions from the Past: A presentation of Wiltshire's historical graffiti. See NATS website for more details www.boxnats.com/
Tony is giving a talk to Box NATS 15 January 2019 entitled Enigmatic Inscriptions from the Past: A presentation of Wiltshire's historical graffiti. See NATS website for more details www.boxnats.com/