By Kate Glew, volunteer
Since September 2012 I have been volunteering on the Social History Audit- inspecting all artefacts, inputting their details into a database and assessing their condition. Sometimes this proves a little more complicated than usual- sometimes we don’t even know what it is that we have picked up from the shelf!
Volunteering on the audit has provided a great opportunity to get some hands-on experience with the various objects that litter our history, from bottles (endless numbers of bottles it seems at times), to typewriters, to swords. Handling these items prompts the imagination- handling a sword; I can’t help but think about who might have owned it, what they were like, and what happened to them. There is also a very real sense of societal change when surveying the various objects- especially those that are little seen in modern day-to-day life.
One of the more wonderful aspects of the audit is being able to learn about the normal, every-day people whose stories aren’t usually remembered. We may only have a school medal or a photograph to provide a hint as to who someone was, but this is enough to recognise and commemorate their presence in history.
There is still so much to go through, and I am looking forward to see what else we uncover.
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