Planned Environment Therapy Trust

On Saturday 17th November, P.E.T.T. project archivist Matt and his father Nick - talk about super-Volunteers! - drove up to the heart of Scotland. They took the 12 hour journey up in order to evaluate and retrieve a number of tin trunks filled with records related to Richard Crocket from the Crocket family cottage there. The next day they began the long return trip to PETT, to store the trunks and to begin processing the materials within. Having soaked the experience in, Matt shares the adventure here:

The journey was long but beautiful; complicated only by a glitch in the 'sat nav' which took us through the centre of Birmingham (unfortunately, straight past Cadbury's World) and a further issue with refuelling the large white van – where does the nozzle go? (Under a 'hidden' compartment by the front passenger side side-panel, as it happens..) We managed to stop at Granny Naylor's house in Cumbria en-route for a light lunch (during which I managed to carefully fix her antique string barrel - easier said than done.)

(Just for fun, Granny Naylor's amazing antique rotating string barrel, post-fix!)

Light snowfall heralded our arrival in Scotland, but served only to make the scene more attractive – as did a mass dance of starlings by the roadside. 

Roadside views taken in Scotland

It was rather late by the time we arrived, but we were expected and the cottage was warm and welcoming. We decided to plan the return trip and turned in for the night, but not before leaving some peanuts out for the local badgers by the back door and spending some time staring at the stars in the clear night sky.

The van by the cottage and the contents of one of the trunks 'in situe'.

On the Sunday morning, we carefully loaded the trunks into the van, having mapped their positions and order with the camera and checked the contents. First impressions were of a wide-range of interesting and exciting material, the nature of which will become more apparent through the subsequent processes of summarising and cataloguing.

Photograph taken of a loch near the cottage

Following this, we left at midday aiming to reach the North-East of England in the evening as a stopping-off point, hoping to avoid the anticipated snowfall which was forecast for Monday in Scotland. Setting off from home on the Monday, we arrived at PETT in the early afternoon and accessioned the trunks. Thanks must go to Ruth for making this fantastic experience possible.