Saturday 15th December 2018
On a bitterly cold, damp, bone-biting day, we met at St
Mary’s Church, to greet a visitor from Minneapolis.
Katie Thornton is a Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellow http://www.itskatiethornton.com/deathinthedigitalage/
– which means she is exploring what burial spaces mean to people around the
world, especially as increasing pressure on burial spaces forces us to
re-configure our approach to commemorating and remembering our dead. She uses “digital
storytelling” as the medium to explore these issues.
After warming up a bit
with cups of tea and coffee, we ventured outside to give Katie a tour of our
very typical Dales churchyard. As we explained, there’s nothing particularly
unique about St Mary’s, but in our view that’s precisely what makes it so special.
It represents the normal, the mundane, the grassroots history of a small
community. This churchyard represents the history of ordinary people over many generations.
There are no famous people – here we have the final resting places of mill workers,
quarrymen, farmers and agricultural labourers, shopkeepers, teachers, craftsmen,
and their families. Their life histories can stand in for the lives of ordinary
folk across the country since the mid-Victorian period.
Back at Sue’s house,
over a good buffet (thanks, Sue!), we had a wide-ranging discussion about how
we have carried out our churchyard project, how it has brought together a team
of people with a range of skills and interests, and what the project means to
each of us – after all, we each have different perspectives, although happily
these dovetail nicely into each other.
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| Sue explains our project methodology to Katie |
We were so absorbed in
the discussions we completely forget that Katie was recording everything throughout
the day. What could have been a bit daunting actually passed us by,
we were so engaged in chatting with Katie. The day sped by and before we knew
it, it was time for her to leave so she could catch her train back to York.
It was a very useful
exercise simply talking informally with an interested outsider, making us
reassess why we are doing this project, and clarifying what we feel we can get
out if it, and where we take it in the future. Katie was delightful company, and it was a
very pleasant day.
Jane Lunnon
