The urge to leave a mark in the landscape – a part of you or a reminder that you were there, once, even long after you are gone – is undoubtedly a universal feeling, and one that has been with us since we humans first started ‘thinking’. The cave art seen in places like Lascaux and others are believed to be ritual and ‘Shamanic‘ in nature, as well as displaying entoptic traits, probably drawn under the influence of hallucinogenic substances, and again ritual in origin. However, I am also convinced that some of them are the Upper Palaeolithic equivalent of “Kilroy Woz ‘Ere”.
Graffiti can be an eyesore – scrawls and rude words for example. But it can also be rather beautiful; there is some amazing ‘street art’ out there, done by people with phenomenal talent. However, it must be stated that even the rude word variety has an impressive heritage – the Romans were famous for it! Even medieval churches were not immune to it – if eternal hellfire and damnation isn’t deterrent enough, an asbo certainly won’t cut the mustard.
But it is the humble name that is most often written; a cry in the wilderness of life, and wish to be remembered, to have left a mark, however small, so that some part of you is immortal. Now, I’m not about to post a bunch of photographs of random spraypainted words… no, no, no! This graffiti has some age to it.
Nowadays, any moron can (and frequently does) use spraypaint, marker pen, emulsion, or any one a number of other ways to leave their mark. However, back in the Victorian period, if you wanted to write your name, you really had to mean it! Armed with a hammer and a heavy duty chisel, and a good few minutes whilst you etched your initials permanently into stone. It is surprisingly common to come across this sort of thing, but recently I have been photographing the ones I see in Glossop. I have more photographs somewhere, but for now, may I present ‘Gone, But No Longer Forgotten’.
As I say, I do have more somewhere, and I’ll post them when I find them. In the meantime, if anyone knows of any more, let me know. I have some on my garden wall that are particularly interesting, but I’m saving them for their own post.
Next blog post will involve pottery… probably.
Or Victoria Bridge.
Anyway, Happy New Year to you all, and as always, comments are welcome… especially if you know the identity of any of these miscreants!
RH
The Glossop Cabinet of Curiosities 
Hi Tim, this is some carving I spotted last summer, on a stone wall at the corner of Fauvel Rd. & Spire Hollin. Also a benchmark on the wall facing you as you walk down the path behind the farm, at the bottom of ‘The Bonk’, leading to Bank St. Regards, Sandra. [Image]
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Hi Sandra.
Excellent stuff, and many thanks for this.
Except… I can’t seem to see the photographs! I think the issue is with WordPress; it is a fussy programme to use – I’ll see what I can do with it to allow you to post photographs. In the meantime, if you could email them to me at ‘contact’ (the link is just below the banner at the top), I can post them (with your name attributed, obviously) into a new blog entry, along with some new ones of mine.
Honestly though, thanks for contributing, and thanks for taking the time to post.
RH
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