Lothu Wistoft, the name of the town and now the Project in which I have begun, at the time of the 9th and 10th century was not an academic endeavour inspired by a deep knowledge of experimental archelogy.
It came from a gate latch.
The gate on our front garden was wooden construction, made well before I turned up, and I had struggled to keep it going. Metal latches rusted, the wood itself on the gate was struggling to hold the screws that came with the latches. I had played a lot with woodwork and metalwork that was appropriate of the time already. Having a background in re-enactment and historical interest I knew a certain level of, lets call it authentic mechanical construction already. Therefore, I took the problem and made the simplest latch I could, it consisted of a single bar with a handle being placed within the bar using a simple hole and notch and 2 closed brackets.
Charred and oiled as weatherproofing, again another authentic mechanic of the time. It worked. It did exactly what it needs to do and without sounding egotistical, much better than the modern produced counterparts.
This then gave me the idea of go a little further. I missed the days of re-enactment but not because I enjoyed it but due to the fact it was touching the surface of a time I was interested in and what I was truly seeking.
Embodied understanding and knowledge.
The need to go beyond artifact reproduction authenticity and into functional mechanics, the authentic mindset of the time, learnt and lived through what they had and what they did…not what we have found.As a hobby I had of blacksmithing and a workshop I had built by myself, with reclaimed materials, I set upon the very thing that I believe was, in the time and now is within this project, one of the linchpins of civilisation and advancement and that was blacksmithing.
This required a forge. How far do I take it, non clumping cat litter?, as it has clay based properties, and earth? Slapped and punched into a box? No, I went deep dive and found Suffolk clay that would have been accessible to the very people I am exploring. Then I would need a saw horse, made with peg and pivot joints. The pegs harvested from an oak tree someone had felled in Suffolk that was easily a few hundred years old and I had been seasoning in my loft for over a year.
Now I need a bench, and anvil set, a possible exploration of the composition of the clay that holds rather fantastic thermal properties without a need to introduce charcoal…though I did anyway.
None of it was planned toward a conclusion, towards an Epistemology that would guide the reasoning and create the boundary of plausible authenticity. Each step was a discrete problem solved with available materials and honest reasoning.
The accumulation of those solutions is the Lothu Wistoft Project.
