Our Salisbury office is huge, amazing and fantastically friendly but it was the archives that really stole my heart – oh, and the Barrow Clump sword, and the flint sherds, and the complete Roman vessels and the bone garlands – the list does indeed go on and on!
It’s safe to say that I was enchanted by all that our Salisbury office contains, but some things really did stand out. The first and most spectacular was the much talked about sword from Barrow Clump; we caught Conservator Lynn Wootten unwrapping it, and we were lucky enough to have a peek.
Next on the ‘feast for the eyes’ list was the finds room; this had two tables at about chest-height running down the length of the room. Their length is particularly handy when you’re putting bones back in the right order. Lining one side of the room were hand-cranked archive shelves housing all the finds.
Speaking of bones, there was a wealth of animal skulls in drawers and shelves, and a whole wall of strung vertebrae!
But where, you ask, are the pictures of the archives? Well, alas I didn’t get the chance to capture the scale of the archives stores, but imagine, if you will, three large rooms with soft yellow lighting, corners framed by the odd spider web, and row upon row, shelf upon shelf of archives! I spent most of Friday in there, and it was wonderfully immersive.
Many thanks to everyone I encountered who answered all my questions and made me feel so welcome down in Salisbury. Hopefully we’ll see you in Sheffield one day!
By Emma Carter