A first delve into the depths of the quarry this week. I’ve been particularly nervous about this site since I first came to investigate at the start of the project and my fears have not been eased at all after spending the last two mornings here. A quiet place, out of sight and largely out of mind. It’s so close to civilisation, yet could not be further from it. I described The Boffy as wild, but somehow this is a step closer towards complete wilderness. It seems its proximity to the road only adds to the feeling of utter isolation. A man-made void.
The first day I got stuck straight into an excavation down at the deepest point. This was mainly due to the fact that I had help (my husband came along for the adventure) and therefore I was a combination of slightly braver and slightly trying to keep up the pretence of professionalism by just getting on with the job. It was also hugely helpful having another pair of hands when there’s lots of stuff to lug down a quarry!
I carried out a 3m x 3m excavation of an area almost directly in the centre of the site. The physical challenge is really in the terrain for firstly navigating through, then being able to mark out areas within. The undergrowth is thick and often impenetrable without some kind of garden shears or machete. My areas will have to be small. There is a high density of finds though. In this small section I collected 32 finds in total. I presume it has on occasion been used as a dumping ground but in some respect not half as much as you would expect from a place like this. Surely a large hole in the ground that no one really bothers to see is the perfect place to get rid of your unwanted mattress (or maybe its just too invisible). So most of the finds uncovered indicated human occupation – drinks bottles, food cartons, carrier bags and sweet wrappers. There were also some random finds, a bike lock, something that looked like the inside of a speaker, some as of yet unidentifiable plastic parts of something and rubber tubing tied round a tree.
Day two was spent there alone and this altered the experience considerably. Unlike The Boffy, I didn’t feel the threat in who I might meet but more in what I might find. I felt considerably uneasy about coming across something sinister, gruesome or dangerous. The floor is covered with thick ivy, so knowing what you are treading on before you get there is impossible. It is a place that you really can only feel your way around step by step. Much of it is like working your way through a jungle. This being the case I decided it was time I attempted to charter the unchartered and work out the layout through a map. So quite blindly, I attempted to navigate my way through pathways and link things up spatially. At the end I was still left with large areas of blank, that may never be known, hidden forever behind the layer upon layer of relentless undergrowth.
This has got to be the most inhospitable place in Letchworth. I stumbled out by lunch time, aching, itchy and exactly like I’d been dragged through several hedges backwards and retreated to the relative comfort of my studio. I spent the afternoon looking back over my photos and sketches and attempted to make sense of it. It seems hard to conceive that places like this actually exist and aren’t part of a theme park. I’m sure you would pay good money to feel the adrenaline pumping and the disorientation of my morning’s expedition.
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