My groups drift, which we embarked on last week, took us to two places of interest, both of which we all found intriguing and slightly creepy!

The first was a desolate playground. Some pictures were taken by Anna, who will be uploading them shortly, but the area was essentially the remains of what used to be a childrens playground (a slide is still standing, be it in a questionable state…). As a group, we found this to be a really enticing space, as it had an air of creepiness around it, as well as the possibility to explore childhood in the city in past decades.

The second site was an old building near to this playground, formerly known as the Lincoln Equitable Cooperative Industrial Society Lmt. The building is now a student accomadation, but the exterior remains as it did when it was first built (1861 according to archives online). After a bit of research, I have found some archived files surrounding the building, which encompasses budgets and costs of stock, suggesting the building was used in some sort of industrial way as the name suggests. In the archives, records of deaths of workers have also been noted, with reference to the ‘death of mr M Smaller. This could be something interesting to focus in on, if the other idea surrounding childhood falls through.

Anyway, that is the initial research our group has done on the building so far, more extensive research will no doubt follow.

Link to the archive online: http://archive.lincolnshire.coop/1910/1913_-_Directors%27_Report_-_part_1.pdf

Nick Wilson