Graffiti

Some limited views from a church attic in 2019:

The most obvious point to make is that these could be fake. Someone could have been playing around and writing fake dates. There’s no proof that H. L. was up there in 1887 or that Herb (Reece? Reed?) was there in the 1890s. There were however a few physical issues that make the dates believable. The church was built in the 1830s, and has long had structural issues with its roof, so there’s little doubt that people were working in the unused attic late in the nineteenth century; the incredibly thick dust suggested that no one had been up there for decades before me. The fact that they were writing in chalk rather than Sharpie suggests it’s not recent. It may be less convincing, but Herb’s handwriting style, even in chalk, seems old-fashioned to me.

Assuming the dates are real, that plank is somewhere between 130 and 190 years old and it looks fantastic. That statement isn’t just me being distracted by some graffiti: the edges of the planks are sharp, suggesting that water, fungi, and insects have not been active in the area. That’s useful information.

Finally, and for me the most memorable fact about this site visit, I left my flashlight up there somewhere, hopefully to be found circa 2100.