Disaster Strikes Again


When we went the Library in February 2015 we had access to approx 5 boxes of Log Books, Photo Albums and a load of other random stuff from the school. With most of it being so hard to read & no permission to take photos of the pages to OCR them nor knowing just where to begin reading Dates Wise. after two hours of squinting at decades of scrawl i gave in
I took a few varied focus photos of one single log page of none compromising information (for OCR testing) and some photos of actual photos, as did another researcher & then we left.

 The intention then (after seeing the mess we faced) was to see if Mr Crilly (former head) would contact the library to arrange it so that we could photo pages to bring home and transcribe them to work out what can be used and what can't. My knowledge regarding the sending of this email, it's contents and the overhaul communication between the former head & the library is patchy and cryptic at best.
But I was told the result of all this faffing & time lost waiting was now finally over and..
     Apparently "We Had The Ok"

When finally getting back to the library in May 2015 we sat around for 15 mins then spent a further 10 mins talking about the reasons why we can't look at stuff we had already had access to.  In essence they evoked the 100 year rule & would not give us access to anything that's not older than 100 years. Anything we had access to that "Bridged Across The 100 Years" it was said not to be looked at, even though it was part of the book we could look at. So...

We got cut back from 5+ boxes.. to 3 log books & 2 registers & a punishment book...

3 Log Books Packed With Information I Already Mostly Knew
 So I have had a flat out no from the library holding the information. I asked who id need to talk too, and the reply was "you already are and we are saying no".  

 How the.. does that work for other documentary teams looking for Dates people came, went & events?.. 


We don't even know the exact date the Boys & Girls departments merged.. and now we never will. Future generations will, if the logs still exist in the next 200+ years.. 200? yip, we can estimate 200 years till that info will be public.. wtf
Also With zero photos emailed to us and now zero access to newer logbooks, there is nothing i can do....

As it stands, i have 1 log page from 1983 (mr hinccliffe notes mr ormerod retiring)
I have some Walter F Tomkins Log Pages (boys 1st head)
I have some Miss K E Jones Log Pages (girls 1st head)
I have some Miss Helen L. Smellie Log Pages (infants 1st head)
and photos of a few event programmes, letters and bits and bobs
and some notes on the children's move when the army moved in.

I find it hard to believe that while i have worked my backside off on beachy related side projects to enhance the dvd with extras while awaiting months for this permission, I got Nothing I spent 3 months preparing to get, i got nothing i went for at all...
Its coming up to June now and I have spent months struggling to gather dates & names, done masses of calculations and arranging of information in such a check list way. So that when I went to the library, almost everything I needed would of been fairly simple to find, confirm and supposedly take an image of the notes made on that date to transcribe fully later.
As it stands now.. it's all been a waste of time... and not only is Beach Road fkd.. So is it's History..

Meanwhile stories and memories of Scarisbrick Avenue School and Walter Franklin Tomkins will live on.. In a modern, FREE, PUBLIC and Researchable format.. simply because I bothered
yet Beach Roads History wont??.  Not really.. Most its history sits in a private group & it's single copy of it's documents sit in a locked room..

Although I personally had plans to do a stack of "Log Page" videos regarding teachers retiring and seasonal events such as harvest festival, sports days and other moments from the schools history that former pupils could of narrated. The idea of Varied log videos has been cancelled and they wont be happening, not by me anyway.

I had been promised scans of photos with images of teachers that I needed to help visualize the log page(s) & the narration over it (from a few people, some id once called friends, or so i thought). I feel disappointed in the lack of anyone following through on them offers to send me the photos after all this time, but now that's a mood point anyway, due to the logs, but i certainly won't forget who helped and who simply figured who cares..

One poor guy run ragid tryna get the building listed, even risked being charged an unknown yet no doubt large amount of cash (being council related and permits an crap) to get the building listed, another guy got a petition going that was signed by 100's of people. The odd few tried to do things, while the vast majority did nada besides chat crap about being up for anything..

So as it stands, a dept of Sefton Council has let the building rot, Another dept has chosen to pull it down,  and Now... well another dept fks the ability to pay tribute and clarify its missing history?..
Congrats SEFTON MBC... 

So here's what it narrows down to...
It opened in 1908.. it gets knocked down in 2015.. The End..

I praise the handful of people who honestly took moments out of their days to actually help.. there haven't been many neither...  but too those who did.. i honestly appreciate it, even though this whole things fell on its face.

All in all i'm done with the main project, I'll post the odd bits from time to time, I'll update the odd page here and their, but that's it. I may do a scarisbrick video, but the beach road documentary video is canned. I have no car, I am not arguing with the library, I am not running round trying to arrange stuff (i have been doing 90+% of everything your looking at here and on facebook.. gimi a break.)

There is far to much info missing, far to much sly under handed crap going on too.
the trolling has affected my net statistics as other unrelated works i have done are targeted, spammed, rated down, i have put up with all that crap impacting my company and I kept going... till i found out no one else is still going forward with anything, in fact barely anyone has done anything at all.

The reality is some people tried, but they failed because they didn't understand how the council works (as of today  22nd May 2015)  the council have failed to respond to the objections, yet the contractors been chosen and a dates been set..  After the last 3 months i have worked on this history side of things.. frankly I don't have it in me to drag back the ground we have lost on the councils time scale and their avoidance of us, in essence theirs one chance, the objections, but that's it, and i wont be responsible for it.

A few tried and gave in, a load did nothing, a load had no idea that no one was still trying to save the school, in fact a fair few of us thought the fight was still going on. I am shocked people gave in when the council have skipped official stages but its their choice to ignore this hole in procedure and not try any further, I doubt we'd win anyway but that's the golden moment passing us by in the screen shot.


sadly.. i quit, i am not the only editor out their & i have worked far to many hours on this, its far from healthy, and i am sure if pupils wish to document something for the school then they will.

I am not disappointed in the people who gave in... i am disappointed in the fact no one helped them with this, the moment i started reading what they'd been doing it was clear the communication was with a guy who has not been involved in the school since 2009, i saw that right away, yet no one else saw it? and no one else really helped them with any knowledge?

Its disappointing that while ive worked my ass off, they too have ran round chasing their tails with no proper help from anyone while the council fkd them around..
If they'd got help & direction, we'd have an audience with the panel reviewing the objections.. we never will now.
Just as much my fault.. i assumed everyone knew what they were doing, little groups formed and wondered off leaving me under the impression some things where being handled, they never & its not their fault, they did try... and if I had not been ditched with all this editing and research side of it id of had an eye on their progress and seen what the council was doing to them. So a big fk you to that man who bailed on this.. a 2nd project he's fkd over with NO thought for anyone besides his own lazy sorry worthless ass, as for the threats and destroying the reunion possibilities that same said waste of space burnt his last bridge...

I cant change what's gone on.. wish i had the strength to carry on, i just find it really sad that a hand full of people got fkd over and wasted their time while i am on the assumption they where getting somewhere when in fact they were being played. Shame i never had the time to cover their back.. but more a shame no one covered their back for them, ya know.. while i was doing all this side of things.. Its pretty clear what ive been doing isn't it..  a good 80+%   of that group should hang their heads in shame.  Its been months...

Between the threats, the grave damage, the months spent working on this while 100's of other people not only Never helped, they sat by while others chased their tails in a stereo typical mbc rat race loop no one set them on the right road....

  80%    of     430 people =  WTF!!

Like i also said.. im good at what i do.. but i can't Pluck Visual Multimedia outa Fresh Air... Im also not ashamed to say my parents couldn't afford to get school photos every year.. and even of they did, it wouldn't cover other years i wasn't in.. let alone their.

No comments:

Post a Comment