What is history? Is it cold hard facts about things that happened before we were born or is it a living thing and process that evolves as time passes? Of course it's the latter, but you'd sometimes be forgiven for thinking it's the former!
I've been lucky enough to get hold of a whole load of pictures of the old S&D which I've been uploading over the last week or two, but they don't mean that much to me, lovely as they are, because I was only a few years old when they were taken, or not even born when the top picture above was taken!
Whilst the original meeting that formed the S&D back in 1856 is incredibly important and historic, what we are doing now to me is just as important - and should be recorded with the same thoroughness. History didn't stop in 1966, or 1948, or 1930 or 1874. It just keeps going. Over the span of time the few decades when the S&D was closed will seem like a peculiar anomaly, looking back on the S&D in a century's time the line will be seen as an arrow of progress with just a short imtermission when the world went mad!
So it's importantthat we record what we're doing now. Photos, prose, artefacts - they will all mean a great deal to our descendents. The story of the rebuilding of the S&D will be an inspiration to so many struggling against energy shortages and a whole host of problems we can't even begin to predict in the latter half of the 21st century.
Part of our role at te New S&D is to record both the old S&D and the new. Photos, memories and artefacts are always welcomed! Through the website we are beginning to build up a photographic collection covering all aspects of the S&D, the original line and the revival. If you are out and about along the S&D please send us your photos! And if you have photos of the original line both when running or between closure and reopening, especially those that capture unusual angles, workings, people etc etc please allow us to add them to our archive and to reach a bigger audience via the blog and website.
Even when toiling to make a living or struggling to get through each day we're in the midst of history - don't let it slip away! Where history's concerned nothing is ordinary or run of the mill!
