Our Work on Food - More Information

Emma Gagg – Cooking food at Middlewood on the fire

When we were making and lighting the camp fire to cook our lunch we collected thin but long sticks off tree branches and the ground to make the base of the fire. Bambi (middlewood tutor) made the base of the fire in a triangular prism. We used tissue that was inside a cotton wool pad to light the fire and we used a flint to make sparks go onto the tissue to start the fire. Once the sparks got in touch with the tissue it reacted with the oxygen in the air, burnt the tissue and set the fire off. Afterwards we had our lunch cooked over it then we cooked marsh mallows over the fire with a long stick (obviously we cleaned the stick first!). After that we made a little fire and then went to the river and crossed it and had loads of fun!

We went to Bolton Museum and found some information about Seven Acres! We looked at some maps from 245 years ago in the museum and we also looked at some weird block ink painting things too. From the maps we found that Arable land was used for farming and that a man called John Parker was the owner of Seven Acres and some of the surrounding neighbourhoods.

When we looked at the maps I found that before my house was even built there were no houses on my street or surrounding streets, just, as usual for 245 years ago fields for farming!

The weird block ink painting things were made by Bolt Stamps. Bolt stamps were made from a block of wood, usually sycamore (like those planted at Seven Acres), with strips of copper inserted edgeways into the wood to create decorative patterns and pictures. These could be very elaborate, and sometimes involved more than one colour. The stamp was one method to add a logo to the cloth so that the bleachwork could recognise its work.

The maps in the museum were very old so we had to put long leather snakes (long heavy ropes with beans in that looked like snakes!) to hold them down because the maps are rolled up and stored in a cupboard unti lthe next time they are used. The maps and bolt stamps were very delicate so they take good care of them because they only have one of each and they cant just go down into town and get a new one. They also had extra protection over the block ink paintings. They told us to wear gloves because we have sweat and germs on our hands so it may damage them.