Heritage Open Day Cyanotype Workshop

We had so much fun last weekend running our family cyanotype workshop in collaboration with Southborough Library for Heritage Open Day weekend! We could not have asked for more prefect weather to expose our prints.

The cyanotype process was used by botanist Anna Atkins in the mid 19th century to document different plant specimens such as ferns and algae and as such, secured her place in history as the first female photographer and first person to create a photobook. Atkins grew up in Tonbridge at Ferox Hall with her scientist father, John George Children, at a time when Southborough was still part of the domain of Tonbridge Castle. Some of you may have noticed the blue plaque that commemorates the two on the outside of the building.

The process involves coating paper with a solution of ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide to sensitise it to light. Then depending on the lighting conditions you can expose a print within 5-7 minutes (just as we did yesterday) and then simply rinse in water to develop and fix the print to reveal its beautiful blue appearance. This is where the term 'blueprint' originates from.

Our participants had lots of materials to choose from; flowers, foliage, feathers, beads, letters, lace and even a few negatives of archive postcards and photographs of Southborough to design their creations. It was the perfect activity to tie in with the Heritage Open Day's 2023 theme of 'Creativity Unwrapped', and amazing to think we were using the same process in the same Kent sunshine that Anna Atkins did over 150 years ago!

Thank you to everyone who attended the workshop and for making such wonderful prints. It was inspiring to hear so many of you to continued exploring the process in your own time. Here are some images of our photographers in action and just a snapshot of all the cyanotypes made over the course of the two sessions.

* If you like what we do, want to get involved in future events or wish to support us, please consider joining the Southborough Society. The Society is a registered charity and is run by volunteers. Membership is from just £12 a year and you will receive high quality quarterly newsletters, access to events and be supporting the work we do with archiving and researching our town's rich heritage amongst many other things. 

Southborough Library – A Letter from the Committee

In January, we wrote to Cllr Mike Hill (Cabinet Member for Community and Regulatory Services) and James Pearson (Head of Libraries at KCC) to inform them of our position on Southborough Library. Below is the letter and the response from Cllr Hill is found on this link.

23rd of January, 2019

Dear Mr Hill and Mr Pearson,

I am writing to you as the Planning Officer of the Southborough Society with regards to the Southborough Library and its proposed new location within the Hub scheme.

At the Society's Committee Meeting on 27th November, the Society agreed that it will not support or oppose the revised Hub application. However, the Committee were unanimous in their decision that it is very important that the library should remain on its current site rather than become part of the new Hub development.

We feel it is very necessary to preserve our purpose built, Civic Trust Award (1962) winning space as it serves the community perfectly well, indeed more so than the proposed new library which will not include a designated separate children's library and which will have to share space with other services which will potentially be disruptive to its visitors. Its current neglected state is due to underinvestment by KCC in recent years but this could easily be rectified.

By keeping the library site where it is, we will be able to free up much needed room in the Hub for a community cafe and/or dedicated space to exhibit the large collection of objects, artefacts, maps, photographs owned by the Southborough Society. A museum space to share and display our collection has been a long term ambition of the Society.

The existing library too has the potential to be developed into heritage centre for our collection, again would preserve the building and the surrounding green space if it the Library. Southborough desperately needs this green and leafy punctuation point at one of our busiest intersections. The trees have Tree Protection Orders and make our town more attractive and contribute to cleaning the air on one of Kent's most polluted roads.

Southborough Library is not a problem that needs to be fixed; it has some of the highest borrowing numbers for a library of its size in Kent. It has been largely consistent in it use (visitor numbers and borrowing) by the community over the last ten years – this is despite a significant reduction in the libraries budget in recent years.

We believe this proposal would have widespread support. At the public meeting held in the town in December many people expressed their appreciation of our existing library and their desire for it to remain in its current situation. I hope you will give our proposal serious consideration and look forward to hearing your response in due course.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs D Blackwell

EDITOR’S NOTE

Since this post had been published, Cllr Mike Hill has responded and his letter can be found here.