They look like dusty old useless papers and are dog eared and worn.  Some are tightly folded and they have obviously been kicked around in a bag before inserting them between the pages of a tatty looking home made book. "I can't read this rubbish, it looks like spiders with dirty feet have crawled across the page".  At that point in time it seems like they are heading for the skip, to become intermingled with empty baked bean cans and wet tea bags. (The Gillespies wouldn't really do that).

Late 17th Century dress

Out of curiosity you open one and the beautiful writing of a past age leaps out at you, the curls and flourishes of the handwriting, as well as the perfect straight lines.  You open another and discover it is a bill dated 1782 or something or other, and he bought a pair of breeches for £1-5s-6¼d, 10 yards of muslim, 2 pairs of gloves and so on.
You see what ladies made to put on their hair to create those elaborate hairstyles of the time. We hope to give you far more history and create communities within this website to enhance the heritage these wonderful papers contain.

A large hairstyle

So now for the first time the Gillespie family takes you back in time to the late 18th century, the reign of George III and the start of Modern History.  We take a small glimpse of life in Huntroyd and of the wealthy Starkie family who lived there, as well as that of the rector of the emerging industrial  town of Blackburn.  We also give you the grime, grease, and dried gravy, as well as some pernicious poisons.

We invite you to tarry a while, see the pages and the documents, and to contribute if you choose to do so.

 Huntroyd Image copyright owned by Gillespie Family. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs. CC BY-NC-ND