The Rashleigh Jackson Collection
Nottingham Contemporary November 2012 - March 2013
The Rashleigh Jackson Family Collection is filled with marvellous and magical things and the cabinets reflect the unexpected imagination of its founder. The curious and diverse contents begin to reveal some of the issues and complications that surround the ethics of collecting. Whilst many of the objects in the collection are only salvage; RJ (as he was known to his acquaintances) was (at his most harmless) simply collecting bits and pieces and prevented things from slipping further off the ethnographic map and falling into obscurity and oblivion. Perhaps at first RJ’s collecting was little more than an innocent treasure hunt as the Nottingham Horde (1) will testify and before it became archaeology. Eminent forbears such as the excavators Heinrich Schliemann and Hormuzd Rassam (2) spawned a terrible legacy of robbing the past and it can be suggested (albeit on a much smaller scale) that RJ was equally and measurably culpable for his crimes. For RJ, ‘There is a future to be gleaned from the past’ (3).
Rashleigh Jackson was an inconsistent collector and he held some eccentric opinions on the nature and the preservation of object, artefact and site (4). RJ’s collection was formed with dematerialism in mind, this fashioned his thinking. At the core was his imagination and the preserve of the Romanism of possibility; the joy for RJ was to be able to piece together fragments akin to a fragment of a jigsaw puzzle and simply contemplate the total...for RJ it was not about ownership of an object but the knowledge that could be recovered from it. ’once you hold the essence of the original, the object is no longer required; however we will until the end of time place both value and right of ownership upon the past...history both informs us and shackles us...if only we could become free of human clutter’ (5). We know RJ intentionally collected fakes and untruths...in some construct RJ (by proposition) suggested that the contemporary copy would become of equal value as the authentic item...least not that the authentic item can be preserved at the site of its discovery or if it had been moved then the item could be returned to its rightful place of origin (6). Let us not be in any shadow of doubt that RJ is also guilty of pilfering in order to further his collection...it is occasionally uncomfortable to view some of RJ’s more controversial items...yet RJ himself casts doubt upon the authenticity of his collection; it is possible that though deceit and self-denial RJ was simply justifying his actions by masquerading and hiding his guilt. The authenticity of the collection remains ambiguous.
The Rashleigh Jackson Family Collection is both factual and fictitious...however first and foremost the exhibition is about the display and the presentation of an array of objects and artefacts (7) from which the viewer can derive satisfaction. Cabinets of curiosity are wondrous things and my own work has previously been influenced by both the museum display cabinet and their contents; occasionally the absence of an object or even a vague intangible label left in a case has been alluring.
The proposal for the exhibition was not to undertake the process seamlessly or to provide a full explanation of all of the contents...what I have personally found appealing in cabinets of curiosity is the sheer pleasure that can be drawn from looking into draws and cases that are eclectic in nature.
I am interested in the thought that Culture is collectively owned; perhaps it is to be revealed in subtle ways quite unlike any period before…collecting as a preserve of the seemingly unimportant. The insignificant and the ephemeral can activate the collective memory…whether it takes the form of an old 1970’s Selectadisc record bag or a promotional badge for Wonderloaf bread…both these items had been at one time in ‘the local’ and in ‘the everyday’ (8)…the items considered for display may not be in the best of (Mint) condition and these items and other items in the RJF collection will be all the more tantalizing for it. It is possible that held within the smallest fragment, a whole picture can begin to emerge. An unopened pack of playing cards; face up is the King of Hearts…it is a set of cards produced for the coalition forces during the second Gulf war (9). A small crested ceramic (pot) top hat; these mass produced items were made during the first world war and subsequently sold to the public, the proceeds of which went to the war effort (10). An aluminum cigarette case, handmade by a prisoner of war…a set of RAF goggles from Bhopal (11). We inhabit a world with multi-narratives and this collection is perhaps part archeological, part social anthropological and part ethnographical.
There shall be little here to suggest that this collection is a discerning one, and it is not my intention to draw material together with that specific purpose in mind. There will be testimony to the local and therefore some items will perhaps have a greater resonance with the native than other items in the collection. In reference to the Wonderloaf account; the items may offer an opportunity to recall small narratives and localised stories…in a sense, members of the public bring part of themselves into the life of the collection…the public are reflected within the collection and by introducing an object and how it is displayed to its counterpart objects, these objects can encourage, give form to, and help emphasize cross-connections between people, place, time and object.
If to impose some form of order into the hodgepodge, it will be necessary to put some items into groupings; boxes (12) within boxes within draws, the smaller boxes are home to even smaller items, the boxes are used to keep things safe and together. By packing things away as neatly as possible, the items which are not currently on show in the glass case prevents the material from hemorrhaging out of control…the surplus for all intent and purpose are also out of sight and mind and yet perhaps like any museum with a vast store room full of treasure…the individual (as well as the museum) has a desire to exhibit and to display as much material as they can.
I have been and continued to be fascinated with the collection of items amassed by the former owner of Calke Abbey (13), Charles Harpur Crewe. I have visited on many occasions during the past twenty years the Saloon. This wonderful two-storey space was during the 19th century transformed into a private museum with display cases crammed with fossils, taxidermy and Egyptian curiosities – a fascinating insight into the Victorian passion for collecting. These cases are also home to miscellaneous items and possibly faux objects, bizarre and strange creations. I was reminded of this as a possibility when I encountered some examples of imaginary beasts whilst looking at a display case in the Prague museum of Natural history many years ago. Likewise Eduardo Paolozzi (14) interrelated some of his own work with that of several hundred items from the Museum of Mankind. The bringing together of objects in this way has much appeal and I wish to include in the cabinets fragments of some items that I have previously made.
There is perhaps a cultural craving for looking at and reading about relics of the past, this does not refer only to a distant history but the recent past-present also. I would suggest that people shall continue to seek out experiences through objects, rather than simply though the world of the digital screen. We maintain the need for physical encounters…there is something tangible about seeing real objects… Items you can see and experience in the actual hold genuine authenticity within overlapping human narratives…people have a longing for that which is real. This ‘real’ can seem uncomplicated compared to the now commonplace tyranny of the digital. Building upon the history of the collection I think there is an opportunity to focus on localism and the everyday…there is an opportunity to look and to forge new forms of ethnographic approaches, there is an opportunity to link with and connect to contemporary culture and to engage with ‘ordinary life’.
‘The referent object is nothing other than it is…it is basically real…yet it is loaded with other meaning, myth and enquiry.’ (15)
Notes
1. The Nottingham Horde. In reality the items are part of a continuing collection of items (of a semi precious nature) picked up off the floor in Nottingham.
2. Both their modes of excavation and archeology by the standards of today are considered suspect. Both men I feel are not to be discredited. Heinrich Schliemann (January 6, 1822 – December 26, 1890) was a German businessman and archaeologist. Schliemann was an important archaeological excavator of Troy, along Mycenae. Hormuzd Rassam (1826 – 16 September 1910) was a native Assyrian Assyriologist, British diplomat and traveler who made a number of important discoveries, including the clay tablets that contained the Epic of Gilgamesh.
3. Rashleigh Jackson, ‘The exploitation of the past’ pg 56. LLP,London. (1964)
4. RJ’s philosophy in the harvesting of wisdom was expressed through his idea of, ‘The transferral of shared and collective knowledge’. The preservation of the material objects was thereafter to become outmoded.
5. ‘In order to preserve both archeological artifact and site, items uncovered should be copied and the original returned to the earth. Sites should be painstakingly documented and then reburied…if there is a need, then even the site can be recreated for mass public consumption.’ ‘Future Past, Preservation of the modern’ (1964) Rashly Jackson
6. RJ advocated that the Parthenon frieze (Elgin Marbles) should be returned to Greece. The Empire far from protecting them have unequivocally caused greater harm…it is far healthier that they return to dust in their place of origin than to simply gather dust in a foreign land. ‘Sense and insensitivity-the marbles belong.’ Lecture 17, paper. Written by RJ (1972)
7. Rocks and minerals, sweet wrappers, plastic bags, badges, tickets, masonry, fossils, books, fluff, detritus pottery, ephemera and items that can only be consigned to a miscellaneous subdivision.
8. The Wonderloaf collection consists of a badge and a promotional 45 rpm record (including picture sleeve). An original Selectadisc record bag and several later versions of the bag are also available…I have also various other record bags and possibly a paper bag (poor condition) from the fondly remembered Nottingham shop ‘Griffin and Spalding’.
9. Although purchased at the time of the gulf war conflict it is possible that the deck in my possession is not genuine. The original 2000 decks made for coalition forces were produced by the United States Playing Card Company and had within the packs was a "Hoyle® Joker" card. I believe the cards were commissioned by the Federal Research Division for the United States Government.
10. Crested China – it is possible that the specific item (purchased from Sutton on Sea) was not produced during WW1. Around 1880 William Henry Goss (1833-1906) a Potter from Stoke on Trent realized that there was a market for cheap souvenirs for holiday makers to take home as a memento of their holiday. Hence the birth of souvenir wares. His first designs were restricted to pieces of local significance, like a relic from the local museum along with the crest of that town in which it was sold.
11. The goggles in the exhibition remind me of the Union Carbide tragedy of 1984. Shortly after midnight, methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaks from a tank at the UCIL Bhopal plant. According to the state government of Madhya Pradesh, approximately 3,800 people died and several thousand other individuals experienced permanent and partial disabilities.
12. For example I have in my possession a Princess Mary Gift Tin given to the troops in 1914. The habit of charitable giving, nurtured in the traditions of Victorian philanthropy, was to find ample expression during the First World War in the thousands of appeal funds, which were set up to aid every conceivable cause. But perhaps the most memorable of these was the Christmas Gift Fund launched on 14 October 1914, by Princess Mary; a fund, which was to inspire the creation of one of the most enduring mementos of the First World War - 498,000 Princess Mary's Gift Boxes were produced. (Imperial War Museum)
13. Calke Abbey is a Grade I listed country house near Ticknall, Derbyshire, England, in the care of the National Trust.
14. Eduardo Paolozzi, Lost Magic Kingdoms (1985) exhibition at the Museum of Mankind.
15. ‘Until the end of time’ Rashly Jackson. New observations-Vol 5. (1972)
Simon would like to thank Abi Spinks (Curator at Nottingham Contemporary), Wayne Burrows (Writer) & Joff and Olly (Design) for all their work on the Rashleigh Jackson Collection project.
Biography
Rashleigh (Roberts) Jackson
The rain continued to lash down, drumming unceasing on the window. In the small mid-terraced house the curtains in the front room were drawn as to offer privacy from the outside world; the deluge kept all but the hardiest of people indoors. Violet, during her arduous endeavour believed that the constant tapping sound upon the glass was not rain but someone playing a game of ‘Spirit Wrapping’ (a version of ghost rapping in which a long piece of cotton with a button on the end would be attached to the wooden part of a window frame and pulled from a safe vantage point). Rashleigh Roberts came into this world at some equitable hour on the 15th October 1894. At the time of his birth Rashleighs parents Violet and William resided at the home of Willie and Sarah Jackson, Radford, Nottingham.
Willie Jackson worked at the John Player and Sons Castle Tobacco factory and on the day of Rashleighs birth he returned home from work, upon arriving at the threshold he found himself unable to gain access into the house...he knocked on the door; the letter box opened (released from the inside) and through the aperture Willie’s wife Sarah spoke to him about Violet’s gruelling labour. Willie, approximating a drowned rat sought a temporary place of refuge to dry his bones. Willie first passed Finches’ tobacconists and from the shop he purchased a copy of the Nottingham Evening Post; soon after he continued onto the Portland Arms for a pint or two of Home Ale.
The summer of 1894 had been glorious; in May the new landmark tower at Blackpool opened whilst in June the Tower Bridge was officially made public by The Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII). Opening the news paper Willie read reports from the continent, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer had been arrested for treason (Dreyfus would be sent to the penal colony at Devil's Island in French Guiana and placed in solitary confinement where he would spend almost 5 years before being acquitted and released). One article in the paper caught Willie’s eye (he would before the end of his sojourn tear the article out from the paper and place it into his wallet). The caption and subsequent article; ‘Desperate times call for desperate measures’ elucidated the effect of ‘Concussion theory’ experiments and as to why England would be in for a harsh winter. The theory was based on the observations of rain falling after ferocious battles had been waged. It transpired that the detonation of explosives could cause rainfall; the hypothesis suggested that smoke particles from the explosions were carried up into the clouds and would thereafter precipitate rain. In the summer 1894 the British Army hired (for One thousand Guineas) an American rainmaker to propel carbonic gas (by means of artillery shells) into the Oxfordshire skies. Although the results from those experiments remained classified the immediate neighborhood reported seeing bizarre cloud creations followed by rain. Over the subsequent weeks and months the story proliferated and inhabitants of neighboring counties (the stories reached as far as the East Midlands) began to report similar rain cloud transformations.
Rashleigh Roberts was born into the Edwardian era (considered by historians to cover the turn of Twentieth Century to the outbreak of the Great War of 1914 - 1918). Edwardian Britain afforded the affluent every opportunity in life, whilst the poor descended further into poverty. For the young Rashleigh ablutions were undertaken in a tin bath by the fire. A typical evening meal consisted of slices of bread and dripping and a daily dose of Brimstone and treacle, a "fix what ails ye" potion used for stomach upsets and "spots" (acne); Rashleigh often went to bed feeling like he was going to either vomit or die.
Rashleigh lived within walking distance of school, one of the, ‘torments’ for boys were the celluloid collars they had to wear. The collars had sharp edges that tore at the neck and ripped the skin to pieces (in his adult life Rashleigh wore collarless shirts only). William had aspirations for his boy and he encouraged him to do well at school (Rashleigh went to the same School as his two cousins, William and George). Education in England was somewhat elementary, however the system (by the early 20th Century) in some schools were able to establish higher classes, 'higher tops' and even separate higher grade schools for those older pupils who showed ability and commitment. In 1910, just after his 17th birthday, Rashleigh made the decision to join the army to attain his education certificate. Rashleigh filled in his attestation form and joined the infantry regiment, the Grenadier Guards.
At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the 1st battalion (Rashleigh’s regiment) and which carried out ceremonial duties in London were sent to France. The 1st took part in the early stages of the fighting during the period known as "Race to the Sea", during which time they were involved significantly at the First Battle of Ypres. In October 1914 near Polygon Wood Rashleigh Roberts became a casualty of the war. Taking a bullet in the right hand side of his face Rashleigh buckled and fell to the floor, with courage he probed his bleeding face and dug out the bullet; he lost consciousness. Left for dead upon the battlefield Rashleighs corpse was eventually retrieved. Upon a blood drenched stretcher the latent body was carried towards other cadavers...an observant fellow saw the slightest twitch of a nerve in one finger of the left hand...several weeks later Rashleigh Roberts awoke in a hospital bed (in Ireland) swathed in fresh, soft white linen sheets. After several months Rashleigh Roberts was transported back to England to The General Hospital, Nottingham to continue his convalescing.
The first battle of Ypres was significant as it witnessed the destruction of the highly experienced and trained British regular army. Having suffered enormous losses for its small size, "The Old Contemptibles" disappeared, to be replaced by fresh reserves which eventually turned into a mass conscripted army to equal its allies and enemies. During 1915 and 1917 Rashleighs two cousins’ (William and George) were both to die on the battlefields of France.
In 1916 Rashleigh met Mary Condene and they married within six months of their first encounter. Rashleigh had taken a trip to London to visit a specialist bone and joint clinic; whilst he sat on an omnibus and hiding behind a broadsheet newspaper, the conductress literally fell into his lap as the bus navigated Piccadilly Circus. Mary apologised for ruffling the young man’s paper and prompted a moment of awkwardness within him; Rashleigh made an apology and asked if she was okay? Mary beheld a gentle man.
1918 was to be an eventful year for Rashleigh and Mary, firstly Mary gave birth to a son (Walter) and shortly afterwards they purchased a new shop in the Aspley area of Nottingham and moved into the upstairs living accommodation.
In 1918 the local paper printed the following:
NOTICE .hereby .given, that by deed poll dated the first day of March, 1918, .under the hand and seal of Rashleigh Jackson, lately Rashleigh Roberts, of 75, Aspley Lane, in the county of Nottinghamshire, shopkeeper, such deed having been duly enrolled in the Enrollment Department of -the Oenifral Office of the Supreme Court of Judicature, on the 22nd day of March, 1918, the said Rashleigh Jackson thereby wholly and absolutely renounced, relinquished and abandoned the use of his said name of Rashleigh Roberts, and assumed and adopted from the date of the deed the name of Rashleigh Jackson, in lieu of the said name of Rashleigh Roberts, and he thereby expressly authorized and required all .persons whomsoever at .all times to designate and describe him by such adopted name of Rashleigh Jackson.—Dated this 22nd day of April, 1918.
The Jackson Newsagents & Tobacconists & Sweets became a flourishing business (continuing to function as a business until 1982) Rashleigh and Mary introduced new concepts into their business; in 1923 the Jacksons were amongst the first shop keepers in England to install polished glass plate windows and electric lighting. During the festive season the Jackson’s would display Christmas scenes; the only occasion the window lights went out for any period of time was during the Second World War. The shop sold ‘Refined’ sweets for ladies and gents, items such as Milk Tray (1915) Brazil nut, Flake (1920) and Fruit and Nut (1921). As the years advanced the Newsagent were at the forefront of selling all new product lines this included Ice Cream and Crunchie bars (1929). In 1932 Terry’s Chocolate Orange, Mars Bar and All Gold entered the shop; followed with Black Magic in 1933. With imaginative shop displays (behind revolutionary) large plate glass windows families and especially the local children would press their faces up against the glazing to peer into this the most wonderful of shops! The provisions sold in the shop were all high return items and afforded the family a relatively good lifestyle. By 1925 The Rashleigh Jackson’s like so many of their generation gave good chase to the belief of becoming the self educated man and the self educated Woman, Mary was highly seasoned and had been politically motivated in the suffrage movement.
The Jackson’s undertook frequent trips to London to visit Mary’s family and it was Mary’s father Randolph (who introduced Rashleigh to old family friends and acquaintances (some of whom were in banking whilst others were in politics, museums and antiquities). Amongst this erudite set of new associates Rashleigh became friends with several members of the Golden Dawn. Rashleigh learned a great deal from his banking friends and began to ‘play’ the stock market and achieved particular good returns on some his investments. This additional income afforded the Jackson family self-determination only previously imagined. For the family unit (Walter now had two other siblings, Andrew and William) there were to be holidays at home and abroad. The family purchased a car (a Crossley Saloon purchased in 1931 for £575) and took day expeditions into the county, by 1930 there were some one million vehicles’ on Britain’s Roads. The shop provided employment to neighbours who would run the shop whilst the Jackson’s were absent; least not forgetting work for the paper boys and girls.
Rashleigh was seldom out of pain (half his face paralysed) and the effects of his the wound (sustained in the Great War) would keep him out of the shop for sustained periods. Whilst at the rear of the shop Rashleigh would tend to the shop records, undertake the ordering, manage the stock takes and carry out weekly correspondences to friends in London. Rashleigh expended time to write letters to the Times, taking issue on matters of state and for a period of time he considered (incited by Mary and other close friends) to stand as a parliamentary candidate during 1929 election. Rashleigh had met on a number of occasions David Lloyd George, first in 1912 (just before the Marconi Scandal) and thereafter at various gatherings at the Condene residence; the last time the two encountered each other was in 1942 (several weeks after the joint internment of Violet’s sister (Eunice) and Husband (Emmett); killed together during the Baedeker raid in April 1942) ...Britain was in her third year of War.
All three of Rashleigh and Mary’s children joined the armed forces, their eldest son Walter joined up in 1939 and saw active service in the North African campaigns (he fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts). Andrew and William both joined the RAF in the same year. Andrew joined 120 Squadron (coastal command). In 1942 aboard a Liberator MKII the aircraft came upon 4 ME 109’s; although one of these was destroyed the aircraft sustained heavy damage resulting in three crew members being killed, one of their number was rear gunner Andrew Jackson. William Jackson survived the war (seeing active service in the European campaign); he remained in the RAF for several years and took part in the Berlin airlift (1948-49). William subsequently worked for the British Aircraft Corporation, working on the Cold War strike and reconnaissance TSR2 project and thereafter for Aérospatiale-BAC, this was on the Concorde venture.
In 1950 Rashleigh Jackson and his son Walter undertook a pilgrimage to Libya (a British protectorate); their journey took them to the Roman City of Leptis Magna east of Tripoli; Walter had visited the ancient city during the war. By 1950 Rashleigh had become concerned with archaeology and this interest would sustain him for the rest of his life. By the late 1950s and 1960s, cheap package holidays which combined flight, transfers and accommodation provided the first chance for most people in the United Kingdom to have affordable travel abroad. Rashleigh and Mary (although seasoned travelers) undertook several package holidays; return trips to Italy, Greece and Turkey offered the couple a more sedate holiday experience than the archeological trips they had previously undertaken. On 15 August 1974, the travel industry was shaken when the second-largest tour operator, Court Line which operated under the brand names of Horizon and Clarksons, collapsed. Nearly 50,000 tourists were stranded overseas and the Jackson’s were amongst that number...the Elderly Jackson’s made their own way home from Greece to England via Yugoslavia, Austria, Switzerland and France.
Air travel fascinated Rashleigh and his interest in Orthophotos (a specific branch of aerial photography) gave him ground to consider its use in detecting unearthed archaeological sites. There had been pioneers in this particular field dating back to 1913 and Rashleigh began to collect aerial photographs. Rashleigh made no advancements in this area of interest; however he brought to the attention of a local archaeological society the suggestion of using a kite (to hoist a camera up into the air) and to photograph some of the fields that had become parched during one particularly hot dry summer. The site would be surveyed a few years later and images taken from an aerial survey aircraft revealed a small Iron Age settlement, (the slight differences in soil colour between natural deposits and archaeological ones often show in ploughed fields as soil marks).
The emergence and development of British historical archaeology during the 1950’s (continuing into the 1970’s) happened outside of the officious museum and university institutions of British archaeology. Rashleigh had written in an article for a local archeological journal that the contributing factors for this surfacing was driven by three consecutive, but overlapping forces: the emergence of 'local studies', the rise of 'rescue archaeology', and increasing efforts toward the 'consolidation' of post- industrial archaeology.
Late in life Rashleigh Jackson began to commit his archaeological rationales’ to paper. His hand written notes and conversations were transcribed and typed up firstly by his daughter in law Elizabeth and subsequently by his granddaughter Diana. Several papers were published in various national archaeological journals’ including, ‘The British Archaeological Journal’ and the ‘Antiquity Journal’. Several of Rashleigh’s articles, ‘The Exploitation of the Past (1964) and ‘Until the End of Time’ (1972) were reproduced and included in several publish bindings. In the same year Rashleigh (for the one and only time in his life) was invited to present a lecture before an audience at Nottingham University on the Parthenon frieze. In his lecture, ‘Sense and insensibility – the marbles belong’ Rashleigh delivered a sortie as to why the marbles should be returned to Greece. He concluded his lecture by asking his frail niece Sarah to read a passage from Lord Byron’s poem, ‘Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage' written about the removal of the marbles:
Dull is the eye that will not weep to see
Thy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removed
By British hands, which it had best behoved
To guard those relics ne'er to be restored.
Curst be the hour when from their isle they roved,
And once again thy hapless bosom gored,
And snatch'd thy shrinking gods to northern climes abhorred!
By 1975 Rashleighs health began to weaken, his life long battle with smarting pain in his head deteriorated. The shop had been sold as a going concern in the late 1960’s and the Jackson’s retired to live in Trowell. A few battles further ensued for Rashleigh, most notably in 1966 with the building of the M1; and when the last vestiges’ of Nuthall temple disappeared under the tarmac near Junction 26 he simply said of the lost cause, ‘that’s enough!’
In 1976 Rashleigh was diagnosed with cancer and he saw out his remaining days in the company of family. As a man of order he was pleased to find that several of his nieces and nephews were interested in taking on Rashleighs collection of artefacts’ (merited to a Christmas family tree education project embarked on by Andrew). Rashleigh and Mary gave as best account as they could of their lives together, however by the end of December Rashleigh’s condition deteriorated and he was taken to the General Hospital in the City; on January 4th 1977 he died.
The rain continued to lash down, drumming unceasing on the window. In the small mid-terraced house the curtains in the front room were drawn as to offer privacy from the outside world; the deluge kept all but the hardiest of people indoors. Violet, during her arduous endeavour believed that the constant tapping sound upon the glass was not rain but someone playing a game of ‘Spirit Wrapping’ (a version of ghost rapping in which a long piece of cotton with a button on the end would be attached to the wooden part of a window frame and pulled from a safe vantage point). Rashleigh Roberts came into this world at some equitable hour on the 15th October 1894. At the time of his birth Rashleighs parents Violet and William resided at the home of Willie and Sarah Jackson, Radford, Nottingham.
Willie Jackson worked at the John Player and Sons Castle Tobacco factory and on the day of Rashleighs birth he returned home from work, upon arriving at the threshold he found himself unable to gain access into the house...he knocked on the door; the letter box opened (released from the inside) and through the aperture Willie’s wife Sarah spoke to him about Violet’s gruelling labour. Willie, approximating a drowned rat sought a temporary place of refuge to dry his bones. Willie first passed Finches’ tobacconists and from the shop he purchased a copy of the Nottingham Evening Post; soon after he continued onto the Portland Arms for a pint or two of Home Ale.
The summer of 1894 had been glorious; in May the new landmark tower at Blackpool opened whilst in June the Tower Bridge was officially made public by The Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII). Opening the news paper Willie read reports from the continent, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer had been arrested for treason (Dreyfus would be sent to the penal colony at Devil's Island in French Guiana and placed in solitary confinement where he would spend almost 5 years before being acquitted and released). One article in the paper caught Willie’s eye (he would before the end of his sojourn tear the article out from the paper and place it into his wallet). The caption and subsequent article; ‘Desperate times call for desperate measures’ elucidated the effect of ‘Concussion theory’ experiments and as to why England would be in for a harsh winter. The theory was based on the observations of rain falling after ferocious battles had been waged. It transpired that the detonation of explosives could cause rainfall; the hypothesis suggested that smoke particles from the explosions were carried up into the clouds and would thereafter precipitate rain. In the summer 1894 the British Army hired (for One thousand Guineas) an American rainmaker to propel carbonic gas (by means of artillery shells) into the Oxfordshire skies. Although the results from those experiments remained classified the immediate neighborhood reported seeing bizarre cloud creations followed by rain. Over the subsequent weeks and months the story proliferated and inhabitants of neighboring counties (the stories reached as far as the East Midlands) began to report similar rain cloud transformations.
Rashleigh Roberts was born into the Edwardian era (considered by historians to cover the turn of Twentieth Century to the outbreak of the Great War of 1914 - 1918). Edwardian Britain afforded the affluent every opportunity in life, whilst the poor descended further into poverty. For the young Rashleigh ablutions were undertaken in a tin bath by the fire. A typical evening meal consisted of slices of bread and dripping and a daily dose of Brimstone and treacle, a "fix what ails ye" potion used for stomach upsets and "spots" (acne); Rashleigh often went to bed feeling like he was going to either vomit or die.
Rashleigh lived within walking distance of school, one of the, ‘torments’ for boys were the celluloid collars they had to wear. The collars had sharp edges that tore at the neck and ripped the skin to pieces (in his adult life Rashleigh wore collarless shirts only). William had aspirations for his boy and he encouraged him to do well at school (Rashleigh went to the same School as his two cousins, William and George). Education in England was somewhat elementary, however the system (by the early 20th Century) in some schools were able to establish higher classes, 'higher tops' and even separate higher grade schools for those older pupils who showed ability and commitment. In 1910, just after his 17th birthday, Rashleigh made the decision to join the army to attain his education certificate. Rashleigh filled in his attestation form and joined the infantry regiment, the Grenadier Guards.
At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the 1st battalion (Rashleigh’s regiment) and which carried out ceremonial duties in London were sent to France. The 1st took part in the early stages of the fighting during the period known as "Race to the Sea", during which time they were involved significantly at the First Battle of Ypres. In October 1914 near Polygon Wood Rashleigh Roberts became a casualty of the war. Taking a bullet in the right hand side of his face Rashleigh buckled and fell to the floor, with courage he probed his bleeding face and dug out the bullet; he lost consciousness. Left for dead upon the battlefield Rashleighs corpse was eventually retrieved. Upon a blood drenched stretcher the latent body was carried towards other cadavers...an observant fellow saw the slightest twitch of a nerve in one finger of the left hand...several weeks later Rashleigh Roberts awoke in a hospital bed (in Ireland) swathed in fresh, soft white linen sheets. After several months Rashleigh Roberts was transported back to England to The General Hospital, Nottingham to continue his convalescing.
The first battle of Ypres was significant as it witnessed the destruction of the highly experienced and trained British regular army. Having suffered enormous losses for its small size, "The Old Contemptibles" disappeared, to be replaced by fresh reserves which eventually turned into a mass conscripted army to equal its allies and enemies. During 1915 and 1917 Rashleighs two cousins’ (William and George) were both to die on the battlefields of France.
In 1916 Rashleigh met Mary Condene and they married within six months of their first encounter. Rashleigh had taken a trip to London to visit a specialist bone and joint clinic; whilst he sat on an omnibus and hiding behind a broadsheet newspaper, the conductress literally fell into his lap as the bus navigated Piccadilly Circus. Mary apologised for ruffling the young man’s paper and prompted a moment of awkwardness within him; Rashleigh made an apology and asked if she was okay? Mary beheld a gentle man.
1918 was to be an eventful year for Rashleigh and Mary, firstly Mary gave birth to a son (Walter) and shortly afterwards they purchased a new shop in the Aspley area of Nottingham and moved into the upstairs living accommodation.
In 1918 the local paper printed the following:
NOTICE .hereby .given, that by deed poll dated the first day of March, 1918, .under the hand and seal of Rashleigh Jackson, lately Rashleigh Roberts, of 75, Aspley Lane, in the county of Nottinghamshire, shopkeeper, such deed having been duly enrolled in the Enrollment Department of -the Oenifral Office of the Supreme Court of Judicature, on the 22nd day of March, 1918, the said Rashleigh Jackson thereby wholly and absolutely renounced, relinquished and abandoned the use of his said name of Rashleigh Roberts, and assumed and adopted from the date of the deed the name of Rashleigh Jackson, in lieu of the said name of Rashleigh Roberts, and he thereby expressly authorized and required all .persons whomsoever at .all times to designate and describe him by such adopted name of Rashleigh Jackson.—Dated this 22nd day of April, 1918.
The Jackson Newsagents & Tobacconists & Sweets became a flourishing business (continuing to function as a business until 1982) Rashleigh and Mary introduced new concepts into their business; in 1923 the Jacksons were amongst the first shop keepers in England to install polished glass plate windows and electric lighting. During the festive season the Jackson’s would display Christmas scenes; the only occasion the window lights went out for any period of time was during the Second World War. The shop sold ‘Refined’ sweets for ladies and gents, items such as Milk Tray (1915) Brazil nut, Flake (1920) and Fruit and Nut (1921). As the years advanced the Newsagent were at the forefront of selling all new product lines this included Ice Cream and Crunchie bars (1929). In 1932 Terry’s Chocolate Orange, Mars Bar and All Gold entered the shop; followed with Black Magic in 1933. With imaginative shop displays (behind revolutionary) large plate glass windows families and especially the local children would press their faces up against the glazing to peer into this the most wonderful of shops! The provisions sold in the shop were all high return items and afforded the family a relatively good lifestyle. By 1925 The Rashleigh Jackson’s like so many of their generation gave good chase to the belief of becoming the self educated man and the self educated Woman, Mary was highly seasoned and had been politically motivated in the suffrage movement.
The Jackson’s undertook frequent trips to London to visit Mary’s family and it was Mary’s father Randolph (who introduced Rashleigh to old family friends and acquaintances (some of whom were in banking whilst others were in politics, museums and antiquities). Amongst this erudite set of new associates Rashleigh became friends with several members of the Golden Dawn. Rashleigh learned a great deal from his banking friends and began to ‘play’ the stock market and achieved particular good returns on some his investments. This additional income afforded the Jackson family self-determination only previously imagined. For the family unit (Walter now had two other siblings, Andrew and William) there were to be holidays at home and abroad. The family purchased a car (a Crossley Saloon purchased in 1931 for £575) and took day expeditions into the county, by 1930 there were some one million vehicles’ on Britain’s Roads. The shop provided employment to neighbours who would run the shop whilst the Jackson’s were absent; least not forgetting work for the paper boys and girls.
Rashleigh was seldom out of pain (half his face paralysed) and the effects of his the wound (sustained in the Great War) would keep him out of the shop for sustained periods. Whilst at the rear of the shop Rashleigh would tend to the shop records, undertake the ordering, manage the stock takes and carry out weekly correspondences to friends in London. Rashleigh expended time to write letters to the Times, taking issue on matters of state and for a period of time he considered (incited by Mary and other close friends) to stand as a parliamentary candidate during 1929 election. Rashleigh had met on a number of occasions David Lloyd George, first in 1912 (just before the Marconi Scandal) and thereafter at various gatherings at the Condene residence; the last time the two encountered each other was in 1942 (several weeks after the joint internment of Violet’s sister (Eunice) and Husband (Emmett); killed together during the Baedeker raid in April 1942) ...Britain was in her third year of War.
All three of Rashleigh and Mary’s children joined the armed forces, their eldest son Walter joined up in 1939 and saw active service in the North African campaigns (he fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts). Andrew and William both joined the RAF in the same year. Andrew joined 120 Squadron (coastal command). In 1942 aboard a Liberator MKII the aircraft came upon 4 ME 109’s; although one of these was destroyed the aircraft sustained heavy damage resulting in three crew members being killed, one of their number was rear gunner Andrew Jackson. William Jackson survived the war (seeing active service in the European campaign); he remained in the RAF for several years and took part in the Berlin airlift (1948-49). William subsequently worked for the British Aircraft Corporation, working on the Cold War strike and reconnaissance TSR2 project and thereafter for Aérospatiale-BAC, this was on the Concorde venture.
In 1950 Rashleigh Jackson and his son Walter undertook a pilgrimage to Libya (a British protectorate); their journey took them to the Roman City of Leptis Magna east of Tripoli; Walter had visited the ancient city during the war. By 1950 Rashleigh had become concerned with archaeology and this interest would sustain him for the rest of his life. By the late 1950s and 1960s, cheap package holidays which combined flight, transfers and accommodation provided the first chance for most people in the United Kingdom to have affordable travel abroad. Rashleigh and Mary (although seasoned travelers) undertook several package holidays; return trips to Italy, Greece and Turkey offered the couple a more sedate holiday experience than the archeological trips they had previously undertaken. On 15 August 1974, the travel industry was shaken when the second-largest tour operator, Court Line which operated under the brand names of Horizon and Clarksons, collapsed. Nearly 50,000 tourists were stranded overseas and the Jackson’s were amongst that number...the Elderly Jackson’s made their own way home from Greece to England via Yugoslavia, Austria, Switzerland and France.
Air travel fascinated Rashleigh and his interest in Orthophotos (a specific branch of aerial photography) gave him ground to consider its use in detecting unearthed archaeological sites. There had been pioneers in this particular field dating back to 1913 and Rashleigh began to collect aerial photographs. Rashleigh made no advancements in this area of interest; however he brought to the attention of a local archaeological society the suggestion of using a kite (to hoist a camera up into the air) and to photograph some of the fields that had become parched during one particularly hot dry summer. The site would be surveyed a few years later and images taken from an aerial survey aircraft revealed a small Iron Age settlement, (the slight differences in soil colour between natural deposits and archaeological ones often show in ploughed fields as soil marks).
The emergence and development of British historical archaeology during the 1950’s (continuing into the 1970’s) happened outside of the officious museum and university institutions of British archaeology. Rashleigh had written in an article for a local archeological journal that the contributing factors for this surfacing was driven by three consecutive, but overlapping forces: the emergence of 'local studies', the rise of 'rescue archaeology', and increasing efforts toward the 'consolidation' of post- industrial archaeology.
Late in life Rashleigh Jackson began to commit his archaeological rationales’ to paper. His hand written notes and conversations were transcribed and typed up firstly by his daughter in law Elizabeth and subsequently by his granddaughter Diana. Several papers were published in various national archaeological journals’ including, ‘The British Archaeological Journal’ and the ‘Antiquity Journal’. Several of Rashleigh’s articles, ‘The Exploitation of the Past (1964) and ‘Until the End of Time’ (1972) were reproduced and included in several publish bindings. In the same year Rashleigh (for the one and only time in his life) was invited to present a lecture before an audience at Nottingham University on the Parthenon frieze. In his lecture, ‘Sense and insensibility – the marbles belong’ Rashleigh delivered a sortie as to why the marbles should be returned to Greece. He concluded his lecture by asking his frail niece Sarah to read a passage from Lord Byron’s poem, ‘Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage' written about the removal of the marbles:
Dull is the eye that will not weep to see
Thy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removed
By British hands, which it had best behoved
To guard those relics ne'er to be restored.
Curst be the hour when from their isle they roved,
And once again thy hapless bosom gored,
And snatch'd thy shrinking gods to northern climes abhorred!
By 1975 Rashleighs health began to weaken, his life long battle with smarting pain in his head deteriorated. The shop had been sold as a going concern in the late 1960’s and the Jackson’s retired to live in Trowell. A few battles further ensued for Rashleigh, most notably in 1966 with the building of the M1; and when the last vestiges’ of Nuthall temple disappeared under the tarmac near Junction 26 he simply said of the lost cause, ‘that’s enough!’
In 1976 Rashleigh was diagnosed with cancer and he saw out his remaining days in the company of family. As a man of order he was pleased to find that several of his nieces and nephews were interested in taking on Rashleighs collection of artefacts’ (merited to a Christmas family tree education project embarked on by Andrew). Rashleigh and Mary gave as best account as they could of their lives together, however by the end of December Rashleigh’s condition deteriorated and he was taken to the General Hospital in the City; on January 4th 1977 he died.