In this action packed day and age, where technology rules the roost, everything travels at the speed of light, and everybody wants everything NOW! It's good to take the occasional step backwards, to slow down and take in the world around you. The Brighton Linesmen is a perfect example of this, forgetting about all the wonderous technological advances that have been made in recent years, and harking back to the more simplistic methodologies of yesteryear. In terms of drawing at least.

There's quite a story as to how the Linesmen came into existence, in fact it's so fanciful that many have motioned it to be untrue. But that is for them to disagree with and argue out amongst themselves.

For me, the story began around the begining of June 2004. I live in a building in Brighton that's around 250 odd years old (I don't know exactly how old - but that's a rough estimation). Needless to say, a building of such pedigree needs to be preened and kept in a suitable manner, otherwise it'll fall foul of the elements and quite possibly come a cropper. So it was, whilst undergoing some routine maintenence that I had the privilage of replacing a couple of bricks that had come astray under some new(ish) plaster. Now, I don't know what cowboys did the last lot of plastering, but had they done the job properly, they'd have found these loose bricks, fixed them up, and quite probably found what I found hidden behind them!
As you can probably imagine, I'm still particularly excited about this find even now! But what - I hear you ask - did you find? Well, covered quite substantially with the dust and grime of several hundred years of forced dormancy was a small tin. It was really quite difficult to see what sort of tin it was, though I believe it was some sort of vegatable stock container. It took a fair ammount of effort to open it up, and putting aside thoughts of Pandora and potential endings of the world I lifted the lid off. Seeing as it had bound itself shut so well over the years, the contents were in remarkably good condition, and included a comb, an photograph of a cat, a whistle, a dip pen, a bottle of black ink, an assortment of nibs, a short note, and a collection of 8 fantastic black and white line drawings!

As I'm sure you can imagine, this was one heck of a find. That it had remained hidden for (the note has 1834 written on it) over 170 years is quite astonishing, but the thing that really got me going was the content of the note. I'm no expert at deciphering copperplate writing, but I can roughly ascertain that a Mister T.L.Dalrymple (author of said note) was instrumental in the creation and organisation of a certain "Brighton Linesmen Society of Fine Line Artists." A group of Brighton based artists specialising in the daily creation of new pen and ink line drawing!
I couln't find anything about this group through the usual channels of historical reference finding, or indeed anything about Mister T.L.Dalrymple. So as a homage to the original collective of yesteryear, I decided to reform the society, albeit in a more modern guise, i.e. we're doing stuff on the internet. As our membership grows, we'll be having exhibitions showcasing some of the work we've created over the previous little while. But for now, why not take the opportunity to explore this website and see what was started over 170 years ago, and continued in the last couple of days.

Rory Walker 2004.

 

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