You are probably wandering what this website is about, I will give you a quick explanation...
My name is Scott Dunwoodie and this is my final website I have built while studying interactive media. The brief was to "exhibit an unusual collection" and after submitting several ideas to my tutor this resulting site was the strongest concept.
During the research period into the subject I stumbled upon the book "The Curiosities of England: A guide to Follies and Strange Buildings Curious Tales and Unusual People". There are actually two books that cover the Yorkshire region so I decided to buy them both! The books were written by Duncan and Trevor Smith they are part of a series that feature all of the English counties.
I thought that these books could form the basis of the website, so I contacted Duncan J. D. Smith to seek his permission. To my delight he kindly replied (surprisingly quickly!) and agreed.
Duncan has his own website which you can visit, to see other books that he has written.
The fact that these books were published in 1994 caused a few problems when visiting the sites, as some of them have been boarded up due to neglect and or vandalism.
This caused some early disappointment at the start of the project, what if all the places I were to visit were in rack and ruin? This fortunately didn't turn out to be the case as there was a vast amount of resources available in the books. Perhaps too much as it took an age to whittle down my final choices.
I wanted to design a site with a Victorian feel both with the style and the tone of voice used in the descriptions. I think that I have achieved what I set out to do.
The Hidden History brand idea came from reading the books and the realisation that there is an abundance of historical facts right on our doorsteps, which largely goes unnoticed in our day-to-day lives.
I also thought it would be quite good fun to travel to these places to indulge myself in another passion of mine which is photography. I have styled the images in an "olde worlde" way to suit the design of the rest of the site.
So I would encourage you to return to the Unusual Collection presented on these pages and maybe discover some Hidden History for yourself. Thank you for visiting, I bid you farewell!