legends · 4 min read ·
Audio Guide, Stop Nine
An audio guide to a flood gallery adds a thirty-ninth name to the brass memorial panel.
**Harrow Street Museum of Local History — Audio Guide, Gallery Four: "The Flood Years"**
*Please keep the handset close to your ear. Press 9 to repeat any stop. Visitors are asked to remain on the marked path.*
· · ·
**Stop 1.** Welcome to the Flood Years. In the spring of 1932, the river rose eleven feet in three days. The town of Calder Bend lost its bridge, its mill, and about a third of its houses. The photographs on your left were taken by the parish priest, who kept a camera for his parishioners.
**Stop 2.** Notice the water marks on the wall of the old chapel. They are at shoulder height. The curators have left them unpainted.
**Stop 3.** The model of the town is accurate to the street. You can see the chapel, the mill, and the crossroads where the bridge once stood. Please do not lean on the glass.
· · ·
**Visitor complaint form (submitted by Dorothy Lamb, Thursday)**
*I was listening to Stop 3 and the voice said "the crossroads where the bridge once stood." That is correct. But the voice then said, "Please count the houses that are still standing." I did, out of habit, and I got to thirty-one. Then the voice said, "Thank you, that's one more than there should be." I looked up and there was a woman in a grey mackintosh standing at the crossroads in the model. She was the size of my thumb. She was looking at me.*
*The attendant says the model has no figures. I'd like a refund for the handset.*
· · ·
**Stop 4.** In the autumn of 1932, the water went down, and the town began to rebuild. Look at the photograph of the first new bridge. The men who built it are standing on the deck. Count them. There are seven.
**Stop 5.** Please note the church bell in the case beside you. It was salvaged from the chapel steeple after the flood. The rope is original.
**Stop 6.** If you are listening to this stop, please look at the ceiling. The water line from the flood is painted there, very thin, and it follows the shape of the building's old roof. You may notice it is lower in the east gallery than in the rest of the museum. This is not a structural fault.
· · ·
**Visitor complaint form (submitted by Samuel Ibe, Friday)**
*The voice at Stop 6 told me to look at the ceiling. I did. The water line is there. But there was a second line above it, drawn in the same thin paint, and it was dripping. Not water. A dark, slow ooze that moved, very slightly, toward the centre of the room. The attendant said it's condensation. I don't think condensation has a direction.*
· · ·
**Stop 7.** The Calder Bend flood claimed thirty-eight lives, according to the parish register. The names are inscribed on the brass panel behind you. Please read them aloud if you wish. Many visitors find it helpful.
**Stop 8.** Note the glass case with the single leather shoe. It was found in the mud of the riverbank two weeks after the water went down. Its owner was never identified.
**Stop 9.** You have reached the final stop in the Flood Years. Thank you for visiting. Before you leave, please count the names on the brass panel once more. The number is thirty-eight.
If you hear a thirty-ninth name, please do not respond. It belongs to the visitor who is still in the gallery.
· · ·
**Visitor complaint form (submitted by Hanna Pryce, Saturday)**
*I did count the names. There were thirty-eight. But the voice at Stop 9 said, very gently, "Would you like to add yourself?" I said no. It said, "You already did, on the way in." The brass panel was warm. When I looked, the thirty-ninth name was there, in the same engraving, and it was my name, and it had a date next to it that was tomorrow.*
*I'm not going back. I have left the handset on the ledge by the model.*
· · ·
**Museum staff note (Curator, Gallery Four)**
We have had nine complaints about Gallery Four this month, all describing the same two things: a figure in a grey mackintosh standing in the model of the crossroads, and a thirty-ninth name on the brass panel.
We do not have a figure in the model. We do not have a thirty-ninth name. We checked the panel with a micrometer and the engraving is continuous, all thirty-eight lines, evenly spaced.
We have, however, had to change the audio guide twice. Each version ends at Stop 9 with the same line, which none of us recorded.
*Thank you for visiting. The water is still going down. Please remain on the path until the last name is read.*
We have asked the audio contractor to remove the line. The contractor says the file is locked and that its metadata lists one speaker, a woman, with the time of her last recording as tomorrow at 14:20.