Modelling History now has two offerings. History projects are led by John Steer and the commercial services by his son Tim, though they become involved in each other’s work. The commercial side is not restricted to historical subjects and Tim has freelance modelling and animation offerings as well as an extensive library of freely downloadable virtual models aimed at fellow modellers and the video games industry The Base Mesh. Please contact Tim through the BaseMesh website.
This web site is still devoted to our history projects.
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My research today is more focused on personal areas of interest, particularly medieval history.
Requests to investigate or take on research are accepted especially when of local interest.
The preference is to publish reports and articles on line, as these can easily be updated as further research adds to the understanding.
Some pages are work in progress, enabling an on-going project to be discussed with others.
Elements of my professional career involved data analysis and that is reflected in my methodology.
Historical 'facts' are not there just to be accepted but questioned, what caused them to be recorded and how reliable are they.
Studying medieval history can be likened to knitting fog.
Searching in the long ago mists for the often few helpful surviving documents from the time, if there are any.
Words in documents have different meanings than the same words today.
Names can be vague and people changed their names; William son of Alred may become William of Staundon.
To add to the mist there is the fog, when commentators and historians over the centuries have drawn the wrong conclusions.
A further analogy for early historical research is like a many thousand piece jigsaw of which the box and the picture are lost and you only have a few hundred pieces.
Some of the pieces fit together and a mental picture starts to emerge, but then another piece is found that changes the picture.
The French word histoire means both story and history, the strict difference between them is that one is fiction and the other fact.
Research is about looking at the facts and asking why, and then framing the questions and where to look for the answers.
Sometimes the answers are not there, but when they are then the history grows leading to more questions.
The aim here is not to provide stories but history, even when that leaves more questions yet to be answered.
EXAMPLES
The images and videos represent some of our interests and capabilities.
Quality is sometimes reduced to keep files sizes reasonable for internet use.
Byford Church tower dates from 1715 and is a replacement for what was termed a 'steeple' to house the bells; the steeple was collapsing and taken down.
It is difficult to see how the old steeple was placed, if it was actually a steeple, with a bellcote possibly more likely but it held three bells.
None of the walls seem suitable for a steeple in the traditional sense.
To help the understanding of where the steeple may have been there is a visual survey of the church.
Externally this is near completion, with the interior underway.
A moulded stone had resided upside down in the porch of Byford Church for sixty years or more, said to be a column capital but more likely a pedestal.
The sandstone was deteriorating and with permission it was carefully removed, examined and a 3D virtual model produced by photogrammetry.
The image on the left is the original stone with the model on the right.
The report includes a possible reconstruction of the pedestal with its base.
This report was a diversion from another piece of research.
I was looking at some medieval charters held by Hereford Cathedral Library that a number of sources had attributed to Staunton on Wye.
It was immediately seen that Staunton on Wye was not the location, and the evidence to confirm this needed to be gathered and reported.
Examining the document revealed something interesting that had not previously been described.
The document, scribed in 1324 or 1325, contained copies of earlier lists and charters compiled for Roger Mortimer while in exile in France following his escape from the Tower of London for his part in the Despenser Wars.
Mortimer was to return to England with King Edward II's Queen Isabel, later resulting in the death of King Edward.
The document was compiled by Thomas de Burghull, one of Mortimer’s sympathisers in England.
The report has been organised to help date the original charters.
These were grants from the Lacy family and heirs.
Short video animation of a 3D computer model of the plaque. The model was created from a series of photographs of the actual plaque (photogrammetry) and although of medium quality it is detailed. Viewed best in full screen.
RECORDING AND MODELLING POTTERY
The pottery found during archaeological excavations is mostly in the form of sherds and often the only means of identifying them is by examining the surfaces and fabric.
It helps when the sherd gives some other clues by coming from the rim or base of a vessel.
Knowing what types of vessels were in use at a place indicates what was happening there and when.
Recording as much as is known about a potsherd is part of the process as in the image below.
There can be enough sherds of a broken vessel to piece it together, but otherwise if the form is known it can be modelled to show how it appeared when newly made.
The video below is of a model of a late eighteenth century blackware baluster jug.
This blackware bowl sherd shows a reddish slip under the glaze which typically does not reach the base of the vessel.
The thickness of the glaze can be seen in the close up profile image of the buff fabric.
Blackware of this type is a frequent find in my local area, having a buff, sometimes red, coloured fabric and a thick glaze.
Wheel thrown and quickly produced for everyday use, the potter's finger trails are visible around the body of the vessels.
The vessels were held by the base when dipped into the glaze and when placed upright the glaze would sometimes run down to reach the base but often not.
As part of a private timber framed building project we demonstrated how sawn oak shrinks as it ages.
Oak shrinks in different ways as part of the seasoning process, towards the centre (radial shrinkage) and around each of the growth rings (tangential shrinkage).
Tangential shrinkage is greater than the radial, which causes the wood to change shape as the video demonstrates.
A cut through the centre will deform to a shallow point, whereas away from the centre the wood becomes curved.
Wood loses its colour over time when left exposed.
For the video a mathematical model was created of a piece of oak timber, complete with medullary rays, which are seen radiating out from the centre.
The rays play no part in the shrinking process but were included for realism.
When cut sideways the rays produce the characteristic light coloured 'flecks' seen in oak.
LIDAR is an accurate surveying method using laser rays directed to the ground from aircraft.
LIDAR data is available as ground heights (terrain model), or with surface features such as building and tree heights included (surface model).
This model is based on terrain LIDAR sampling at 2m intervals.
Colour has been used in this LIDAR example to show elevation but the model can be configured with different colour schemes and controls to emphasise other details.
