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Post by BuzyBea on Jul 23, 2010 15:38:02 GMT
So, I've been thinking all day about what you guys said about time travel, and about Anna saying she wasn't convinced and Cath thinking it sounded cool but unlikely and all that. Well, I figured, maybe we need to like... phone a friend, ask an expert? So there's this professor that came in to talk to us when we were studying on our course this year. He's like a super genius, and his family have been involved with Avoncroft for years... He's an expert on history and maths and physics and stuff. I thought maybe if anyone knew if time travel was really possible or not, it'd be him! Anyway... he's got a facebook page www.facebook.com/pages/Professor-A-von-Croft/79553188415 though I don't think he updates it very much! I think he had a research assistant that set it up for him a while back or something. He told us in his lecture that he still looks at it... but I guess no-one really had anything to ask him. He's quite proud, from what I remember... likes to think that he's in demand or whatever. I was thinking maybe if people became his fan or posted on his wall telling him that we need his help, he'd come here and give us his opinions? Maybe it's a stupid idea. I know my ideas aren't always the greatest... What do you guys think?
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Post by liaveekeli on Jul 23, 2010 20:53:26 GMT
I think it couldn't hurt... In my opinion the only thing we risk is being thought of as somewhat crazy, and I can live with that. So, I became a fan of his page, and sent him a question in the corresponding forum, briefly outlining who we are, what we've been doing and what we've found, and asking whether or not time travel is actually possible (I titled the thread on his discussion board 'time travel', so it should be fairly easy to find).
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Post by lmcontaldi on Jul 24, 2010 5:48:15 GMT
I agree Bea, its a great idea! Im gonna get in contact with him too
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Post by CathCat on Jul 24, 2010 13:42:32 GMT
Bea, I don't think it's a silly idea, I think it's a great idea! The more the merrier, eh?
On that note... do you guys think I should set up a facebook profile myself to talk to him? You know, like... the more people who become his fan or talk to him, maybe the more he'll realise that we're serious and not just some people playing a joke or being annoying for the sake of it.
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Post by Anna D on Jul 24, 2010 13:42:56 GMT
The guy with the crazy hair? I swear it's a wig. No-one's hair is that mad unless they're like... stuck in the 1970s or something, and he's not even all that old.
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Post by liaveekeli on Jul 24, 2010 13:48:05 GMT
We've got a reply! He's asking if we noticed any other objects disappearing at about the same time as the strange future-objects appeared. I guess it's back to give the pictures another look...
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Post by mravoncroft on Jul 24, 2010 13:59:51 GMT
I'm sure Professor von Croft is a very eminent scientist in his field though I think the description of him as a super genius is a little OTT. I know his forbear (either his great or his great, great uncle) Anders, who was Danish, I think, was influential in the thinking about founding Adult Education colleges for workers which in turn influenced George Cadbury Jnr to found Avoncroft College which began in Offenham in 1909 and moved to Stoke Heath in 1925 bringing the name Avoncroft with it. It was this college which gave the Museum its first piece of land to re-erect the Merchant's House on, our first exhibit, when it was rescued from destruction in 1962. The open-air museum idea had of course started in Scandinavia with Skansen founded in the 1890s in Sweden and was followed by the Danish not long after with the Frilandsmuseet and Den Gamble By at Aarhus and the college was therefore supportive, though I think the people of Bromsgrove thought it was all rather communist.
I've heard tell of an incredibly fearsome woman called Margrethe von Croft who I think married one of the Gregg family involved in the college, who was a thorn in the side of the Museum early on as she didn't approve of the site being developed with lots of buildings.
I'm less convinced by the young Professor, however, his lecture last year, although unfortunately interrupted as it was, lacked clarity and any sense of development - of course he may have been planning to bring this together in his conclusion, which we unfortunately were deprived of, but I was left somewhat unconvinced he was going to be able to. However, since you've become very quickly convinced that two probably unrelated things have to do with time travel, relativity is certainly his area, so by all means get him involved.
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Post by liaveekeli on Jul 24, 2010 14:20:25 GMT
I think this is more about checking the possibilities than anything else really. I know I'll be hard to convince that time travel can actually be done, unless the professor gives some incredibly good evidence. But I also thought it couldn't hurt to get in touch with him... he might be able to help, or at least point us in the right direction, even if his genius is questionable. We've already established that these strange things are unlikely to be a practical joke, so it's only fair that we explore other possibilities in my opinion, far fetched as they may be.
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Post by mravoncroft on Jul 24, 2010 14:44:38 GMT
Ah, yes, I suppose I should be slightly more open minded! It was more the way our volunteers have become very convinced on what can only be described as flimsy evidence. I have my own reasons for keeping my distance from the prof.
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Post by liaveekeli on Jul 24, 2010 21:30:27 GMT
So, I gave the pictures a second look, and I think I've found something. In the pics from the Prefab, there seems to be a different pamphlet by the vase that disappears at around the same time the strange birthday card appears, and in the Toll House there is a piece of the jigsaw puzzle on the floor by the bed in one of the rooms that disappears about the time the newspaper appears. Prof. Croft seemed to think it could be significant if we found that something had disappeared around the time the strange items appeared. So, should I let him know what I think I found?
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Post by lmcontaldi on Jul 25, 2010 4:57:03 GMT
Ah, yes, I suppose I should be slightly more open minded! It was more the way our volunteers have become very convinced on what can only be described as flimsy evidence. I have my own reasons for keeping my distance from the prof. May I ask what these reasons are exactly? It sounds like something terrible happened by the way you say it
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Post by CathCat on Jul 27, 2010 12:05:11 GMT
I'd like to know too, Simon. I can't understand why you wouldn't like him - he seemed perfectly nice to me when we met him.
And do you guys think I should set up that facebook page or not? I won't do it unless you think I should. I'm not the techno addict like Anna, and even she doesn't have one! lol
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Post by eiram80 on Jul 27, 2010 15:21:59 GMT
I think you should, Cathy -- he's the best source of information that we have so far.
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Post by CathCat on Jul 27, 2010 15:35:49 GMT
Alright, I'll give it a go later!
Oooh the excitement of new technological thingies!
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Post by mravoncroft on Jul 27, 2010 20:47:57 GMT
I have my own reasons for keeping my distance from the prof. May I ask what these reasons are exactly? It sounds like something terrible happened by the way you say it So sorry I wasn't able to get back to you sooner - I was at a fascinating symposium on the development of the late medieval aisled hall and differences in the treatments of the screens passage at the Shropshire Vernacular History Forum yesterday. Nothing too terrible and certainly ancient history I'm afraid, which probably shouldn't be stirred up. Let's just say his father and mine fell out in the 1970s having been rather good friends and I'm afraid the grudge has passed down a generation on my side. I'm sure the Professor will come up with some fascinating explanations for the mysterious objects, though now having found out that our air raid booklet is missing I'm inclined to call the Police and report it as theft. The other item isn't a jigsaw piece - they are Victorian scraps - it became popular to keep a scrapbook as chromolithography was becoming more widespread so colour pictures would appear in things such as seed catalogues and ladies fashion publications and children would either cut them out and stick them in a book, or make decorative items of them such as screens. These days it goes by the name of decoupage and people buy the scraps ready cut out, but that wasn't a term the Victorians would have recognised.
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