The cannon's contents revealed

Judi Flowers takes up the story:

"As the end of the barrel fell away, we peered inside. The whole thing was stuffed to the gunwales with pouches made of a kind of oilskin, so tightly packed that we could hardly remove them. I managed to pull out one pouch, which was dark brown in colour and about the same size and shape as those cardboard tubes you get in the middle of a kitchen roll. I carefully undid the leather tie securing it and opened the pouch. I took out a sheet of vellum that seemed to be in remarkably good condition and, as I unrolled it, I almost fell off my chair. There before me was a page of illuminated manuscript, apparently thirteenth century, of the kind one sees on display at the British Museum. There were several more sheets in the pouch, so well preserved that they might have been executed the day before. Once the team and I had all stopped saying 'Wow!', we realised that we had, potentially, the find of the century and very quickly called in the experts."

Judi contacted Victor Bellamy, head of the Western Manuscripts department of the South Coast Museums Service. Although he was currently on leave, Judi's excitement was so infectious that he was at the scene within the hour. He advised against removing anything else from the cannon at the scene, and arranged for it to be moved to a controlled environment at the Service facility. Once there, he and a small group of assistants began the task of unpacking the contents of the cannon. Bellamy was astonished by the variety of material inside this most unusual of time capsules. The oilskin packages contained ecclesiastical manuscripts, letters, diaries, maps, manor court records and journals. There were also proof copies of printed books and pamphlets, dated between about 1490 and 1695. All showed the name of the printer as 'Thuck' - either William or, presumably, some ancestor of his - and each was printed 'At the Signe of ye Blew Boare, Middenburie'. Bellamy and his team had to admit that they had no knowledge of the Thuck printing dynasty, nor of any of the books or pamphlets found in the cannon. The late William Thuck appeared to have anticipated this, however. One of the manuscript finds was, in effect, an open letter, the poignancy of which cannot be ignored:

I, Willm. Thucke ye Remembrauncer, a witness to that Dreadfull Daye of Doome, and knowing that Other Daye of Doome be close at hande, doe hearbye fulfill my Obligacions in sealyng upp ths peece of ordinaunce to preserue the documents and estuffamentum wch were putt yn my truste.

Ye decre of Ye Fift Henry, wch dyd so vnjustlie Sentance us toe perpetuall Obscuritie, and dyd make us lyke unto Nought, resolved me to keepe and preserve all suche Informacion of oure Deedes as can bee stored herin. Thys I doe yn esperaunce that at ye Laste Trumpe, when sw shall all stande before the Lorde, He may discerne the suposyd Treasons of oure Progenitors were not soe, and shall open wide the dores of Heaven for ye men of Middenshire.

Wm. Thucke
Ye 26 daye of Novembre 1699

Yet another team meeting was convened, with a view to making head or tail of Thuck's letter.