How the book is kept

A works kept order by marking everything: the engine carried a number, the man carried a time, the job carried a docket. The book keeps the same habits, and they are posted here so a reader knows what he is looking at.

The order of the entries

The book is ruled in four sections. The Shops walks the floor: erecting, machine, boiler and smithy, the shed and the canal. The Trade serves the time: the apprenticeship, the trades, the day and the wage, and the roll of the men. The Engines opens the product book: what Gorton built and what carried its name. The End reads the last entries: the run-down, the closure and what still stands.

The marks on an entry

Every entry carries a cote in the works manner, FLOOR, HAND, PRODUCT or LAST followed by its number, so the book can be cited the way a drawing office cited a drawing. Under the title sits the signature line: who entered it, who checked it, how long it runs and when it was dated. The margin holds the entry in order and the sources it was checked against.

The rules the book keeps

No claim without something behind it. No nostalgia that the record cannot carry. No engine called by the wrong number, no shop by the wrong name. Where two sources disagree, the entry says which it followed and why. Where the record is silent, the book says silent, and moves on.