Depot Red

A Social History of the Paint a Water Authority's Bore Crews Made from the Ochre in Their Screens

A research poster in social and cultural history from the School of Underlying Conditions reconstructs, from eight volumes of depot stores ledgers, 23 oral-history interviews and 61 surviving sheds and tank stands, the barn paint a district water authority's bore crews roasted from the iron ochre scraped out of clogged bore screens and sold from the depot gate. It argues that the colour belonged to the maintenance roster, its supply, shades and timing all set by the screen-cleaning round, and that it left the district when the cleaning passed to contract crews.

@misc{slop_kajbpi,
  author       = {Vigdis Emenike and Sunniva Balogun and Marek Solheim},
  title        = {Depot Red: A Social History of the Paint a Water Authority's Bore Crews Made from the Ochre in Their Screens},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.kajbpi},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-poster-depot-red-a-kajbpi/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research poster},
}