top of page
Search
Writer's pictureAnn

Surprise, Surprise...?



Jane Austen's writing table

Now, some of this may have been covered in the Stunning Stats? blog, but I've had a little bit of a second wind this afternoon (no, not like that), and so I've been tapping away into my calculator, and let's just say that what I've found after such tappage, is quite an interesting eye opener. To my little mind at any rate.


It may seem a bit of a bind, perhaps even a little OCD, but after every trip to record at the prison I tally up how many captures there have been, and work out the hourly average for that trip. I've gradually built up an enormous spreadsheet of such numbers over the years, but for some reason have never applied the same sums to my other locations. My graph from my average-per-hour prison outings is so vast that it can't be printed on a domestic printer, and thus I have resorted to going Old School, and getting down on my hands and knees and doing it BY HAND! Consequently I can't stick it on here to show you, but trust me, it runs beyond the length of the living room as it stands. But why have I not applied this downright finicky logic to my other places? Maybe because some of them I'll never be returning to (such as a hotel or antiques shop, or the hairdressers I got banned from because my recordings freaked the girls out too much!), and if you can't gather lots of data, you can't necessarily look back at a distance as it were, to see the building patterns.



So, if I am so intrigued in what makes the prison 'hot' on one occasion and not another, encouraging me to ask questions such as does footfall make a difference? Does the temperature change things? Does the fact that a site hasn't had bountiful bloodshed and icky doings done in it, change the type of captures and the quantity? could the formula then be successfully applied to other locations too? If I am taking an hourly average, then yes!


Of course there are external elements at play that would make X more profitable on one day than Y on the same, and vice versa, but if we're going on face value profitability of E.V.P-giving prowess, then it is most definitely do-able.


I listed my main places of interest, calculated how much time was spent overall at each, totalled the number of captures at each, and the worked out the hourly average for each. Then, side by side, there are the results. Here they are, possibly not panning out quite as you'd expect!


HMP SHEPTON MALLET = 74ph

ANCIENT RAM INN = 17ph

SACHSENHAUSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP = 91ph

ATHELHAMPTON HOUSE = 111ph

GREEK EXECUTION SITE = 82ph

POINTE DU HOC = 71ph

JANE AUSTEN'S HOUSE = 138ph

OLD MINE TUNNELS = 24ph

WELSH TOWN HOUSE = 27ph

THOMAS HARDY'S HOUSE = 4ph

FORT NELSON = 36ph

MONTECUTE HOUSE = 44ph

ANTIQUES SHOP = 34ph

DECEASED RELATIVE'S HOUSE = 23ph

HAIR SALON = 7ph

MUM'S EMPTY HOUSE = 69ph

OUR HOUSE = 42


Against all the odds, the quiet and comfortable home of Jane Austen in the village of Chawton has come first in the race! Never mind the prison, concentration camp and war zones, no... It is Jane's house that reaps a mighty 138 per hour! Of course this may have plateaued off had I stayed longer, or given more time recording at Sachsenhausen I have NO doubt that things would have gone off the charts there. But, as I've said before - the rate of capture is different for anywhere, and what may start as an amazing 138 per hour for the first hour, may dwindle to 1 per hour thereafter, or even none at all. Remember these are all calculated as an average per hour, and at some of these places I was only recording for a matter of seven minutes or so.


Jane Austen's House in Chawton, Hampshire


Still, it's an interesting dabble to have had, and of course, it prompts even more questions as to how, why, and what. Next month I am staying 18hrs in the notorious 30 East Drive. I can't wait to share with you what I encounter there...


So until then, over and out!

8 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page