4. Seaton Jurassic Interpretation Plan – Part 1 (Narrative) Interpretation Design: Helen Shackleton Report Author: Stephen Hussey, Devon Wildlife Enterprises Version: February 2014 1 Seaton Jurassic Interpretation Plan – Part 1 (Narrative) CONTENTS 1. Introduction 1 2. Overview 1 3. Audience Experience 2 4. Guiding Interpretive Principles 3 5. Stories and Themes 5 6. Interpretation Summary 10 7. A Walk Through Seaton Jurassic 13 Appendices 1. Seaton’s Key Species 41 2. The Four Seaton Jurassic Hotspots 44 HG-12-09939 Seaton Jurassic INTERPRETATION PLAN – Part 1 (Narrative) 1. INTRODUCTION The Seaton Jurassic Interpretation Plan has two parts: • A Narrative: explaining key interpretation concepts and approaches, and describing project interpretation via a detailed narrative walk through of the Centre. • A Visual Document: supporting the narrative with designs and illustrations. Both documents should be read alongside one another and each section of this narrative plan includes a clear reference to the relevant part of the visual plan. 2. OVERVIEW TURN TO VISUAL PLAN PAGES 3-4 2.1 Seaton Jurassic takes the unique natural heritage of Seaton and reveals it through compelling narratives that are told through a range of exhibits and approaches that use high levels of immersion and interactivity to promote surprise, wonder and curiosity and that will engage a wide range of audiences. 2.2 The offer includes directed and self-directed activities of varying depth and focus as well as learning approaches and styles to suit a broad range of interests and abilities. Interpretation includes: • Stories – strong narratives linked to the natural heritage and local history of Seaton and the Jurassic Coast. Key themes include: o Geology and geological time o Marine wildlife and habitats o Terrestrial wildlife and habitats o Human interactions with and impacts on the natural world o Social and scientific history o Change over time – a world shaped by past cataclysms and continuous processes 1 HG-12-09939 • Exhibits – that are surprising, tactile, immersive and interactive • Hot spots and other links to encourage exploration of the wider area and to allow visitors to experience heritage within its natural context • Guides/experts – to enhance depth and range of interpretation and bring it to life, and to bring specialist knowledge and credibility to learning activities • Formal and informal learning activities and events – providing depth of knowledge and understanding that caters to a range of interests and skills, and which utilises the unique qualities of the Centre • Links with wider community events and projects – to make best use of partner assets and skills, enhancing the variety and flexibility of the project offer and broadening market reach. 2.3 Project interpretation will encourage curiosity, exploration, direct and indirect experience of Seaton’s unique natural assets and will improve and broaden physical, emotional and intellectual access to the natural world. 3. AUDIENCE EXPERIENCE TURN TO VISUAL PLAN PAGE 5 3.1 A key aim of Seaton Jurassic it to engage a wide range of visitors with Seaton’s natural heritage so that they experience: • Curiosity/questioning • Excitement • Wonder/awe • Surprise Leading to • Valuing and appreciation of the natural heritage/environment Leading to • Desire to change 2 HG-12-09939 Practical Curiosity, actions and Engage with excitment, Value natural decision natural wonder, heritage making hertitage suprise about environment 3.1 Audience and market research tells us 1 that to achieve this, we need to offer the following type of experience: • Immersion – getting inside the Jurassic story, entering another world • Exploration and discovery – going on a journey through time and space • Interactivity – choosing your own path and making choices along the way • Layers – experiencing the Centre’s stories at a depth that suits and is appropriate to the individual • Inside and outside experiences – heritage translated and revealed, and also experienced within context 3.2 This plan focusses on the physical elements of project interpretation – the exhibits and the hotspots. Details of the project’s learning and other activities can be found in the Seaton Jurassic Learning Plan . 4. GUIDING INTERPRETIVE PRINCIPLES TURN TO VISUAL PLAN PAGE 6 Immersion: Engagement, wonder and awe The Jurassic Coast is an extraordinarily important and wonderful place to understand the story of our planet, the relationship of the geology and the ecology in the area and people’s place in it. 1 For full details of project audiences, what drives them and how we know this, please see the Seaton Jurassic Audience and Market Research paper and Marketing Strategy . Interpretation themes and approaches have also been shaped by input from expert advisors, but marketing and interpretation strategies linked to the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. See the project Activity Plan and Evidence Log for full details. 3 HG-12-09939 The design and execution of the Centre will inspire visitors and take them on a journey in which they are decision makers and explorers. Visitors will become time travellers, moving through geological space and time, making decisions that will guide their journeys and decide their fates. Authenticity: A story with depth and breadth Within Seaton the whole story of life on earth is exposed and accessible due to natural features and processes. People have interacted with and adapted to their natural environment over millennia – shaping the local economy, culture and custom. In turn local economy, culture and custom have shaped Seaton’s natural environment. The interpretation journey is transportative; it can take you forwards or backwards in time and transform an individual’s scale in relationship to their environment. The Centre’s narratives are rooted within the local landscape and heritage and structured by scientific discovery. Each narrative allows for varying levels of immersion and engagement. Participation: Curiosity, interaction and exploration Seaton is a gateway to the Jurassic Coast and allows close physical access to the geological past and to unique marine and terrestrial environments and their wildlife. It comprises stunning landscapes that encourage physical exploration and is a place where active processes continue to shape its composition. Project interpretation stimulates active learning. It is highly interactive; exhibits involve the visitor and demand their engagement. The Centre provides people with the tools, confidence and curiosity to explore the wider landscape and discover Seaton’s natural assets at first hand. Formal and informal learning activities employ a variety of learning styles to provoke deeper understanding and a desire to understand and protect one’s own heritage. Entertainment: Surprise, excitement and variety Seaside towns like Seaton evolved as centers of entertainment. This traditional entertainment purpose has been challenged as visitor interests have changed over the last 60 years. Seaton’s natural assets remain its key draw for visitors, but much of its appeal remains hidden, poorly explained and understood. The aim of project interpretation is to re-imagine Seaton’s natural environment, making the most of its obvious attractions whilst revealing elements of its natural heritage that have been, up to now, hidden, obscure or inaccessible. The central story of Seaton’s Jurassic heritage will be told through concepts of time travel, shape and scale shifting, exhibits that surprise and stimulate and that take you where you cannot normally go. In this way, Seaton’s vast and awe inspiring heritage will be easy to conceptualise and to explore in ways which offer fun and variety. 4 HG-12-09939 5 STORIES AND THEMES TURN TO VISUAL PLAN PAGE 7 5.1 The ‘organiser’ – The Central Story • The Greatest Story on Earth The story of Seaton’s natural heritage is the story of life; vast in terms of time, scope and scale. It has been governed by processes that are incremental and continual. The central story of Seaton Jurassic interpretation is rooted in its unique location and is about change and evolution - about how the natural world is shaped by natural processes, including human impacts on the environment. This place is formed and ruled by the interconnected play of time, rock and water... all life we see, is governed by this interplay, including ourselves. This central story – Time and Tide - informs all elements of project interpretation. It’s a dramatic story of change and survival, of how our world was created and shaped - one could argue that it is the greatest story on earth. • A Unique Place The central story reflects the unique nature of Seaton and its natural assets – its coastal and marine heritage and the town’s position as a gateway to the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. Seaton is the only place in the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site where visitors can easily see rocks from three geological eras - the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous spanning 185 million years of the earth's history, from 250 million years ago to 65 million years ago. World Heritage status was achieved because of the site's unique insight into the Earth Sciences, as it clearly depicts a 'geological walk through time’ spanning the Mesozoic Era. This is because the rocks exposed in the cliffs along the coast dip gently from the west to the east, so broadly speaking the oldest rocks are in the west and the youngest are in the east. Seaton nestles between one end of the famous Axmouth to Lyme Regis Undercliff National Nature Reserve – Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Special Area of Conservation (SAC), arguably the finest 'wilderness' area in Great Britain and one of the largest active coastal landslide systems in Western Europe – and the majestic white cliffs of Beer (SSSI and also part of the Sidmouth to West Bay SAC). It is surrounded by the East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. To the north the extensive Axe Estuary Wetlands expand out from the edge of Seaton to create one huge wetland nature reserve stretching 1.5 miles to Colyford.