Conservation Bulletin Issue 58

A BULLETIN OF THE HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT WHY OUR RURAL LANDSCAPESIssue 58: Summer MATT 2008 ER 58: Summer 2008 Issue Conservation bulletin 2 Editorial 3 New Understanding Presenting Historic Places 3 Understanding our visitors 4 Audience research 6 Visitors to historic gardens 7 Trusting in segmentation 8 Understanding historic properties 10 Slavery connections 11 Unlocking oral history 12 Maritime historic environment 14 Putting cars in context 15 Presenting the medieval castle 16 Later history of medieval buildings 17 Recapturing Contexts 17 Conservation research 18 Environmental standards 19 Risk management 20 Taking on the insect pests 21 St Peter’s Church, Barton 22 Monuments and landscapes 24 Country House Partnership 25 Approaches: Past, Present, Future 25 Interpretation, entertainment 27 Radical approaches 27 Costume and live interpretation 29 Beyond the Ministry of Works 30 Guiding principles 31 About the house 32 AV and interpretation 34 Shock of the new 35 Free sites unlocked 36 Real coal mine, real miners 37 Stirling Castle Palace 38 Kenilworth garden 38 Dover Castle 39 Attingham Rediscovered 39 Conservation Principles 41 The New Interactive Heritage 41 e-heritage 41 Tell me what you want 42 The Heritage Gateway 43 On-line education 44 Heritage Protection Bill 46 News People have never been more interested in the past – but to 48 The National capture their individual imaginations it has to be presented in Monuments Record new and varied ways. 50 Legal Developments 51 New Publications The Great Tower at Ashby de la Zouch Castle as it might have looked in around 1480, drawn by Phil Kenning for English Heritage. Really engaging reconstructions, communicating buildings’ uses as well as appearance, can be hugely powerful in capturing the imaginations of contemporary visitors. © English Heritage Issue 58: Summer 2008 | Conservation bulletin | 1 Editorial: Presenting Historic Places People have always been fascinated by historic places – what changes is the way they want to relate to them. In about 1130 the Lincoln cleric, Henry of historic places. It begins by considering the explo Huntingdon, wrote an account of the marvels of sion in recent work on understanding visitors. England in which he described a place ‘where How can we measure what it is in the nature of a stones of wonderful size have been erected after place that gives people joy or enlightenment or the manner of doorways, so that dorrway appeares gentle pleasure? to have ben raised upon doorway; and no one can The second part of the issue looks at how our conceive how such great stones have been so understanding of places and things has changed in raised aloft, or why they were built there’. He recent years. If the 1970s and 1980s saw the public called this place ‘Stanenges’. being introduced to the collapsing industrial infra In 2007, an international competition gathered structure of the nation, redundant coal mines and 100 million on-line votes for the ‘seven new cotton mills, what strange and surprising buildings wonders of the world’.Almost 900 years after will tomorrow’s school-children be bussed off to Henry of Huntingdon had written, the one UK see? Petrol stations and multi-storey car parks may site to reach the final stage was Stonehenge, still well be among them. considered mesmerising because ‘it is not clear A strong feature of recent presentation work who built the monument, nor for what purpose’. has been a desire to trample down the boundary This symmetry across a millennium is an eloquent fence – to show places in their wider contexts. reminder that the business of visiting, marvelling at Places such as Framlingham and Helmsley castles and enjoying historic places is not a new phenom and the abbeys at Battle and Rievaulx have each enon. Our motives and motivations may have received this treatment at the hands of English changed across the centuries, but there is some Heritage. Important work has also been going in thing fundamental and perpetual in the curiosity relation to the physical behaviour of historic that the structures of the past arouse in us. materials – how can we keep historic interiors together and stave off the dismantling tendencies How can we measure what it is that gives people of those who would empty the books from the joy or enlightenment or gentle pleasure? library into environmentally controlled show cases? From the guardians of medieval shrines to the The fourth section brings together a wealth housekeepers of 18th-century country houses and of case studies that illuminate changing practice the ex-miners of modern industrial sites, there in the present and recent past and cast an occa have always been people involved in the business sional torch beam into the future. Many things of showing the buildings of the past. But the ways are unknown, but what seems inarguable is they have been shown, or ‘presented’ to visitors, that, whatever is done to influence how it is have not stood still, underpinned by changing experienced, explained and explored by our notions of the meaning of a place, and different descendants, a thousand years hence some views of what visitors want, or ought to take, enduring urge will still lead them to beat a from that experience. path to Stonehenge. ■ This issue of Conservation Bulletin takes as its theme the ways in which we have recently been Anna Keay catering for this enduring human interest in Director of Properties Presentation Conservation Bulletin is published three times a year by English Heritage and circulated free of charge to more than 15,000 conservation specialists, opinion-formers and decision-makers. Its purpose is to communicate new ideas and advice to everyone concerned with the understanding, management and public enjoyment of England’s rich and diverse historic environment. When you have finished with this copy of Conservation Bulletin, do please pass it on. And if you would like to be added to our mailing list, or to change your current subscription details, just contact us on 020 7973 3253 or at [email protected]. 2 | Conservation bulletin | Issue 58: Summer 2008 New Understanding Effective presentation of historic places depends on understanding not only the places themselves but what visitors want to hear about them. Understanding our visitors: who they are.The methodologies we use provide new ways of thinking a visitor profile based on geographic, demographic and economic indicators.This is then used to Emma Carver inform marketing and advertising campaigns Head of Interpretation, English Heritage designed to target particular sectors of the market These are exciting times for visitor research, to encourage them to visit a particular site. Market particularly relating to the success or otherwise research tends to be based on quantitative and of interpretation. It is no longer adequate just to statistical analysis achieved through large samples. know your visitor figures and their demographic The National Trust’s recent segmentation project profile.We need to understand why people have (see Laura Irvine, pp 7–8) is a sophisticated chosen to visit a particular site, what they know version of this type of research. about it already, what they learnt on site and how Audience research, on the other hand, explores we can improve what we offer to ensure that they the response of a group of people to an experi come away from a visit refreshed and inspired. In ence. In our case this is about how people respond some respects we are embarking on a huge socio to various aspects of a visit to a site.This type of logical exercise that may at first lead to confusion research tends to be qualitative, based on semi- as we try to analyse increasingly contrary answers. structured interviews or focus groups, and may In others we are being given the opportunity to even involve accompanied visits or workshops. Osborne House, challenge our own perceptions as much as those The results tend to be indicative rather than Isle of Wight: most of our visitors. conclusive.The research English Heritage has heritage and cultural It is helpful to distinguish between the two recently carried out at Stonehenge and on our attractions recognise main areas of work that are carried out under the historic gardens used elements of both techniques families as their heading of visitor research. Market research is with an emphasis on qualitative research. most important target audience. mainly concerned with understanding how and In recent years the heritage sector has concen © English Heritage why visitors decide to visit sites, and very broadly trated its research efforts in two particular areas. The advent of the family as a lucrative market segment in its own right has had a huge impact – most heritage and cultural attractions would now cite families as their dominant target audience. But the make-up of modern families is changing rapidly.We can no longer characterise a family as two adults with two children – today there are more lone parents, grandparents caring for grandchildren and a growing population of older parents.We also have the issue of perception. A recent survey by Tourism South East reported that ‘families who had not visited a heritage attraction within the last three years believed that these types of places would be too boring for their children, wouldn’t hold their interest or did not cater well for families with young children.’ Clearly we still have our work cut out. A second area of focus has been the Department for Culture Media and Sport’s ‘priority groups’ – in our terms people who have been identified as non-heritage users but who may not be so out of choice.They are young people, people from black and ethnic minorities, people on low incomes and people with disabilities.

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