It’s #YorkshireDay & I’m appropriately here to see members for the first day of my @Heritage_NGOs#NorthernProgress Over the Saddleworth Moors we spotted a Triumph Herald Convertible for the mobile gang & a tower built as part of the nuclear early warning comms from Cold War era.
Great to wander this morning round @fountainsabbey with @JustinScullyNT & talk about the site. Studley Royal Water Gardens is a #WorldHeritageSite - an important 18thC surviving landscape (for a time it wasn’t invested in & made fashionable so it survived in original state 😮💨)
The water gardens are prone to flooding & we talked about the @HeritageFundUK@nationaltrust funded Skell Valley Project to reduce run off from further up the valley. @fountainsabbey ruins would have played the role of often deliberately antiquated ruins at other 18C landscapes.
There’s also a water mill on site which is hosting a landscape photography exhibition…
The ex-Cistercian Abbey itself is also part of the World Heritage Site designation (waving at @WorldHeritageUK - @Heritage_NGOs members) & was greatly used during Covid as a safe space to exercise. Visitors were up 20% last summer.
It’s an incredibly photogenic site @fountainsabbey & is used a lot for filming. Recently it’s use in #TheWitcher has brought in new tv tourism.
The miniature testers also approved. Though we took a moment to shake our fists at Henry VIII
The Markenfield family history is fascinating & @markenfieldhall is believed to be the most complete surviving example of a medium sized 14thC house in England. Thanks to Sue for a fascinating walk round…
Canon John de Markenfield was chancellor to Edward II & has an unsavoury write up in history books but for 2 1/2 centuries after his death successful marriages were made & the family flourished. There was some side switching in the Wars of the Roses & pardons after Bosworth…
But the Markenfields were a devout Catholic family & after the reformation & the suppression of sites such as @fountainsabbey they became involved in the doomed Rising of the North. Sir Thomas & his uncle Sir Richard Norton were standard bearers (see 5 wounds of Christ)
A mass was said by the rebels at @markenfieldhall along the route of the rising & Protestant altar at @riponcathedral was vandalised & mass said, but the rising was routed, many were executed & Sir Thomas escaped into exile & poverty. The house & land confiscated by Elizabeth I
The estate was given to the Queen’s trusted advisors, but stood empty/became a tenanted farm under absentee landlords. It passed through families until it was bought for £9400 in the 1760s by lawyer & MP Sir Fletcher Norton (later solicitor general) & descendant of Richard Norton
When elevated to the peerage, he became Lord Grantley & the house has stayed in the family since. Lord & Lady Grantley began the restoration of the house in 1980 & continued until today by Lady Grantly & Ian Curteis. They won @Historic_Houses@Sothebys 2008 restoration award
Many fascinating stories - a possible escape for one of the Princes in the Tower, a piece of broken sculpture (possible @fountainsabbey rescue?) found near the moat, a tale of (American) Katherine who having spent one meal with Grantley promptly divorced his cousin & married him
And Caroline Norton, campaigner for the rights of women, abused wife of George Norton. The consequence of their union were the legal reforms to Women’s rights in 1839, 1857 & 1870. markenfieldhall.com/history/caroli… - @markenfieldhall want to be a hub of research about her.
Finally we were treated to tea in the stunning great hall. Apple juice from @markenfieldhall apples. Thanks for having us Sarah. A truly unique & fascinating place. #NorthernProgress
Good morning from Day 3 of the #LabourConference2024 - first up a dip into the monthly @HistEnvForum meeting & now I’m at the @BritishMusicExp with our member @UNESCOUK & colleagues @BritishCouncil for a session on how culture & heritage can support a sustainable future for all.
This is an event celebrating UN Sustainable Development Goals week with @2030hub.
Discussion about locally led solutions, relational infrastructure, reduction of siloed working between orgs, reconnecting communities with their own monuments when they have been alienated in some places. Need to connect individual to global. Hearing localised voices.
Good morning from Day two of #LabourConference2024 & we are joining a discussion about government-civil partnership around culture wars with @nationaltrust and @Moreincommon_
Some fascinating material about voter profiles & views on ‘culture war’ type issues. Voters see through it.
People are interested in the “and what?” question. Unlike America we don’t have stacked issues in certain profiles. In Britain we are more issue led, issue by issue.
Good morning from #LabourConference24& the @WeAreCreativeUK Pavillion. @RhonddaBryant kicks off the programme saying cultural education should be for all & all children, that human to human engagement is of great importance & Labour wants to fix the black hole in arts provision.
A lovely start to the day celebrating young musicians from @IHLiverpool with stories of impact & performance.
@IHLiverpool @WeAreCreativeUK A spot of #Beatles for Liverpool’s heritage.
Good morning Yorkshire! En route from Ripon to @durham_uni for member meetings…
First up @durham_uni @DU_Collections Oriental Museum to see Head of Collections Craig Barclay. The museum & associated academic staff are doing some really exciting international partnership work. durham.ac.uk/things-to-do/v…
@durham_uni @DU_Collections Contemporary collecting of Japanese & Chinese material adds to a really impressive collection spanning Asia & Ancient Egypt. Lots of work underway with local communities with (for instance) Hindus coming to engage with shrines. A session for under 5s was underway during my visit.
Back in York today for catch ups with @RedfernNeil @archaeologyuk @mikeheyworth & exciting to see the team at @York_Minster Fund & have a hard hat tour at the centre for excellence for heritage craft skills & estate management nearing completion. 1/5 yorkminster.org/discover/centr…
Firstly we visited the new - almost ready - heritage skills campus & centre. Stonemasonry will be taught on site & first year apprentices will live on site to support their first year in York. The centre will be sustainable with ground source heat pumps & solar panels. 2/5
The apprentices’ rooms echo monastic cells & the quad courtyard echoes cloisters in the nearby cathedral. There will be shared gardens & meeting facilities too.
I’m on the other side of the Pennines today in York. A great meeting this morning with York’s MP @RachaelMaskell covering archaeology & planning, heritage & social prescribing, heritage-led tourism & creativity and funding for issues such as RAAC
On @RachaelMaskell’s recommendation I used my lunch break to pop into the @YorkArtGallery to see their partnership with the @NationalGallery for #MonetinYork around #NG200
The exhibition situates Monet’s Waterlilies in the context of inspiration from earlier works & legacy. Including Monet’s collection of and interest in Japanese works such as those of Hokusai.