Day one of this week’s @Heritage_NGOs#SouthernProgress in Sussex and I had the chance to return to the wonderful @WealddownMuseum for the first time since the pandemic. Great to catch up with @heritage_notes & chat to volunteers. Here’s a little tour 👇
Firstly big ups to the education team @WealddownMuseum - some great & engaging activities around the site. This week there’s a model railway & chance to create mini medieval buildings, vintage hobby activities & games. Activities vary each week. More here wealddown.co.uk/whats-on/famil…
It’s a working site where visitors can try their hand at traditional techniques & the team farm, cook Tudor meals & use the environment to provide materials (such as for the stove). I love that @WealddownMuseum is a place where traditional skills are practiced & passed on.
Bayleaf farmstead was a favoured house when I visited as a child - we loved the fire & the early in-house toilet.
I also love the Medieval shop from Horsham @WealddownMuseum - reconstructed, how it was found & what replaced it.
Here’s the Bayleaf Privy by the way & the nearby Tudor kitchen where you can (when it’s open) sample Tudor cooking
Here’s my perennial 80s vibe pictures of me as a child visiting @WealddownMuseum - so it’s great to bring my girls & pass on the memories - definitely an inspirational place.
This visit I popped into a new archaeological reconstruction of a Anglo-Saxon house I hadn’t seen before. It’s fabulous - separate sleeping compartment areas, tiny holes in the wall for light & pre-Norman techniques of tree wrighting. Here’s the project wealddown.co.uk/buildings/angl…
Workshop, chapel, schoolhouse & mill in the Victorian village area
And I’ve always liked the Toll Cottage
The new cafe & shop area is transformational for the entrance with great views across the site
So interesting to hear about what’s going on, challenges & projects. Thanks for having me today @WealddownMuseum@heritage_notes
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Today’s @Heritage_NGOs#NorthernProgress I’m heading into Manchester past the sad sight of Hartford Mill, almost completely dismantled. Just a couple of towers left. manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-m… A sad example of a lack of creativity & environmental awareness of impact of demolition.
I’ve just left the incredible, bustling & unique Georgian @ThePieceHall where I’ve had the privilege of spending the day. Thanks to Steve for the fascinating tour & @NickyChanThomDL & @gary_rae for a great lunch meeting. Here’s a tour… #NorthernProgress
The Grade I listed @PieceHall, Halifax is the only remaining Georgian cloth hall in the world, the sole survivor of the great 18thC northern cloth halls, showing the importance of the trade in wool & hand woven textiles to the pre-industrial economy of West Yorkshire
Originally built as a 2nd cloth hall for Halifax @ThePieceHall (cleverly built to benefit businessman John Caygill) opened New Year’s Day, 1779. The opening, involved “much fanfare and public ceremony”. A large crowd participated in the opening celebrations.
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 😮💨)
Elizabeth Frood talks about the colourisation process of Tutankhamun in Colour & creation myths flagged by @photograph_tut in retellings of the discovery. Nothing surpasses an encounter with the objects themselves - & there are so many stories we will explore today #PerformingTut
Next @RichardParkins5 talks about @bodleianlibs#ExcavatingtheArchive exhibition - moving beyond imperial nostalgia & the ‘Downton Abbey’ popular gold approach. Looking at the archives. Shifting the paradigm from treasure to a much more complex historical process. #PerformingTut
Nice project for someone here - 36 acres in the Lakes, £795k - a site in need of a saviour. @SAVEBrit
Hearing about the work on heritage at risk in Somerset West & Taunton. Interesting to hear that the Wellington Monument, removed from the at risk list last year, is the world’s largest 3 sided obelisk. @SAVEBrit