Heritage is . . . . .

Ok so, the question is what is Heritage. This arose from a discussion with my brother. I had told him about my train journey up to my dad's and how I had passed the emirates stadium. In the same conversation we were talking about where I could do my work placement and he suggested that I do it and St James' Park, Newcastle United football ground. I responded that I didn't think that was heritage. My brother responded that it was heritage, at least to a Geordie and that then got me thinking about what heritage actually is. For me personally it is something in the past, preferably pre 1850, unless it has a direct link to my own personal history. This is the reason why I still think of Chichester as a complete historic city as I grew up there and every time I go back I always look out for the changes made. The other bonus Chichester has is that it is a Roman town, with some of the Roman walls still standing, as well as the cathedral and other places such as the market cross. I don't care if the places in Chichester were built after 1850 as the whole city is a part of my herritage. That might seem a bit wierd, but hey, I never said I was normal



Visit Chichester

Festive events

Yet another delayed post. I kept on meaning to put this post up just after christmas, but surprise surprise I forgot. This about various activites that go on at christmas at heritage sites around the country. I guess it is because they realise it is the school holiday and parents need something to do with their kids, but also everybody can understand christmas and the way in which they celebrated christmas in the past is very interesting at the christmas season, especially if it can shed some light into christmas traditions. this post is all about festivities at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum.

The Weald and Downland Open Air Museum ran a 6 day christmas event which gave people a chance to celebrate christmas in times gone by. It ranged from the tudor times all the way up to the victorian era with festive music by the Generalls Musick and players. everybody who went there had a great time, so much so that there was an article about them in the local paper. It was a resounding success and no doubt they will do something simillar this christmas.



But more places need to be doing things like this more than just at Christmas time. If they made these places more eciting to go to more people would want to go there and so raise revenue for these places and help with the cost of everything and the benefits would outweigh the costs, but that is just my opinion and if you have a different one feel free to comment below.

Weald and Downland Open Air Museum
generalls music and players

Also here is another blog on events English Heritage put on in 2009 for Halloween, apologies if the blog is not to your taste, I just thought it backed up what I was saying.

bad witch - english heritage gets scary

Monetary Heritage

For Christmas this year I received a £10 note from my Scottish grandparents. However it was a Scottish note and so on it there was an image of Glamis castle and that got me thinking about how money is such a big part of our lives and yet we never think about what is actually on them or where the whole idea of bank notes came from.
 

Nowadays we don't even bother looking at our money and I wonder how many of you realise that there has been a whole collection of coins produced to celebrate the 2012 olympics, not many I am guessing. Although I will admit that I didn't know about them until my brother asked if I had any as someone where he works is collecting them and wants the whole set, as he called it. So I looked and discovered that I did indeed have one, which I exchanged for just a regular one so that this person could have it. But you have to wonder if someday those pound coins would be worth more than their actual value as most things that commerate something become more expensive as time passes.

(for further information on the history of banknotes click here)

Historical Films

Nowadays a lot of people get their historical information through films and television programmes, and yet most of them never stop to question the historical accuracy of whatever it is they are watching. Movies like Troy were done to be blockbuster movies and as such have various inaccuracies as the producers and directors no doubt thought that to make the movie completely accurate would be to limit its appeal to the wider audience. And yes I know that there are very few records pertaining to the siege of Troy, one of the best records being Homer's Iliad, and so the film makers can have a bit of leeway in how they tell the story. The problem with historical inaccuracies in popular entertainment is that people take it as absolute fact and don't question it, thinking that the people involved in making the film would not dare to put something in that wasn't absolute fact. Ha, the fact is that the movie companies are there to make money, nothing more and they will do anything to create the big bucks at the box office, at the expense of the historical accuracy of the film. But that is enough of a rant for now and I will bid you goodbye

Fleeting Heritage

Ok, so how many of you have passed somewhere whilst on the train or whilst on a car journey and wondered what an earth it was, such as ruins. Speaking as someone who has been on a lot of train journeys I have lost count of the amount of heritage sites I have seen and wondered what they are. Some of them are very easy to figure out, such as Arundel castle,

or Durham cathedral

Others are a bit harder to figure out, like the Trundle.

From a distance it looks like any other hill with extra bumps on top, but it is in fact an iron age hill fort and causewayed enclosure. These are just examples of various types of heritage places you can see whilst on a journey. My point is that heritage is all around us, whether we realise it or not. For example there are 28 world heritage sites in the UK, about 2500 museums and countless other castles, churches and other historic buildings and sites. We all just need to get out there more and actually visit these places as they are part of our country's history and we need to learn about it and the best way is by visiting a site and immersing ourselves in the story of that place.

Heritage tales

Ok so first post on my blog 'Heritage Communicates'. The whole idea for the name came from experiences I have had at historic sites. Have you ever been somewhere and history just comes alive, almost as if you were there? Well I have, several times and let me tell you, it sometimes scares the hell out of me. There is an English Heritage site where this occurs every single time I go there, it is Porchester castle. When walking by the walls that surround the castle I can almost picture a roman legionnaire making his rounds as he walks the walls. Also there is a place I cannot go in the actual castle without getting extremely freaked out, I'm a scaredy cat I know. When I then did some research into the castle itself I discovered that the part of the building that made me feel so weird was in fact occasionally used to hold prisoners, curiouser and curiouser. But you probably think I am a bit crazy, and you may very well be right, but still the thought persists about what stories would these sites tell if they could speak to us after all they have been around for such a long time they are bound to have interesting stories about what they have experienced. If only we could hear them. But this blog is my interpretation of heritage.

So enjoy.

Link to Porchester Castle