One thing after another …

In the history boys Alan Bennett defines history as “one ******* thing after another”

I suppose that is one of the interesting differences between archaeology and history –archaeology reveals evidence of the past that changes and challenges the ‘assumed’ sequence of  those ‘things’ that were thought to follow on from one another.

I was able to visit Göbekli Tepe in South East Turkey last week (with my site conservation hat on). Göbekli Tepe is one of those archaeological sites that challenges the assumed sequence of ‘things’. The archaeology at Göbekli Tepe reveals monumental architecture being built before the first permanent villages, and before the domestication of plants, about 11,600 years ago. Until Göbekli Tepe was discovered in the mid 1990s, archaeologists had assumed that these ‘things’ occurred the other way round (with the Neolithic revolution characterised by permanent settlement, domestication of plants and animals and then monumental architecture).

Gobekli Tepe (May 2013)

Göbekli Tepe is an amazing site with its famous t-shaped pillars (up to 5.5m in height) revealed through excavation, each of these is decorated with stylised animal motifs, these are enclosed with low supporting walls made of local limestone, and bonded with a thick mud mortar. The evidence of the building technologies currently being excavated at Göbekli Tepe shine a fascinating light on the sequence of ‘things’ and certainly challenge the current  ’known knowns.’ No doubt more is to follow …

Gobekli Tepe (May 2013)

More information and fantastic photography of Göbekli Tepe via this National Geographic article: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/06/gobekli-tepe/mann-text

Making Places

Noel Streatfeild is best known for her children’s book ‘Ballet Shoes’, but in 1960 she published ‘New Town’. This features the Bell family, the Reverend Alex, his wife Cathy and 4 children Paul, Jane, Ginnie and Angus. ‘New Town’ tells the story of the family moving from their London vicarage to the Crestal New Town, where the builders ‘forgot’ the civic centre. The story tells us how planning for ‘Crestal New Town Day’ (instigated by Ginnie) has a transformative effect on the otherwise disparate and lonely ‘new town’ people. With my heritage hat this simple story reminds us of the connection between the tangible and intangible, and how ‘doing’ creates meaning in the present.

The imaginary vision presented of New Towns, their problems and solutions is a light-hearted look, but one that informs our response to New Towns. 

Our response to New Towns has changed over the last 50 years and is a far cry from the vision of Ebenezer Howard when he envisioned Letchworth Garden City (which was started in 1903 and was one of the first new towns).

Detail from Charley in New Town – source: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/1945to1951/filmpage_cint.htm

Letchworth was also the site in 1905 of the ‘cheap (£150) cottages exhibition’ organised by St Loe Strachey (who was proprietor of the Spectator). This exhibition was significant as one the ‘big’ moments in the early 20^th century interests in earth building in the UK. One the young architects who was interested in the competition was Clough Williams Ellis. Who went on to win a later competition for a cottage built in pise, he then wrote Cottage Building in Cob, Pise, Chalk and Clay (1909).

 

Clough Williams Ellis also married Strachey’s daughter, which handily meant his publication had a glowing introduction from his publishing-magnate father-in-law. Cottage Building in Cob, Pise, Chalk and Clay went on to inform the 1919 Amesbury Experimental Cottages, undertaken by the Building Research Station (and precursor to the BRE).

More about Letchworth on the Spatial Agency website:

http://www.spatialagency.net/database/garden.cities

And the cheap cottage exhibition through the Letchworth Garden City Museum website:

http://www.gardencitymuseum.org/exhibitions/cheap_cottages_exhibition

More on a  ‘rereading’ of Angus Wilson’s ‘Late Call’ – (which also features some other novels about new towns):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/06/late-call-angus-wilson-rereading

This also led me to the brilliantly informative ‘Charley in the New Town’ – a public information film produced by the Central Office of Information for Ministry of Town and Country Planning in 1948, and directed by  Halas & Batchelor.More information on via the national archives:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/1945to1951/filmpage_cint.htm

and BFI films on youtube:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ophEYd4A-Q

An extraordinary place

The Vale of Pickering is an Extraordinary Place - recent work I’ve undertaken to create an agreed Statement of Significance for the Vale of Pickering is now online through the North Yorkshire County Council Website

The detailed statement of significance document can now be downloaded from the North Yorkshire County Council Website at:

http://www.northyorks.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=22213&p=0

The document is summarised in ‘The Vale of Pickering an Extraordinary Place: Statement of Significance’ which can be downloaded by clicking on the link here.

The Vale of Pickering an Extraordinary Place Statement of Significance

Also nice words about the Vale of Pickering Statement of Significance from theLRC.wordpress.com

http://thelrc.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/vale-of-pickering-statement-of-significance/

outdoor pursuits

I’ve just finished a short piece of work for English Heritage looking at recreational activities that have potential impacts on the historic environment.

I thought I would post something as I found this fantastic image from an old Scouting handbook (Gilcraft’s Exploring, first published in 1930) that is used by David Matless in his study of landscape use in the interwar years of the early 20^th century in ‘Landscape and Englishness’.

The Explorer’s Chart (Gilcraft’s Exploring 1930).

The Explorer’s chart suggests ‘active outdoor pursuits’ are ways of developing interest in the countryside, highways, ‘man’ and his work and ‘things’ of the past. What is interestingly is that the pursuits presented in 1930 are as much about understanding and observing landscape as the ‘expeditions, games, walks and hikes’ that are precursors to 21^st century recreational activities.

This observation of ‘things’ in the landscape also echoes an episode recalled by Clough Williams Ellis in his autobiography when he worked as a military map-maker during the 1st World War and published his methodology of ‘reading’ the landscape with the brilliant term ‘reconography’ (or ‘short-hand military sketching’) (which he wrote under the pseudonym ‘Graphite’, and was published with an introduction by Baden-Powell in 1919).

I’m quite keen for ‘reconography’ to become a recreational activity again (with the omission of military references …).

More information on old scouting handbooks and the rest of the ‘Gilcraft’ series:

http://www.thedump.scoutscan.com/gilcraft.html

More information on the English Heritage NHPP:

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/professional/protection/national-heritage-protection-plan/plan/activities/2b3

Matless, D. 1998. Landscape and Englishness. London: Reaktion Books.

even more significance to the Vale of Pickering?

Looks like I may have missed out an object of cultural significance from the Vale of Pickering Statement of Significance.

Road Sign designed by Jock Kinneir & Margaret Calvert, 1964 (Design Museum/Guardian)

The example of the road signage system by Jock Kinneir & Margaret Calvert on display in the Design Museum in their new exhibition ‘extraordinary stories about ordinary things’ is from the former A64, A169 crossroads, here in the Vale of Pickering!

The blurb for the new exhibition is to ‘explore national identity through objects that define a nation. Interesting – and perhaps given the major role the A64 has in the Vale of Pickering something about regional identity as well…

more information online:

http://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/2013/extraordinary-stories

For lots more on the work of Jock Kinneir & Margaret Calvert:

http://designmuseum.org/design/jock-kinneir-margaret-calvert

semi-detached mole-hills …

I always promised the blog wouldn’t do a ‘kids say the funniest things’ … but loving this little gem from my little William, whilst walking yesterday … counting out the mole-hills:

“ 1, 2, 3  … 76 & 77… Mummy look! these are semi-detached mole-hills …”

Demonstrating his fine-tuned appreciation of the built environment and the natural/cultural interaction in building (OK excavating) with earth, and just how busy the moles have been in the last week.

Perhaps this might be something covered by our brilliant speakers at the EBUK 2013 conference. Our  programme has just gone live – speakers include Tom Woolley,  Pete Walker, Rowland Keable, John Smith, Becky Little, Carol Ryan, Dan Maskell, Jackie Abbey & Jill Smallcombe, Jerry Sharpe, Kevin McCabe, Linda Watson, Paulina Wojciechowska, Rob Ley, Rob Hoskins, David Okoronkwo, Mike Wye & Associates & Amal Balila.

More info online

http://www.ebuk.uk.com/

Programme link opens as a PDF:

http://www.ebuk.uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/EBUK-Conference-2013-Programme.pdf

Now to find some mole terraces – in the mean time a nice  little snap of ‘natural architecture’ from the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Vale of Pickering, fog and frost… local heritage

Vale of Pickering 13th December 2012

On the first day of Christmas we celebrated the 40^th anniversary of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention in a conference hosted by ICOMOS-UK, The Open University and UCL Centre for Museums, Heritage and Material Culture. The event came about from a conversation at last years ICOMOS conference when it seemed obvious (at least to me) that we should do ‘something’ to mark the 40^th birthday in the UK as there were already celebrations planned around the world.

Speakers at the conference included Baroness Andrews (English Heritage), Professor Christina Cameron (University of Montreal), Marie-Noël Tournoux (UNESCO World Heritage Centre), James Rebanks (Rebanks Consulting Ltd),  Adam Wilkinson (Edinburgh World Heritage),  Feng Jing (UNESCO World Heritage Centre) and Kate Roberts (Cadw).

Love it or loath it the World Heritage Convention remains one of the most successful international conventions and, as of September 2012, 190 state parties had ratified the World Heritage Convention. The list of World Heritage sites currently stands at 962 properties, of which 745 are cultural sites, 188 natural, and 29 mixed, and they are located in 157 state parties.

My impression of the day was (to my surprise) overwhelmingly positive. There was a general feeling that the Convention as we now approach it in 2012 is both  shaped by, and is shaping our approaches to cultural heritage. And actually it is the very local nature of ‘world’ heritage sites that makes them significant, and that process of becoming and retaining World Heritage adds to, rather than detracts from sites around the world.

So what about local then? – context is so important in shaping our understanding of heritage, what it means and our approaches to it, and within those separate meanings also lurks the gaping hole where different meanings can clash, and that can, and does, become political.

The importance of ‘local’ was only confirmed with a ‘kids say the funniest things’ incident when coloring in an Christmas-inspired sheep – it had black feet, and what else do sheep have? Well if you live in a rural area with sheep … they have pink numbers on their backs (obviously)!

Which brings us to that lovely snap of wintry weather in the Vale of Pickering.

For more information on the conference: http://www.icomos-uk.org/about-us/events/whtc/

UCL Centre for Museums, Heritage and Material Culture: http://www.mhm.ucl.ac.uk/

The Open University: http://www.open.ac.uk/

…. And 40^th Anniversary of the World Heritage Convention and World Heritage list: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list