HODs RSS FeedCategory - Cultural Heritage
Showing blog posts in the category: Cultural Heritage.
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Bats in the belfry!
Posted by Chana James on 9th May 2012 | 0 Comments
Actually that’s a bit of a myth: bats are unlikely to roost in belfries as they can be quite draughty (and noisy). Bats like it a bit warmer and prefer nooks and crannies in the main part of the church where they can huddle together rather than a belfry or tower. So, churches do play a vital role in the survival of bats, which are an endangered species.
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All at sea - National Historic Ships UK is shoring up support for Heritage Open Days
Posted by Emerald Laing on 16th February 2012 | 0 Comments
“Britain is an island nation” – that’s a phrase you don’t hear so often these days. People forget that the UK is surrounded by the sea and that historically we would depend on maritime links for food, work and leisure. With the decline in Britain’s shipping industry, many UK ports and docksides have become neglected wastelands with prime waterfronts seen as a target for residential developers.
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Linking buildings, creating clusters – together we’re stronger
Posted by Lucie Thacker on 30th January 2012 | 0 Comments
Heritage Open Days visitors really appreciate any ideas for other places to explore and there are loads of ways to make connections. Here are a few ideas based on our experience.
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Making collections accessible to visually impaired visitors
Posted by Ben Goodwin on 23rd January 2012 | 1 Comment
Catering for differently abled people within arts and heritage venues is essential and rewarding but it can pose a challenge. At the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham where I work, we are grateful for the support of our volunteers who have helped us improve our accessibility for those with visual impairment.
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Lifting the lid on disability history
Posted by Esther Gill on 16th January 2012 | 0 Comments
For many disabled people, the everyday experiences of their historical peers are rarely reflected in the stories that are told through local museums, heritage sites and events such as Heritage Open Days. In the past, and still today, disabled people were often educated separately at special schools and sometimes worked and spent their leisure time outside the mainstream. Their stories are not illuminated in our histories and generally remain hidden. I think that Heritage Open Days offers an exciting opportunity to change this, exploring an area of history that is not well known, linking with new audiences, and creating new events.
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Add some va-va-voom with vintage vehicles
Posted by Roy.Dowding on 9th January 2012 | 0 Comments
Following a pilot scheme in 2009, more than a dozen Heritage Open Days venues - including a school, a postal museum, a dockyard, several stately homes and even a Victorian cemetery - welcomed displays of historic vehicles in 2011.
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Historic churches as visiting destinations
Posted by Chana James on 14th December 2011 | 0 Comments
Churches haven’t always been readily associated with the word tourism, but increasingly more and more tourism managers are realising their potential as part of the ‘tourism offer’ for their local area. We at the Churches Conservation Trust (CCT) have been welcoming visitors to our churches since 1969.
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Working with themes
Posted by Tim Prevett on 27th October 2011 | 0 Comments
So you've opened a building over Heritage Open Days, people enjoyed your tour, but what next? Have you ever thought working with themes? Believe it or not, it's something quite obvious - just there waiting to be discovered, explored and told.
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There and back again - a HODs tale
Posted by Sarah Holloway on 27th September 2011 | 0 Comments
After months and months of working away to register events for Heritage Open Days (HODs), people often ask me what we, as the national team, do over the weekend and afterwards. Well, here is a quick review of this year’s itinerary for all those who are curious.
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Marvellous, mysterious, mundaine - how the past’s silent witnesses speak to us
Posted by Tim Prevett on 23rd September 2011 | 1 Comment
Heritage starts with people. For many folk that piece of heritage probably started out as the horrible new carbuncle built in their backyard (against their wishes). It's then passed down through the years by people whose own stories are linked with it. With the time it becomes invested with more and more meaning, as life, work and death happen around it, within it. Then, it ends up being a valued old something-or-other, and then enjoyed and maintained by people today. But what if there's no human narrative left to tell the story and help us make sense of the past?
