Back to the Classroom!

As a volunteer heritage steward I continue to find new and stimulating ways to learn about our county’s heritage.

One such way was made possible recently simply by enrolling upon one of the “GROW” courses offered by Lincolnshire County Council through Heritage Lincolnshire. The course was entitled “Lost Medieval Villages and Abbeys and Priories in Lincolnshire” and was run over two separate evenings at the headquarters of Heritage Lincolnshire in Heckington.

The Trust’s building is a lovely example of Victorian heritage in itself, being a former Church of England village school. Developing a Steward’s keen eye for such things, I could see that many of the school’s original architectural features had been retained! The wooden folding classroom divider with glass panes and the large classroom spaces,(so difficult to heat in winter) reminded me of time spent at a similar school as a child! Also, despite not being used as a school for several years, the playground still bears a clearly visible hop-scotch grid!

However, back to the GROW course! The first part of the course concerned the lost Medieval villages. I had only a vague knowledge of these villages prior to attending the course. I was aware of the village at Brauncewell, beside the A15 north of Sleaford. (Incidentally, I recall that my first awareness of Heritage Lincolnshire’s existence was several years ago when an invitation appeared in the local press for interested parties to meet at the site for a morning’s interpretive visit with a member of the Trust.) The first slide shown on the course was an aerial photograph of Brauncewell and showed the village in astonishing detail – far better than by merely passing by the site on the road would have allowed! The helpful explanations of what we were seeing on the slide effectively “brought the village to life” as details including road and pathways, cottages together with their associated agricultural small-holdings, became clear. The illustrations contained within the Luttrell Psalter- a unique and local Medieval manuscript, were used by the tutor to identify the everyday activities of villagers of the period. To aid this understanding, we were shown a short video, produced by a local history society, in which the various activities were authentically re- enacted. The village remains that we viewed were then transformed through us gaining an understanding of the activities of the individuals who once populated it.

The second part of the course introduced us to the remains of Medieval abbeys and priories in Lincolnshire. The evening’s study was illustrated with photographs and aerial photographs of abbey site which made it easier to identify the plan of typical monastery buildings. Considering the age of the buildings, I was impressed by how intact at least some of these abbeys are. Particularly memorable is the 14th century abbey at Thornton, near Grimsby, whose brick gatehouse appears to be very sturdy indeed.

Overall the course had the effect of firing me with enthusiasm to visit sites of both lost villages and abbeys. This particular course was made available free of charge which was an added bonus.

As I have stated in earlier blogs, becoming a volunteer Heritage Steward has proved to be a very rewarding experience for me – so much more than I had initially imagined.

The Trust is to be commended for their dynamic approach in making learning such an accessible element of their business.

Colin, Heritage Steward

Watch this space

Having just recovered from the excitement of the Hands on Heritage residential, plans are now underway for our next young person’s event.

We have been working with the Diocese of Lincoln to plan another ‘hands on’ type of event. As the Hands on Heritage expedition proved, this type of event can be both extremely rewarding and enjoyable. As one young person put it: “It was really informative without being overwhelming or dull.” Watch this space…

In other news we have recently recruited our 253rd Heritage Steward, and our next Heritage Steward training day is also fully booked. It is wonderful to see such support for the project and it really illustrates the level of interest that local people have in protecting Lincolnshire’s heritage.

Our dedicated Heritage Stewards are making great progress with 4,500 surveys now complete. Already, the data collected by our volunteers is being used by English Heritage for inclusion in their places of worship at risk survey. Keep up the good work!

For more information on places of worship at risk visit http://goo.gl/EGqV8

Natalie, Heritage at Risk Project Officer

Roman heritage in Lincoln

For a recent survey, I came across a Roman tombstone in central Lincoln. It was set into the exterior wall of a church about 2 metres above ground height. With Latin and Anglo-Saxon inscriptions, the tombstone is thought to be from a large cemetery which was once south of Lincoln.

It appears that re-use has preserved this monument and it is now an integral part of the building. Having its own record on the heritage database ensures it is not overlooked. As I took photographs, I wondered if, perhaps, this was a contender for one of the smallest features on the survey database (measuring about 1 metre by 0.5 metre).

I will definitely look out for some more unusual fragments of heritage as I continue with the surveys.

Karen, Heritage Steward

Hands on Heritage

The 26th-28th August witnessed the Lincolnshire Heritage at Risk project embark on our first young persons' residential trip - 'Hands on Heritage'.

The three day trip attempted to introduce a collection of 16 to 25 year olds to certain aspects of heritage that they might not usually get access to.

We collected the first group from Sleaford at about 9:30 on the Tuesday morning. I'm still not sure who was more nervous, us or them. The bus was, not surprisingly, unnervingly quiet. By the time we collected the second group from Lincoln there was a little bit of chat and by the time we picked up David, one of our younger Heritage Stewards, from Market Rasen quite a few conversations had developed. We arrived at Caenby on time and met David Rodger from BTCV who introduced us to the site and the principals of drystone walling. Lunch-time quickly followed alongside a short debriefing from staff (introductions, ice-breakers and, most importantly, rules for the week). It was then straight into it; a couple making hearting stones, some applying the capping stones, a few helping form the foundations and several of us organising the stones into nice neat rows for the wallers. Out of all the tasks it seemed that they were most enthusiastic about making the hearting stones. This involved smashing large lumps of rock with a hammer; quite similar to hard-labour or slaves working in an ancient quarry. Anyway, a young persons' appetite for destruction made sure the hearting kept flowing.

The evening at our youth hostel in Claxby involved an indoor barbecue (otherwise called cooking in the oven) and a walk through the woods, rounded off with a quiz and a video. By this time everybody had started to get to know each other quite well which meant some lengthy chats going on well into the night.

A quick breakfast then it was off to Tupholme Abbey (a site managed by the Heritage Trust of Lincolnshire.) The group was split into 3 so that they could experience building recording, finds processing and earthwork surveying - lots of new skills for all. Despite the all the sheep poo it was a fantastic day enjoyed by all. The only problem was with my newly shaven head and the resultant sun-burn; I'm still peeling! Back at Claxby it was pizza making (well, just adding toppings, no dough tossing) quickly followed, before it got dark, by rocket making. The rockets all carried eggs and were to be launched via the power of water and compressed air. Unfortunately I think I might have added too much water to the rockets which resulted in a failure to launch.

The last day involved a trip to the local high ropes centre; a bit of a 'treat' for the kids and the staff. The first course was about 8 feet off the ground, a way of getting use to the equipment. This was a bit too much for some as they declined the option to go for the 12 feet high section (it felt much higher than 12 feet - if you add my own height I guess my eyes were nearly 18 feet off the ground so it looked a long way down.) A few of the more nerveless ones took up the challenge of the tower and the trapeze, I declined both as I didn't want to show-off in front of the youngsters. After all the excitement we conducted a feedback session where we were told what had been learnt, what they enjoyed, what they didn't enjoy (very little fortunately) and if they would recommend the trip to their friends. All the feedback was very positive so it looks like we will be doing another one next year. Watch this space.

A selection of photos can be viewed at the Lincolnshire Heritage at Risk Facebook page. More will be appearing soon on our new website www.lincshar.org

Michael, Heritage at Risk Project Officer