On Friday 7th June, the Mary Rose Museum in the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard hosted the inaugural meeting of the Portsmouth Heritage Hub (PHH). The workshop aimed to bring together around 30 researchers from the University of Portsmouth with interests and expertise in the heritage field, with members of 15 organisations associated with local historical artefacts, architecture and monuments in Portsmouth and the surrounding area. It was a fantastic opportunity to foster collaborative research networks between people with the skills and expertise to solve problems, with stakeholders in our history with problems to solve. The ultimate aim of the PHH is to enrich the community through preservation, conservation, interpretation and education about our rich and unique regional history – from the dinosaurs of the Cretaceous Period, through the maritime history of our island port city, to our place in history as the launch point for much of the D-Day Landing fleet in 1944, recently celebrated by World Leaders on the 75th Anniversary of this pivotal turning point to World War II. In this way, we can help to protect our heritage, understand how it has shaped our life today, and how it might inform our future.
The day began with an introduction from Prof. Leila Choukroune, Director of the University of Portsmouth Democratic Citizenship Theme, who kindly sponsored the event. She outlined the goals of the hub, and the need to develop close working relationships between the University and our surrounding community.
A series of short talks followed, which highlighted the vast array of multidisciplinary work currently ongoing within the field. The talks were opened by Dr. Sam Robson, a researcher from the School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Science, who talked about how he and other researchers at the University have applied cutting edge genetic research to learn more about members of the Mary Rose crew, in a program of work recently highlighted in the Channel 4 documentary Skeletons of the Mary Rose: The New Evidence.
Next, Dr. Joy Watts from the School of Biological Sciences talked about work that she has been conducting with Fishbourne Roman Palace, looking at ways of understanding the effects of microorganisms growing on the ruins, and how these can be targeted to better preserve the architecture.
Dr Richard Madgwick, an osteological researcher from Cardiff University who has previously worked on projects with the Mary Rose Museum, talked about some recent work looking at methods of tracking the origin of early settlers through analysis of livestock remains. His work showed that feasts and rituals in Late Neolithic sites such as Stonehenge may have attracted attendees from as far away as Scotland, North East England and West Wales.
Martin Munt, Curator and General Manager of the Dinosaur Isle Museum on the Isle of Wight, moved us away from the scientific to give us a fascinating overview of the Isle of Wight’s rich treasure trove of fossilized dinosaur remains. With over 30,000 specimens, the region is the richest dinosaur locality in Europe, and the museum works hard not only to engage in significant research projects with the University, but also to engage the public through guided tours along the shore line where many specimens were discovered.
Dr Karl Bell, a researcher in the School of Social, Historical and literary Studies, next led a fascinating talk about his work on understanding the social and cultural context of Portsmouth and port towns across the globe, as unique sites of socio-cultural exchange. In particular, he gave an insight into his work on assembling and preserving local folklore and urban myth as a form of intangible heritage.
Dr Tarek Teba from Portsmouth School of Architecture gave an introduction to some of the many modern methods that he is currently using to create digital reconstructions of ruins as a way to bring context to visitors that may otherwise be missing when visiting the sites. The ability to explore long-dead civilisations in “game-ified” recreations offers a tangible way to interact with our past history.
Finally, Dr Alexzandra Hildred, Head of research and Curator of Ordnance and Human Remains at the Mary Rose Trust, gave an incredibly revealing talk about the wealth of research projects undertaken by the trust. From developing ways to preserve the timbers of the ship that have led to the incredible museum exhibit that we see today, through using cutting edge technology to glean understanding from the many artefacts discovered, to using genetics, osteology and morphological analysis to understand who the men of the Mary Rose really were.
Following an incredibly incisive tour around the Mary Rose Museum, where the immense work conducted to preserve this 500 year old ship and its inhabitants can be seen, participants returned to take part in a series of workshops to help guide the direction of the PHH. The first workshop focussed on identifying key focus themes for members of the hub, to understand where the critical mass of our members might lie. The focus areas that were identified and discussed throughout the workshop were:
- Heritage buildings and structures
- New ways of interpreting the past
- Conserving and preserving
- A changing Portsmouth
- How we got here: How the past has influenced the present
- Recreating the past
- Heritage and the community
Discussions were insightful and provide a huge amount of information to help us to develop the direction in which the hub should be headed. Much of the discussion is currently being digested to determine the next steps that we hope to take.
The second workshop had a more focussed aim; to identify short term and long-term projects that might be easily developed into funding-generating projects able to capitalize on the networks that we had built up through the day. The session did not disappointment, and a number of incredibly exciting projects arose that instantly show the worth of collaborative events such as this.
Looking forward to the future, we aim to maintain the momentum that the workshop has generated, and attract even more members to promote further cross-disciplinary working to help galvanise work within the heritage sphere. The first projects identified for short-term grant applications will be explored in more specific workshops, whilst in the meantime we will explore the incredibly exciting longer term goals that have come out from our work together. The outcome of the PHH working in partnership with local heritage stakeholders will be an improvement to maintenance of our local community history, helping to show the benefits and positive role that academic institutions can play in developing the local community. We look fo