Linking With the Past

July 1, 2021 by admin

How do I do this?
It’s a question I often ask myself. Whether it’s cooking a new recipe or fixing a bookcase, I start with the same question. How do I do this?

If it is something I already know about, the answer can be easy, straightforward even. A year of fixing furniture, fences and buildings have given me all the skills I need to fix a bookcase, though my wife will point out that this experience has not given me the skills to do it without making a considerable mess!

But I’m thinking about my job here; and why it was created? I’m a Cultural Heritage Officer to help look after historic sites and more importantly to help other people look after them.

There are a lot of those around in the Trent Valley landscape. We have stone-age settlements, deserted medieval villages, Victorian industrial sites, monuments, memorials, churches, wartime pillboxes and much more.

Thousands of years worth of human heritage from archaeology we can only see on aerial photos to great stone monuments which everyone can admire. I need to help people look after all of these sites.

If the last year or so has taught us anything, it is that the internet has come of age. Fortunately for me, there is lots of advice online but it is not always easy to find. I can visit landowners and answer questions about their historic places, help them in person*, but this is not enough. I needed a source of advice and guidance that people can access at any time. That is why I created a page with links to the best advice online.

A surprising amount of guidance has ended up on archive web sites, so I asked colleagues and experts for their ideas of current web sites that hold the best advice for landowners.

If you are looking at a historic site where you live or work and are asking yourself, “How do I care for this?”, may I suggest our links page as a good staring point.

* Transforming the Trent Valley can offer free advice, and help with caring for historic sites. if you are interested in this service, please contact us

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