Discover Medieval Chester: place, heritage and identity

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The city of Chester has a rich medieval heritage. The legacies of this are present today in the city's surviving townscape, in its museum collections, and in the remarkable body of medieval multi-lingual literature which reflects the experiences of diverse cultural and ethnic communities within this dynamic borderland city. Yet in comparison with the city's Roman past, Chester's medieval past is currently an under-used cultural and economic asset, and is given relatively little visibility in local museums, in resources for visitors, in tourism marketing, and in the urban environment itself. 'Discover Medieval Chester' aims to promote the vibrant cultural heritage of medieval Chester as a multi-cultural, multi-lingual city, drawing together material, textual and visual culture and forging connections between the medieval past and the modern urban environment today. In particular, 'Discover Medieval Chester' will share the innovative recent research produced by the AHRC-funded 'Mapping Medieval Chester' project (www.medievalchester.ac.uk). This project brought together a new digital atlas of the city c.1500, interlinked with newly-edited editions of medieval textual 'mappings' of the city in English, Latin and Welsh, showing how different cultural and ethnic communities interacted and configured the urban space around them in different ways. Together with relevant research produced by other scholars, this new work enables us to better understand place and identity in the medieval city, and to recover the experiences of individuals and communities in medieval Chester.'Discover Medieval Chester' is founded on a partnership between the Knowledge Transfer Fellow, the wider academic team and the Grosvenor Museum, Chester - a productive relationship which was piloted during the 'Mapping Medieval Chester' project, when c.1200 people attended events coordinated by the Museum to celebrate the launch of the project research. Together with the Grosvenor Museum and other cultural and arts stakeholders in Cheshire and North Wales, we have defined ways in which our research can make a significant and lasting contribution to the wider community, achieving quantifiable social, cultural and economic benefits. We have also identified opportunities to intersect with other ongoing projects in the region in order to secure matched funding, local government support, and the chance to contribute to heritage policy and decision-making.The 'Discover Medieval Chester' partnership will produce new resources and experiences for diverse user constituencies including local communities, tourists and remote 'virtual visitors'. Our aim is to re-vitalise interest in Chester's medieval heritage, promote education and tourism potentials, and enable audiences to explore issues of place, identity and community.The academic research on Chester's multi-cultural medieval heritage will be disseminated via six key outputs:1. A new interactive website centred on an interactive map of medieval Chester, overlaid onto the modern city. A set of audio-visual resources (including short guides, excerpts of medieval texts, and sample medieval artefacts with descriptions) will be attached to each key location or feature, allowing users to explore the medieval city and the different cultural perspectives within it, and to download customisable, 'bespoke' tours in MP3 format2. Traditional paper tour brochures in a range of languages, including Welsh3. A major exhibition at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, which will transfer to Wrexham Museum and later become a smaller, permanent exhibition in Chester4. A piece of public art commissioned to represent and 'signpost' the medieval heritage of Chester in a prominent, engaging way5. Events and educational activities in Chester and Wrexham6. A workshop on knowledge transfer and partnerships between HEIs and the heritage sector, to be held at Swansea University.