Practising Reparative Histories in Rural Heritage Sites

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The UK countryside includes iconic sites of national heritage. Country houses represent long-standing elite rural lifestyles while water-powered textile mills refer to Britain's past as an industrial pioneer. However these sites suffer from a lack of diversity in the histories presented and the visitors they attract. Black and Asian groups are more typically resident in urban areas and report feelings of isolation and difference during visits to the countryside. Many feel their heritage is not sufficiently represented in rural sites, despite evidence existing of key connections. In country houses portraits of Black or Asian figures, 'exotic' products and plants suggest these connections, while textile mills display raw cotton supplies grown in warmer climates. Yet these histories are rarely explored or explained and are often seen as challenging to address due to associations with colonial and slave trade practices. This project seeks to connect together heritage organisations, Black and Asian community groups and academics in a collaboration which aims to benefit all parties. Drawing on evidence of historical connections with people of African and Asian descent its goals are to produce more diverse representations of Black and Asian histories in rural heritage sites and to change their organisational cultures. Two key examples of rural textile and country estate heritage sites have been selected as venues for the collaboration. The first is Cromford Mills is a key location in the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site in Derbyshire, designated due to its pioneering cotton textile industry. The second is Newstead Abbey is a well-known country estate particularly due to its associations with the poet Bryon. In both cases the collaborating groups have committed to a series of discussions, visits and co-production of new ways of presenting these sites and enhancing their meaning and appeal for ethnic minority groups and wider society.