Rescuing and Presenting Lost Heritage: Promoting Public Engagement with Marks Hall and the World of the Vanished Country House

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During the twentieth century, Britain lost a third of its great country houses. Hundreds of mansions were pulled down because proprietors could no longer afford to maintain them, or following alleged wartime damage and the occupation by the military. Essex alone lost more than 100 mansions between 1946 and 1966. Currently, the 'lost' worlds of the British country house are reclaimed by dramas and documentaries from Gosford Park and Downton Abbey to more sober (and accurate) recreations of the social and economic history of great estates and their houses. This project will tackle another reclamation challenge, namely rescuing and interpreting the sites and material presence of destroyed mansions that lie beneath the surface of estates open to the public. Marks Hall near Coggeshall, Essex, is one such lost great mansion, dramatically demolished in 1950 having deteriorated in condition after use as a wartime military base. A community of Nissen huts sprang up before the gardens of the larger estate were restored. This interpretative project attempts for the first time a redesign and regeneration of a lost mansion site using a unique blend of cutting edge virtual digital recreation technology and new archival and artefact displays, exhibitions, recorded memories, archival research, film, university learning resources, archaeological digs and reconstructive garden design.Memories of the mansion and great estate are in risk of fading away. Many of those who lived and worked in or near the estate during, or just after, the Second World War when demolitions peaked are now in their eighties (or older). The integration of virtual recreation, archaeology, horticultural design, and recorded oral history has enormous potential, offering not only a rich story of the reasons for the demolition of great mansions, their wartime history, the dispersal of the staff and material artefacts (including whole interiors), and the change to the local rural economy and society. It also offers a gateway to what are invariably ancient sites of habitation with layers of earlier local and national history awaiting recovery. The project offers an opportunity for reconstruction and explanation appealing to all ages and informing public debate about heritage interpretation and popular history. All this invites diverse and fruitful knowledge exchange between local communities, a far-flung general public, local government officials, business people, heritage organisations and academic expertise, to their mutual benefit.There will be a wide range of outputs and activities for all audiences, including: a virtual recreation of Marks Hall, an interactive website (including a Twitter feed and blog), educational resources, placements, a travelling exhibition, a public seminar, public policy forum, an open conference and a book.