Folkestone: Public History, Heritage and Identity
Submitting Institution
Canterbury Christ Church UniversityUnit of Assessment
HistorySummary Impact Type
CulturalResearch Subject Area(s)
Language, Communication and Culture: Literary Studies
History and Archaeology: Archaeology, Historical Studies
Summary of the impact
Impact was achieved through two projects led by Dr Hardy. In December
2005 the Unit helped to establish the Folkestone People's History Centre (FPHC)
to research the town's historical heritage. The enthusiastic engagement of
individuals and groups in the Centre resulted in a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF)
supported project, `A Town Unearthed: Folkestone Before 1500' (ATU),
running from December 2009-March 2013, which took over the work of the FPHC.
Impact has centred on preserving, creating and interpreting cultural
capital; engaging and developing local associations; creating new
audiences; influencing policies towards heritage, and challenging
assumptions about the history of Folkestone. The main beneficiaries have
been adult learners; schools; local authorities, associations and groups;
as well as national and international audiences.
Underpinning research
(NB Numbers in brackets refer to the research referenced
in section 3 below). In December 2005 Dr Hardy was seconded by the
Unit to direct the FPHC, which was set up as a community
organisation based in a drop-in research and training centre, where local
people could contribute to and find out more about Folkestone's history and
archaeology. Folkestone is a town with complex socio-economic and cultural
challenges undergoing regeneration. Concerns about a number of `at risk'
historic sites and amenities soon emerged. These included Castle Hill, which
had been exposed to works during the construction of the Channel Tunnel and
rail link; the Roman Villa on the East Cliff, which had been excavated in
the 1920s by S. E. Winbolt and then covered over in 1956; and Folkestone
Museum, which closed in 2008.These concerns led to the HLF funded ATU
project in which the FPHC and CCCU were partnered by
Canterbury Archaeological Trust (CAT). The subsequent
re-excavation of the Roman Villa site demonstrated for the first time that
Folkestone has an international significance on a par with Hengistbury Head,
as a site of settlement and international trade from the Iron Age, when it
had been a major centre of quern production, to the Roman period. The
underpinning research was undertaken between 2006-2013 by Dr Hardy, Senior
Lecturer in the Department of History and American Studies (HAS) at CCCU
and Director of both the FPHC and ATU, and by Dr Paul
Dalton, between 2005-2010 as Pro-Vice Chancellor and Dean of Arts and
Humanities at CCCU, and from 2011-12 as Principal Lecturer (HAS)
at CCCU. The key research findings revealed the historical
significance of Folkestone before its Edwardian expansion and subsequent
decline. They also extended understanding of the impact of heritage on
public culture and communities, in both historical and contemporary
contexts. The research findings have thus informed advice given to CAT,
to local bodies and authorities by Dr Hardy about the importance of
Folkestone's history within wider strategies of education, regeneration, and
tourism. Hardy's research into the relationship between communities and the
interpretation of their history informed the development of both the FPHC
and ATU. Dalton's research provided a coherent account of the town's
medieval history for the first time and underpinned the work of both
projects. CAT provided expertise for the dig at the Roman Villa in
2011-12 and for the public dissemination of the archaeological findings.
Hardy's 2007 article (1) elaborated on the relationships between
themes of identity, tradition and culture in the formation of the New Left's
reaction against the fragmentation of modern society. Her 2013 article (2)
expands these themes by researching antiquarian views of Folkestone's Roman
history. Hardy's other 2013 article (3) on `antiquarianism and
historical tourism in Folkestone' covers new ground in bringing together for
the first time an account of the post-medieval historiography of Folkestone
to demonstrate that the ways in which the past is described and received is
influenced by and in turn influences more recent concepts of place and
identity. Hardy's research (2, 3) was crucial to CAT's
understanding of all the previous archaeological excavations and finds in
Folkestone. Dalton's 2013 (4) article on Late Anglo Saxon and
Norman Folkestone explores the significance of Folkestone and the key
historical sites of Castle Hill and the Bayle, the latter incorporating the
7th Century Anglo-Saxon minster and a Norman priory and castle. Dalton's is
the first coherent account of the national and international significance of
these sites in the medieval period. Key research questions were generated by
Dr Lesley Hardy and members of the ATU Research Group, including Dr
Andrew Richardson, Outreach and Archives Manager at CAT, and Keith
Parfitt, Senior Field Archaeologist at CAT, who led the
re-excavation of the Roman Villa. Richardson's and Parfitt's research
contributions on Folkestone, from the pre-historic to the Anglo- Saxon
periods, are included in the 2013 volume of essays (5) edited by Ian
Coulson, President of the Kent Archaeological Society, who also contributed
an article on later medieval Folkestone.
References to the research
1. Peer Reviewed Journal Article: Author: Dr Lesley Hardy, `F. R.
Leavis, E. P. Thompson and the New Left: Some Shared Critical Responses',
Socialist History Journal 30 (2007) pp.1-21 ISSN 09694331.
2. Peer Reviewed Journal Article: Author: Dr Lesley Hardy:
`Objects of Loving Attention: Antiquarian Views of Folkestone. Part One',
Archaeologia Cantiana (2013) ISSN 0066-5894
3. Peer Reviewed Chapter in Book: Author: Dr Lesley Hardy, `A
morsel too hard for time to chew: antiquarianism and historical tourism in
Folkestone 1530-1956 `, in Lesley Hardy and Ian Coulson eds. A Town
Unearthed: Folkestone Before 1500 (Canterbury, 2013) ISBN
978-1-870545-27-3.
4. Peer Reviewed Chapter in Book: Author: Dr Paul Dalton:
`Folkestone c 990-c 1154: Lords, Churches, Burgesses, and Castles',
in Lesley Hardy and Ian Coulson eds. A Town Unearthed: Folkestone
Before 1500 (Canterbury, 2013) ISBN 978-1-870545-27-3.
5. Peer Reviewed Book: Ian Coulson ed. A Town Unearthed:
Folkestone Before 1500 (Canterbury, 2013) ISBN 978-1-870545-27-3.
Evidence of Quality
In addition to being subject to rigorous peer review the above outputs
have been supported by the following grant funding and received the awards
detailed below
Project: Title: A Town Unearthed: Folkestone Before 1500
(2010-2013)
A. Recipient of grants to ATU:
i) Dr Lesley Hardy for CCCU £298,700 from the Heritage Lottery
Fund from Dec 2009-Mar 2013.
ii) Dr Lesley Hardy for CCCU £6,000 from Folkestone Town Council.
iii) Dr Lesley Hardy for CCCU £3,000 from Kent Archaeological
Society Dec 2009-Mar 2013.
iv) Dr Lesley Hardy for CCCU £50,000 from the De Haan Charitable
Trust: Decr 2009-Mar 2013.
The total project value including CCCU match-funding and in-kind and
volunteer time was calculated at £526,930.
B. Awards The ATU project was highly recommended in the Council of
British Archaeology Awards 2012 for the Best Community Project. Judges
were looking for evidence of projects being driven by amateur
archaeologists and societies, involving the local community and including
new audiences with a strong research focus — see
http://www.archaeologyuk.org/awards/baa2012.html#comm
ATU was `Highly Recommended' in the National Heritage
Lottery Awards in December 2012.
ATU was the winner of the Current Archaeology Awards
2013 in the `Best Rescue Excavation'
Category http://www.archaeology.co.uk/press/press-release-canterbury-archaeological-trust-wins-prestigious-award-as-rescue-dig-of-the-year-following-a-record-number-of-votes-from-the-general-
public.htm
Details of the impact
Context: Key impacts include the development of a research and
participation model for academic, professional and community-based groups
with a shared research focus; the conservation, interpretation and
dissemination of the significant early history of Folkestone; and the
facilitation of an understanding of the impact of heritage on public
culture and communities, both in contemporary and historical contexts.
These impacts have helped to inform public policy on historical heritage
issues in Folkestone and East Kent and have had a sustainable legacy in
the creation of new research groups. Both the FPHC and ATU
attracted huge public engagement and created considerable training,
learning and educational impacts, as well as creating new audiences.
IMPACT 1 — Developing and engaging local associations /creating new
audiences /developing a research and participation model By December
2008, when the ATU project was developed, the FPHC had
attracted 3,000 visitors, with 41 volunteers and 228 on its register of
interest. It was providing a range of exhibitions, talks, workshops, finds
days, newsletters, support for developing historical projects, training
for historical research, and schools learning events. The FPHC
worked with a range of local groups including the Save Folkestone Museum
Campaign, Folkestone Arts Society, and the Folkestone Creative Foundation.
Major projects included the first Folkestone History Weekend (October
2008) and ArtHist, an innovative fusion of history, art and theatre
focusing on the Anglo Saxon to mediaeval (July 2009). A firm point of
interest was the Roman villa site at Folkestone's East Cliff. Following a
survey by CAT in 2007, it was clear that the site was at risk from
erosion and could be lost within fifty years. This formed the backdrop to
the ATU project, which attracted extensive local and national
engagement and created new audiences for local heritage. 2,083 people
attended the 4 public talk programmes given by Dr Hardy, Dr Dalton, Dr
Richardson, Keith Parfitt and other members of the ATU Research
Group between 2009-11. 2,186 people attended exhibitions held between
2010-2011 and 1,012 volunteers received training in archaeological and
historical skills between 2009-11, including six British soldiers
undergoing rehabilitation for injuries sustained in Afghanistan. The
latter was an early pilot for `Operation Nightingale', a project using
archaeology as occupational therapy. Between June-October 2011 over 8,000
people visited the Villa excavation and Folkestone living history weekend.
The ATU website http://www.atownunearthed.co.uk
received 111,810 visits between October 2010 and July 2013 from the UK,
USA, Australia, Russia, Malaysia, China, the Ukraine, Vietnam, Germany,
France, the Netherlands, Poland, and Latvia amongst a range of
international hits. The website includes the following material: diaries
and evaluative material; transcriptions of talks — on aspects and issues
related to history of Folkestone, methodology and interpretation; gallery
of images — record of all aspects of project; oral History — excerpts and
transcriptions of interviews with historians and archaeologists about
project history, findings and approaches; events — details and background;
exhibitions — gallery and interpretation; and `intangible'
heritage-research in areas such as local myths and associations with
historic sites. The ATU project was featured by BBC1 for Inside
Out News — an all-day feature on 30th May 2011 (c. 1
million viewers), by BBC 2 for Digging For Britain with Alice
Roberts on 9th September 2011 (c. 4 million viewers), see http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b014hfkr
and the History Channel for Mud Men, with Johnny Vaughan on 23rd
February 2012 see http://kentfilmoffice.co.uk/2012/02/mud-men-2012/
The creation of new audiences led to the foundation of several new local
associations including the Folkestone Heritage Working Group formed in
2008, the Folkestone Research and Archaeological Group formed in 2011, the
Folkestone Research Group formed in 2012 and the Folkestone History Group.
Folkestone's research and participation model has also influenced the
set-up of the EU funded `Two Seas Interreg IV A Project' on `Maritime
Communities of the Bronze Age' with cross Channel partners including
Boulogne Museum, Ghent University, and Lille 3 University.
IMPACT 2: Challenging assumptions about the history of
Folkestone/influencing policy and practice Hardy and Dalton's
research challenged previous assumptions about Folkestone's lack of
historical significance before its Edwardian heyday. In particular,
Hardy's research on the antiquarian reception of Folkestone's past was
critical to the reinterpretation of the archaeology of the Roman Villa and
the Bayle sites. She also researched the impact of historiography and
heritage on the town's identity. As a result, Hardy has advised a number
of fora and public bodies on policies and strategies around issues of
history and heritage, such as Folkestone Heritage Working Group, which was
created in 2008 as part of the public campaign to stop the closure of
Folkestone Museum and the dispersal of its collections. She provided
advice to Folkestone Town Council and Kent County Council on the
`Folkestone HEART' project for developing a new museum. This included a
successful Stage 1 Heritage Lottery Fund bid for c. £50,000 by Folkestone
Town Council for a new museum space submitted in May 2013. She also
advised Kent County Council Archives and Libraries on the development and
launch of The Folkestone History Resource Centre in 2010. She gave further
advice to Shepway Heritage and Tourism Forum (SHTF) to ensure that
the importance of the region's early history and archaeology was better
understood in the development of policy. SHTF was formed in 2010
to bring together a wide range of community-based regional history groups
with representatives of local government, government sponsored initiatives
such as Visit Kent, the local tourist industry and local businesses. The
Forum's aim is to promote and share information about the history and
heritage of Shepway as part of government and regional culture and tourism
strategies, which recognise the contributions of heritage and tourism to
economic, cultural and social benefit. Similarly, Dr Hardy has also
advised the following groups/bodies on heritage and historical issues:
Shepway District Council, THINK NETWORK — a network of academics, heritage
professionals and others working in Public History, and the Treasures
Revealed project, which has secured £1,682,000 from the European Interreg
programme. The money, secured by BOSCO+ (the Boulogne, Shepway and
Canterbury Co-operation), will be invested in the Beaney Art Museum and
Library in Canterbury and Boulogne's Crypt Museum.
IMPACT 3: Preserving and interpreting cultural capital/conserving and
disseminating the early history of Folkestone: ATU developed
innovative, and accessible ways of interpreting and presenting the
relationships between history, archaeology, art and culture:
Exhibitions held at Folkestone Town Hall:
Earth and Vision, May 2012 (1,086 visitors including 302 children
from 4 schools), Curator — Bryan Hawkins Media, Art and Design Department
CCCU, Director Dr Hardy.
Inside the Museum: A History of Folkestone Museum (in
partnership with Kent County Council Libraries and Archives) 6th
July- 29th July 2012 (1,100 visitors including 207 children
from 3 schools) in partnership with Kent County Council Libraries and
Archives, Director, Dr Hardy.
A Town Unearthed: Folkestone's Ancient landscape (In partnership with
Kent Archaeological Society) March 2013, Curator Ken Fisher, Director Dr
Hardy.
Talks:
`Folkestone in the late Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman periods', Dr Paul
Dalton, University Campus Folkestone 2009 (40 people).
`S.E. Winbolt and the Public History of Folkestone', Dr Hardy, Folkestone
Literary Festival Nov 2011 (110 people recorded).
`Imagining the Past: Rome and Romans in the culture of C19th and
C20th Folkestone', Dr Hardy, Hythe Folkestone Fine Arts and
Decorative Society, July 26th 2012 (120 people recorded).
Conferences:
Unearthing the Past — Conference held at University Campus (CCCU)
Folkestone September 2010 with 70 delegates and speakers, including Dr
Hardy, on issues around the politics and culture of public engagement with
the past.
Education:
2 ARKS (Archaeological Resource Kits) toolkits were produced for schools
including artefacts and interpretation. 100 Educational DVDs were sent out
to local schools, libraries and societies. By July 2013 over 2,060
children attended ATU activities on site or in the classroom and 46
teachers had taken part.
Sources to corroborate the impact
(NB Numbers in brackets refer to the impacts referenced
in section 4) 1. (Impacts 1, 2, 3) Quarterly
Reports and Final Evaluation Report submitted to the Heritage
Lottery Fund for `A Town Unearthed: Folkestone Before 1500'. Can be
supplied by the University. Supporting claims of public engagement/benefit
and demonstrating the training, learning and educational opportunities
provided by the project. 2. (Impacts 1, 3) Website
http://www.atownunearthed.co.uk:
A Town Unearthed. Supporting claims of public engagement/benefit,
international reach, widening understanding, innovative interpretations
and research findings. 3. (Impact 3) Other websites: Supporting
claims of preserving and interpreting cultural capital/conserving and
disseminating the early history and archaeology of Folkestone through
innovative practice i) Local news website http://www.localrags.co.uk/index.php/News/2012/4/19/A-Town-Unearthed-Exhibition-opens-at-
Folkestone-Library-Photos/ ii) Roger De Haan Charitable Trust
website http://www.rdhct.org.uk/pages/news/latest_news_detail.aspx?nid=2746
iii) Kent online http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonline/news/2010/august/24/iron_age_dig_to_resume_21_year.as
px
Individual Statements: 1. (Impact 2) Outreach and Archives
Manager at Canterbury Archaeological Trust. Supporting claims about the
impact of Hardy's and Dalton's research in informing and underpinning the
archaeological investigation and understanding of both the Roman Villa
Site and the Bayle site. Supporting claims about the international
significance of the site (Contact I.D.1)
2. (Impact 1 and 3) Member of the A Town Unearthed Research
Group and Volunteer. Supporting claims about creating local associations,
and creating new audiences through training, widening understanding,
participation and engagement (Contact I.D.2) 3. (Impact 1 and 2)
Service Improvement Manager; Community Cohesion and Heritage, Kent County
Council Libraries, Registration and Archives. Supporting claims about
engagement, widening understanding, creating new audiences and influencing
policy (Contact I.D.3). 4. (Impacts 1 and 3).Executive/spokesman
of Roger de Haan's Office, Folkestone. Supporting claims relating to the
creation of a legacy of interest in Folkestone's pre-modern history
through working with and co-ordinating local groups and associations, and
by stimulating arts, photography, and literary projects. Influencing
policy and supporting change (Contact I.D.4). 5. (Impact 2)
Town Clerk, Folkestone Council. Supporting claims about influencing policy
and challenging assumptions (Contact I.D.5).