We asked people involved in the project what it was they thought they were contributing to. The idea was to then put the responses together to create a composite answer, if you like, one that would encompass what most people thought it was all about, to create a kind of ‘vision’ or ‘mission statement’ – something people could think about to keep them motivated when being battered by the wind, rain and cold in the middle of a field.
Of course, we know what we have set out to achieve in terms of the archaeology and heritage lottery outcomes – we had to write this in our bid and this is part of the brief given to the archaeologists. This involves East and West Midlands Regional Heritage Strategies and refers to the development of rural settlement during the Medieval and post-Medieval periods, understanding manorial landholdings and the production of ceramics. But all of this starts to become rather too wordy and what we wanted to know was what people taking part thought they were contributing to.
As the responses came in, we thought rather than tweaking them to create just one ‘answer’ we would let each and every one stand by itself.
So, here are some of the responses so far:
Peeling back the layers to reveal the archaeology and then layering on the knowledge of historians, archaeologists and local people, to tell the story of Whitle
Searching for Whitle’s past to discover, engage with and bring alive the history the people who once lived here
To raise the public’s awareness of our Tudor roots
To enthuse people to learn how to look into the past from where we are now and enable them to understand its people, events, joys and problems
However insignificant what we do may seem, we are all bringing history to life in our own ways. Remember…………History is being made every day and we are helping to make it!
With friends old and new we are searching for the story of our ancestors in old papers, beneath the turf and by looking closely at the landscape.
Connecting people and place with the past through to the present at Under Whitle, a smallholding with big ambition in the upper Dove Valley. A community archaeology project to unearth the hidden histories of a Peak District farm and its landscape and tell the story of the land and its people through research, survey, digging and interpretation.
Peeling Back The Layers – Discover, Investigate, Research details about Under Whittle with enthusiasm, recording these for our future man to see the hidden past.
Keep them coming! You can put your view in the comments below…
The Dove Valley