A memory

Here’s a thing: I was tidying in my garage the other day, and came across this tee-shirt. Ten years old today, just about, a vaguely remember getting it printed in Croydon, and gently rear-ending the car in front in my 2cv when the driver didn’t pull out of a merge lane as quickly as I expected her to. My car was more damaged than her’s (which was not-at-all), but she gave me a hard time about it none-the-less.

But that’s not the memory that this tee-shirt first awakened. What it actually reminded me of was the first time I got paid for heritage interpretation. I’d been doing it voluntarily for three years by then, at Kentwell Hall in Suffolk. Kentwell’s Tudor Re-Creations lasted for three weeks every summer. And in 1988 we were celebrating 1588 and the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

About three hundred volunteers would participate in these annual re-creations, many of them displaying craft skills, weaving, candlemaking, potting, charcoal burning and the like. I could do none of those, being a junior bank-clerk, so when I joined in I took the option that generations of young men with no vocation have taken: I became a soldier. The soldiers of Kentwell Hall were a pretty rag-tag bunch of mercenaries most years, and the only enemies they ever had were the Players, a bunch of jugglers, musicians and other ne’er-do-wells of a generally more hippyish bent.

But in 1588 we got more organised. We agreed to join forces in making our Tudor clothes, resulting in a far more uniform livery, complete with thigh-high riding boots. And though suitably equiped with Tudor weapons during the day, we switched to replica Uzi waterpistols in the evening, all the better to soak the Players with. Tired of being called “the Soldiers,” we re-branded ourselves the Avant Guard.

All this effort galvanized us as a team, and our ring-leader, Jane (who was camp-follower during the day, but Dominatrix after hours) stuck a deal with a big Armada celebration taking place at Tilbury Fort, Essex. Kate O’Mara was playing Elizabeth, and we were each to get fifty quid to put on an archery display. Our first paid gig!

Before then, organizations like the Seal’ed Knot, the English Civil War Society, or the White Company, would turn up at any event for the cost of some grub and enough gunpowder to have a bit of fun. But that Tilbury gig gave Jane the crazy idea that people could actually make a living doing that stuff. And a few years later, I became the first P.A.Y.E employee of Past Pleasures, and possibly the first P.A.Y.E employee in the whole costumed interpretation industry.

Nothing to do with the National Trust of course, except that after work with two live interpretation companies, I got a job here. And I’m not the only one, the brother of the bloke wrapped round Jane’s thigh on the tee-shirt was one of those damn’d Players. And now he too works for the NT, as Communications and Marketing Manager in our East of England region.

BETI gets it done

I’m struggling to write a brief at the moment. He have a resource bank on good interpretation called BETI (Better Engagement Through Interpretation). Theres lots of really useful advice for property staff there, but the problem has always been directing people to the most relevant resource. My central colleagues have wroked hard to make the intranet site more relvet and easier to navigate, and we started a pilot programme in the region this year to welp teams work through smaller projects using the resources (BETI gets it done!). But its one of the projects I can’t spend so much time with, so I’ve hired in some outside help (an ex NT staffer) to fill my shoes. Actually putting it down on paper, half way though the project is stumping me though. I thought I might work though someof the issues here:

Background: The South East business plan tasked the CLV team to come up with a framework for improving the quality of smaller interpretation projects to implement next year. The Regional Learning and Interpretation Officer also needs a way of better managing the calls on her time made by properties throughout the year to help with smaller projects, that come to her unplanned, only when the help is needed. We also want to empower properties to have the confidence and skills to manage these projects on their own in future. We are also aware that a lot of very good guidance on all aspects of interpretation already exists and we do not want to re-invent any part of the wheel.

 

We’ve started series of workshops, to which any property that is planning an interpretation project (which is not large enough to appear on the regional projects list, and thus receive planned support) may send a representative. The workshops are devised around a generic critical path, leading to installation of the new interpretation in February, in time for invoices to be paid before the end on the financial year (as some projects may be funded through operating budgets), and in time for the beginning of the core season in March. The workshop format will deliver:

• shared learning, ideas and peer review
• signposting to existing resources relevant to each project
• direct access to, and training from regional and central advisors (including. curators)
• key outcomes necessary to the successful completion of the project

The workshops planned are listed below:

Starting out (Completed in May) – Input: the Golden rules of interpretation, Defining the project (outcomes, resources, scale, team etc) Output: A project initiation document.

Proving demand (June half day)  – Input: Easy evaluation tool-kit Output: Front-end evaluation plan Commissioning the work (planned for August) – Input: Evaluation results, media, working with designers, the NT brand, narrative Output: project brief.

Testing Ideas (planned for Sept) – Input: Design roughs, worked up examples, evaluation toolkit. Output: Formative evaluation plan

Script Doctors (planned for November) – Input: Evaluation results, narratives, editing, “aging text” Ekarv, language and layout Output: Final script (e.g.. text for panels/trails, outline for guided tours).

Signing off (planned for January, half day) – Input: Final proofs, peer evaluation, proof-reading. Output: Final approval for production, summative evaluation plan

We have also planned another evaluation day in May. But we won’t have the hired help by then, as I’ll be back in my old role.

I get a letter

I wrote my first letter in my new role today. It was in reply to a comment from a visitor to Polesden Lacey who want to note her approval that she could still buy a Short Guide there. I ought to explain: a Short Guide is a large format gatefold style leaflet, printed in two colours, which was an alternative to buying a full guidebook or Book of the House, as we call them. In the South East region we stopped offering Short Guides at our properties a couple of years ago. After an experiment, during which we withdrew Short Guides from sale for a month, and sales of Books of the House went up. But I was glad to see Short Guides go for another reason. They were dreadful! Over long, wordy and worthy documents, that were a pain to read in low light. Not inspiring at all, and not free. It meant that at most properties, the only free interpretation on offer was talking to volunteers. Now, I think talking to a real live person can’t be beat. But some people do prefer to read rather than engage in conversation. Why should they be penalised?
I took the opportunity to try out somethng new at Chartwell. Its a large print introduction to the house, which visitors can pick up as they enter, carry around with them and drop off as they leave. Nothing new there. But I took the opportunity to strip out most of the words, creating a confuse introduction to the house and rooms with a 1000 word limit. It high lights just a few objects around the house as “Don’t miss” items, and left questions unanswered to encourage conversations with volunteers and deeper investigation. We evaluated it at Chartwell and it was a big hit, accessible, interesting and FREE!

Since that experiment, we’ve produced others at Batemans and Clandon Park. I love them. I’d recommend them for every property. It’s a real challenge to set – can you interpret you property in just one thousand words?

But back to my letter. Polesden Lacey kept selling the short guide because there are lots of changes taking place there, including a new visitor reception and, just released a brand new guidebook in a format that we call a Colour Souvenir Guide. These are less heavy than the traditional book of the house, in EVERY sense. More colour pictures, less grey blocks of text. They are cheaper too. They’ve been around for a few years, but the format is getting better and better. We wanted to be sure that the content was right though, and not just a cut down version of the old guidebook. So I helped the property team create a Learning Plan. I locked a bunch of property staff, volunteers and regional advisors in a room for a day, and together we identified the most important things we wanted to say about Polesden Lacey. Then we organized those things into three Themes, with an over-arching main theme, that will inform all interpretation for the foreseeable future. We used these themes to lay out the guidebook, and to commision the author. And the result? The only guidebook that the property’s very experienced Area Manager has read from cover to cover. And to think of the hard time he gave me for taking everyone away from their day-jobs for the planning session.

So, I had to thank my correspondent for her kind words about the Short Guide, but also inform her it is no longer for sale.