Castleton - Hope Exhibition Launches

Project steering group - Alan, Angela, Di, Bill, Kay and Ann
after installing the exhibition

Yesterday Hope and Castleton Historical Societies launched the Lives of the Common People exhibition at Castleton Visitor Centre.

inHeritage has worked with the societies to produce the exhibition as part of our involvement throughout the project. The exhibition is one result from over a year of work by 65 volunteers who have researched hundreds of documents, excavated 55 test pits and surveyed three old routeways as part of the Heritage Lottery Fund supported Lives of the Medieval Common People.

Visitors browse exhibition panels and pottery display

The societies developed the themes, in a session with the project steering group led by Bill at Castleton Visitor Centre in March. These are the search for the common people, farmers, lead miners, routes, churches, houses and everyday objects. Bill drafted nine panels of text based on this session, selected photographs taken by participants and directed society members to take photographs specially for the exhibition. Once the steering group were happy with the text and images, inHeritage offered 8 different design styles with varying types of layout and fonts to the group to choose. The final style was a combination of two of these sample layouts. We then managed production, choosing a drop-down banner style as the best solution to hang in the visitor centre and for later use by the societies.

Project participants Jill, Dave and Leah at the launch

The steering group also chose finds from the test pits to display in two exhibition cabinets. These include parts of a human skeleton, a cat skeleton, clay tobacco pipes, pottery and medieval window glass.

Ken Smith opens the exhibition

Forty people attended the launch of the exhibition yesterday, all of them either participating in project research or providing their gardens for test pits.  The exhibition was opened by Ken Smith, Cultural Heritage Team Manager for the Peak District National Park Authority, with Chris Pennell and Geoff Nickolds from the HLF's East Midlands committee also present.

HLF East Midlands Committee Chair Chris Pennell says a
few words

Di Curtis, project steering group member, thanks everyone
involved

The exhibition is open until Thursday 30th May. Entry is free during the visitor centre's opening times. You can find times and other centre details on the Authority's website.

The exhibition will then be displayed by Hope Historical Society at Hope Wakes Week between Saturday 22nd and Sunday 30th June.

The Societies are grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Peak District National Park Authority and the University of Sheffield for their support.

Hope Castleton Medieval People

Hope and Castleton Historical Societies have been awarded a Heritage Lottery Fund grant to learn about the ordinary medieval people of the two villages in Derbyshire.

inHeritage will be working with the societies to facilitate the project. We will help manage the project, provide skills in landscape archaeology, historical and interpretive writing, booklet production and graphic design.

The press release is below:

Hope and Castleton Historical Societies win Heritage Lottery Fund support

Today, Hope and Castleton Historical Societies have received £26,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for an exciting project, Digging Hope and Castleton’s Medieval History, in Castleton and Hope. Led by volunteers from the local community, the project aims to discover where the common people lived during the medieval period. The two societies are working together between now and March 2013 – and they need your help.

The project will try to find out about the ‘hidden history’ of Castleton and Hope villages between the Norman Conquest of 1066 and the Civil War in 1642. While history can often tell us about kings, lords and landowners, it is more difficult to track down the ordinary people who lived and worked in the Peak District’s villages. This is because they don’t appear in as many historical documents, most of which are about property, and their history can remain hidden.

Di Curtis of Hope Historical Society says “We are grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund who have awarded the Society a grant to look into the medieval history of Hope and Castleton. This means we can undertake documentary research, dig archaeological test pits and survey the old routes between the two villages.”

Angela Darlington of Castleton Historical Society says “The test pits will be dug in people’s gardens in both villages during the first two weeks in July. We are looking for finds such as old pots that can show where people lived during the medieval period. Each test pit will be a metre square. We hope to dig each one in a day.”

Finds from the test pits will be shown at an open day then some will be put on display in Castleton Museum. Pupils and students from Castleton and Hope primary schools and Hope Valley College will also join in a range of activities to learn about their medieval ancestors.

If you live in Castleton and Hope and would like to find out more about the project there is a talk at Castleton Village Hall on Monday 30^th January at 7:30pm. The Societies are looking for volunteers to help with the test pits, surveying the old routeways and doing research in the record offices. If you would like to get involved in the archaeology or documentary research, or are happy to have a test pit dug on your garden please get in touch with Di Curtis, 01433 620724, dicathope@aol.com or Angela Darlington, 01433 620281, amstafford@hotmail.co.uk.

The project is managed by the two societies with the help of Bill Bevan, and the archaeological assistance of the University of Sheffield.

Explaining the importance of the HLF support, HLF Grants Officer in the East Midlands, Greg Pickup, said: "We were delighted to support this exciting volunteer-led project. It will provide opportunities for the whole community to gain new skills whilst exploring a hidden part of the Hope Valley's fascinating heritage. The project will uncover stories that have been buried for centuries, allowing people to discover how the lives of common people shaped the history of Hope and Castleton in Medieval times."

ENDS