Those were the blogs my friends, we thought they'd never end...

...la la la la la la la la la laaa...

Ahem.

Well my blogging time is nearly over. In just 48 hours I will no longer be required to post my rants, share my views and enthuse about my passions. I will miss you, Blog.

I have found this a very useful exercise in heritagegyness ... I have thought about things, I have learnt how to design and build a blog and I have enjoyed seeing what other people find fascinating about the heritage around them.

I just hope I have not bored anybody too much.

My presentation is on Tuesday for my Heritage and Entertainment module. This (and you, dear Blog) are my final two pieces of work to complete. The presentation must be presented and you must be read by my long-suffering lecturer (sorry for all the posts Tim, but you unleashed a monster!)

And so I now share my presentation with you, Blog and readers (if anyone does read this). I was asked to create a website based upon a heritag site either in existance or of my own making. I chose to do the latter and now I am in the midst of coming up with ways of conning the HLF out of a lot of money to build my museum; I am slightly in love with the whole idea!

Basically, I love Bath (haven't always but that's another story). I am a proud Bathonian (adopted by this fair city at the age of 18 months) and I have always enjoyed spotting the famous faces in my town (did you know Keith Richards lives round here? My mum nearly ran him over when he was leaving Clinton Cards a couple of years ago. Every Friday I am in town I seem him wonder down Milsom St and he hides out in this cafe along by Pultney Bridge - I am not stalking him, I only know because I was in the cafe with a friend at the time!) Anyway, I think the citizens of Bath, both famous and non, are very important and so my museum subject was chosen; it changed from being somehow focused upon books (I am a read-o-holic) and became ...

drumroll...

THE BATHONIAN MUSEUM

Oh yes! Dramatic wasn't it?!

I am very proud of my museum and of the website design. I don't know if I have done it right and I don't care anymore. It took me ten and half hours to complete my designs and my childish drawings will not rate me highly but it was work that I am pleased with. I greatly enjoyed myself and have now added another badge to my sash; Builder of Websites.

Anyone reading this and creating such a museum should know that I will find out, it is my idea, so shoo!

Anyways... this is probably going to be my final blog, dear Blog. Maybe... Well there are two more days to go...

Toodles and Adieu.

Essays!!!

Heritage is about old houses. People's past. The beliefs and ways of a culture. It is focused upon nature, buildings, photographs, diaries, paintings, monuments, legacies and so many many other things.

It is also about a lot of essays!

Friday saw me writing two HUGE essays over the course of thirteen hours. Despite my research going on for several weeks in advance, I still found myself having to learn new things for both documents.

There are over 5,000 words between them. They will fail me or they will pass me. These essays about heritage will determine my future; and who will see them? Two lecturers and a bored office worker who has grown sick of students and their lengthy ramblings about subjects he does not care about.

This is my legacy to heritage.

I doubt they will end up in a museum though. And if they ever did, it would be a very dull museum.

A shame all that work by myself and my fellow students will never see the light of day again.

Different types of heritage

I was sitting in a carpark a couple of days ago looking around, bored, when I saw an interesting sticker in a VW car - it said Heritage of Bristol. I found this very interesting that the car was promoting the heritage of its industry in Bristol. It makes me wonder what other items use heritage to promote the cities of their birth or products themselves in unusual ways.

My Pemberley

Nine years ago, I settled down one evening with my mum and sister to watch a repeat of a 1995 drama. It had dancing, glittering candles, glistening jewels, intricate hair-dos, stately homes, bonnets - and sexy men on horseback. This television wonder? Pride and Prejudice. Its author? Jane Austen.

And thus started my love-affair with Austen's work. Every show about her, every book about her life and books, anything I could find on her was indulged in - and still is! In 2003 my sister, a friend and I wrote to the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, suggesting they hold Regency tea parties. They replied that they could not offer this service to the public due to room restriction at the time; but they offered us the day at the Centre dressed in authentic Austen attire with a Bath Chronicle journalist and photographer to publish us! It was an amazing day full of fan fluttering, pictures with toursits outside of the doors and experiencing heritage at first hand.

But the house I really wanted to experience was Jane's last home in Chawton, Hampshire. And today I finally realised my goal.

Setting off with my mum and sister, we drove past Stonehenge on the A303...Hmm. My feelings on Stonehenge are not positive - I saw as much as I wanted to from the front seat of my car, and do not wish to repeat my last experience of standing in the freezing cold on an exposed hill; for those who do not wish to do this either, here it is...

Anyway. We finally arrived (it is only 2 hours from Bath to Chawton) I took a moment to take it all in. It is a beautiful place. You can imagine what it must have looked like 200 years ago. Being me, I had not dressed for the cold and rain, but everything was warm and welcoming once we stepped inside, and cheap too.

The house was given to Jane and her mother and sister for their lifetime in 1809 by Jane's older brother, Edward Knight. Whilst living here she revised her manuscripts for (my personal favourites) Sense and Sensability and Pride and Prejudice and began Mansfield Park and Emma. Jane died in 1817 in a house in Winchester, leaving behind her home, her widowed mother, sister and many friends and close family.

When you walk through the first original door, you come into a room with benches, playing a video giving information about Austen's life. We passed through here in our enthusiasm to see the house.

In the courtyard of the estate, there is a Bakehouse. Inside were items such as a cornerstone from the home Jane Austen was born and grew up in, Steventon Rectory.



Jane Austen's horse cart



The Bakehouse


The garden was plain due to the winter season but peaceful despite the road on the other side of the stone wall. We did not enter the child-orientated learning centre due to the Closed sign so turned the corner to enter the kitchen of the house, pretty much dominated by Martha Lloyd, a woman who lived with Jane, her sister Cassandra and mother during their time at Chawton.
Here my sister and I looked into the interactive computer, and posed for some embaressing (and everlasting) photos.

And at last! The house! The first room of the downstairs contained the Drawing Room where Rev.Austen's original bookcase stood. Unfortunately photos couldn't be taken in here. Through the doorway we came to the Vestibule, where the front door was most likely originally found before a window replaced it. A lock of Jane's hair was kept in a drawer. The dining parlour came next which, until last year, contained the Knight family's china dinner set which had been in the house since 1949. Beside the window stood Jane's tiny writing table; I spent several minutes just staring at this item, in awe that it was here that so many hours of pleasure had been created in this corner, on this aged piece of wood.
A reading room used as a library for staff and visitors is the final room before stepping slowly up the creaking oak stairs to look out an airy window to the courtyard. Jane and Cassandra's room captivated me and I returned to it three times. There was a testimony from Jane's niece, describing her last visit to Jane when the bedroom became a sick room whilst on the opposite wall was an original letter from a sickly Winston Churchill describing his medicinal perscription of Pride and Prejudice.
Mrs Austen's room (or the family room), a dressing room and a corridor and alcove decorated with illustrations of Austen's works were interesting whilst the Admiral's Room contained memorabilia of Jane's two sailor brother's, Francis and Charles Austen. The dressing room was especially intriguing; it contained items found underneath the floorboards - DIY tools, rusted buckles, buttons, clasps, a pen knife, a plane, pipes, bottles - and a revolver.
Leaving my mum to peruse a book which had caught her eye, my sister and I spent 45 minutes (and too much money) in the beautiful gift shop where a Mr Darcy poster had to be purchased! There were books galore (several of which left with me!), caligraphy sets, dvds of her adaptations, the books themselves, and many other wonderful items.
Jane Austen's house was a lovely way to spend a winter Sunday. It is funded by entry fees, HLF funding, as well as the Descendents of Jane Austen, the Corporate Friends of the Jane Austen House Museum and Laura Ashley. I highly recommend that you visit it if you are a fan - even if you're not - and that you spend just a little time basking in the remenants of a home that welcomed one of the greatest authors of all time.


Me and my combination book :)



The King's Speech

Yesterday I treated my mum to tickets to see The King's Speech as part of a series of birthday surprises. Having seen the trailer on TV I was instantly interested in watching this movie and it was not a disappointment; it was a triumph.

Funded by the British Film Company and the National Lottery Film Fund, this masterpiece shone out as a fantastic piece of historic filming. True it was not entirely accurate, the timeline of the relationship between Lionel Logue and Prince Albert was shortened from the factual 10 years to a more concise 3, and Winston Churchill (played by the fantastic Timothy Spall) had his role in the King's personal life enchanced for the script - but who cares?! This was a wonderful piece of nolstalgic entertainment and taught me things I was not aware of previously - such as the fact that the young Prince Albert was subjected to torture by his first nanny and that he had stuttered in the first place; something I was (perhaps naively) unaware of.
The scriptwriter, David Seidler, should be given a knighthood. He put so much effort into writing this screenplay when battling with cancer, and even went to the effort of reflecting the actual sessions between Logue and the King by reading through Logue's own notes. Everything that he could do to portray the close personal and professional relationship between these two men was done. It made me laugh and shocked me at times too - who would've thought the Greatest Mr Darcy would ever pace agonisingly around a room shouting swear words at the top of his lungs as part of his speech thearapy?!
The casting was also a triumph. Colin Firth was an incredible King George VI, I think this his best role to date, perhaps even better than Mr Darcy. His stuttering and his facial expressions when speaking of his childhood or stuggling with different tasks and speeches made me want to hug and protect him throughout, and the scenes with his daughters had me in tears. Helena Bonham Carter was a supurb Duchess and Queen, showing the soft, loving and supportive side of the Royal family. Geoffrey Rush was - incredible. Just amazing. The film also sported Michael Gambon as George V, Derek Jacobi and Jenniger Ehle (Elizabeth Bennet to Firth's Darcy) as Mrs Logue.
A fantastic example of history being brought alive through intangible entertainment. Mum didn't stop thanking me for about half an hour, and she, my sister and I thoroughly bored my brother by discussing it all evening haha.
And yes. I cried. A lot.

A wet day in Bradford on A

Ok folks, as promised a quick blog about Bradford on Avon. I went there to get a different kind of heritage, a heritage focused on something other than Georgian buildings and Roman baths. I chose a poor day to do this weather wise, however I had a lovely time, and even the shops had to be viewed - well, they are part of the areas heritage after all!


My favourite street - The Shambles :)

 Here are some of the pictures I took today. Bradford on Avon is a small town, mainly concentrating upon its Norman and Saxon heritage, although it can be traced to the Romans too. Many of the buildings are 17th Century. My favourite piece of information that I picked up was that the small domed building on the Tower Bridge used to be used to lock up local troublemakers after formally being a very very very small church!

It takes 10 minutes to get to Bradford on the train, so why not take a little trip out there sometime? It's a lovely area, although I do suggest that you choose a drier, sunnier day as there is a lot of walking to do
to get around - and don't forget the lovely little shops too!

The Tower Bridge

Piccies of the above day out :) - Bradford on Avon



B on A tourist information centre




One of the Yorkshire-like hills




The Tithe Barn - I am standing sentry to show you the height of the door and entry!




The ceiling of the Tithe Barn




The Tithe Barn




A lovely little river building found walking along the Avon




Inside the Saxon Church - did I capture a ghost?




The Saxon Church of St Luas