Podcasts about heritage lottery fund

Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is Paul Marden.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website SkiptheQueue.fm.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter  or Bluesky for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this podcast.Competition ends on 5th March 2025. The winner will be contacted via Bluesky. Show references: https://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/https://www.linkedin.com/in/zakmensah/Zak Mensah is the co-CEO of Birmingham Museums Trust. He is passionate about helping their service make an impact by focusing on the needs of over 1 million visitors. He is encouraging the organization to adopt a "digital by default" approach. Zak's mission is to ensure that their people, skills, and services remain adaptable to the rapidly changing landscape of the cultural sector. He is exploring new ways of doing things, including innovative business models, partnerships, and arts-related KPIs, while sharing as much as possible publicly.With a background in staff development and digital, Zak has been involved with the web since the late 90s and has seen its influence grow in all aspects of life. Prior to joining the arts sector in 2013, he helped small businesses, charities, Jisc, universities, and the Heritage Lottery Fund "do" digital well.Zak also runs his own consultancy to promote positive change and keep his skills sharp. His goal is to make a ruckus. https://www.vam.ac.uk/https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyakino-wittering/Amy Akino-Wittering is Head of Operations and Commercial at Young V&A, which opened July 2023 and recently won Art Fund Museum of the Year and Kids in Museums, Family Friendly Museum of the Year awardsResponsible for the general management of Young V&A she directly manages the visitor experience and teams, catering contract, volunteering and back of house operations, collaborating closely with central V&A colleagues to deliver operations and income for Young V&A. Previously Amy worked at V&A South Kensington as Senior Visitor Experience Manager-Sales and was on the opening project team leading on visitor experience and retail at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery.She started her career at Imperial War Museums working across sites from assistant to management roles in Retail and Admissions and systems management.  https://www.hampshireculture.org.uk/​​https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-sapwell-b3b2a281/Paul Sapwell has been Chief Executive at independent arts and culture charity Hampshire Cultural Trust since 2018, having joined the trust in 2016 as Chief Operating Officer following an early career primarily in hospitality and leisure. Paul is a passionate believer in the transformative power that cultural experiences can have on the wellbeing of individuals and communities, and a prominent advocate for the role of commercial growth, underpinned by a flexible, entrepreneurial team culture, in sustaining museum and arts organisations. Transcription: Paul Marden: The museums and culture sector are facing unprecedented headwinds. Static or reducing funding from local government, fewer grants from trusts and foundations, all while dealing with increased people costs. The continued headwinds from cost of living crisis. But this sector continues to deliver more with less and support the cultural life of our country. Paul Marden: Welcome to Skip the Queue. I'm your host, Paul Marden and in today's episode recorded the Science Museum at the Association of Cultural Enterprises View from the Top event. I'm joined by Amy Akino-Wittering, Head of Operations and Commercial at Young V&A. Zak Mensah, Co CEO of Birmingham Museums Trust, and Paul Sapwell, CEO of Hampshire Cultural Trust. Paul Marden: And we're going to talk about how the cultural sector can innovate in order to thrive. Anyone that's listened to the podcast before will know. And this is the nervous bit. Paul Marden: We always start with an icebreaker question which my lovely guests victims have not been prepared for. So, Zak, I'm afraid you go first, my friends. So if you were a cartoon character, which cartoon character would you be? Zak Mensah: That's easy. I think I would be the thing that gets chased by the. Is it the wild Cody who runs around all his home? But I'd be the. What's the little, the stupid Roadrunner. Yeah, so I would be Roadrunner because you constantly are literally running 100 miles an hour and then a giant piano lands on you at 4:00 on a Friday afternoon, but you respawn on the Monday and you start all over again. Pretty much feels like me. Paul Marden: I love that. I love that. Amy, you're next. Let's think of all of the inventions over the last hundred years that were offered. Flying cars, those sorts of things. What is the one thing were promised that you really miss and think we really need in our lives? Amy Akino-Wittering: I think a Time Turner, which is basically from Harry Potter. Basically you can just go and do things like six. They do six days all at once. Paul Marden: You can be Hermione if you've got a Time Turner. Amy Akino-Wittering: Yeah, great. Paul Marden: Excellent. I love that, Amy. Thank you. Paul. Paul Sapwell: You said these were going to be under no pressure. I wouldn't have liked. I wouldn't have liked either of those. Paul Marden: Oh, well, you're not going to like this one then. I'm sorry, mate, I'm, I, I live in Hampshire. Paul runs Hampshire Cultural Trust. Paul. Paul Sapwell:  Oh, even better. Paul Marden: Saints or Pompey? Paul Sapwell:  Oh, blimey. Okay, well that's, I'm an Arsenal fan. Paul Marden: So there we go. Paul Sapwell: I couldn't possibly answer Saints or Pompey? I mean, we border both. So I would just be in so much trouble if I pick one or the other. So I can. I've got to get out. Paul Marden: Are you dodging that one? Paul Sapwell: Yeah. I thought you might watch Arsenal regularly. Paul Marden: I thought you might. So we are going to start with a question from somebody from the audience, a young man named Gordon. Apparently he might be a millennial. And he says, After 15 years of turmoil, financial crash, austerity, Brexit, Covid, we face continuing cost of living issues, rising national insurance and a Trump presidency. Are we doomed in 2025? Or to put it slightly better, what are the biggest risks for your organisation and the wider sector, and what are you each doing to thrive in the year ahead? And I'm going to start with you, Paul. Paul Sapwell: That's an easy question, isn't it? Paul Marden: You can thank young Gordon. Paul Sapwell: Brilliant Gordon, Yeah. I mean, I think 2025 is going to be an incredibly tricky year, but to sort of look further than that. I'm certainly an optimist, but I think we're in a time of transition, particularly in terms of our sector, in the cultural sector, in terms of what's going to fund us and what's going to sustain us going forward. You know, I think the years of the level. I think a lot of the speakers have touched on it, but the years of the level of public sector funding is, whatever happens with this government and next is going to be going down and we just have to face that. I run an organisation which we started out in 2019. We're about 85% publicly funded. Now we're 34% publicly funded with the same turnover, I hasten to add. Paul Sapwell: And so we've made a good go of it, but I think the headwinds this year are really difficult. That said, I think that we have to be confident investing for the longer term and particularly, obviously, in this conference in areas of commercial growth. I think that, okay, the growth projections have been downgraded. I am confident that we will, as the decade continues, move into a period of growth. And we've got to be looking at the long term rather than the short term. The trick is, of course, not running out of money in the short term. And that's a really difficult place to be. Paul Marden: In the water, just here. Paul Sapwell: I don't have an easy answer to that, but I think fundamentally, you've got to give the customer what they want and the customer is still there. Paul Sapwell: And we have a fantastic product. But we've got to certainly pivot much further towards what customers want commercially, in my view, than putting as much emphasis as probably we did 10 years ago on trying to find more and more public funding, because I think that's going down. Paul Marden: Zak, have you got any thoughts on that? Zak Mensah: Yeah, I mean, in terms of money, just generally people want to back winners. So I think one of the difficult things that internally we can all say it's doom and gloom, because it does feel that doom and gloom. There are definitely days, weeks and months. I think it's right to say that it's doom and gloom. Like you can be optimist but still understand it's difficult time. And I think a lot of our, you know, a lot of our workforces certainly feel that, it can feel very difficult because every year they ask, will they have their job? Right. And that's a really fair question to ask. And we sometimes as leaders kind of say, “Oh, if we can get through the next two years, but two years for normal staff are sometimes a very long time to try and say, “You or may have not have a job to make life through.”Zak Mensah: So I think that's something I always think back in back of my mind. I think a lot of the difficulties, whichever flavour of government is about understanding how to be more savvy, about understanding the trends, about things that are fundable. Because there are lots of things that were funded 10, 20 years ago, that money has dried up. And so we've all got to think about, for example, a lot of people now looking at, well, being a speaker this afternoon was talking about more on EDI, for example, and how younger people certainly are interested in having more of a purpose driven business. Is how for us, we can make sure we're focused on the, what I was called, the user need. So the needs that people use us. Zak Mensah: Because if you can concentrate and focus on what they want, whether it be money, otherwise that ultimately does lead to a business model. Because there's no point saying just because museums and galleries have been around for 100 to 200 years, they have an absolute right to exist. The only way they exist is because every decade or whatever there's another crisis comes along and a group of people, including ourselves here, live in this room, but also listening to this make it happen. Like, we've got to convince councillors, government, businesses to be part of that journey. Because the funny thing I will say is that, you know, at Birmingham Museums, the art gallery was founded in 1885 by industry people. It was industry people that founded it. It was industry people who wanted the city to have great arts. Zak Mensah: And so now we're turning back to those same people and saying, "We need you to now step up and contribute." It doesn't always have to be money. It could be in kind support, could be advocacy. That's the kind of thing that we need to do as leaders right now, in addition to the normal making the money work and stretch as far as we can. Paul Marden: Absolutely. Amy, what are you doing at Young V&A to thrive in the year ahead and face some of these challenges? Amy Akino-Wittering: Yeah, absolutely. So we've now been open for just over two years, so I feel kind of, well, coming up to two years. And so I feel we're kind of in that stage where we kind of opened and sort of just try to make sure that we are operationally savvy. And last year was very much about refining that. And I think this year is very much about what's next and how can we build upon kind of success of opening, looking at ways in which we can innovate through doing new kind of commercial opportunities, but also how can we develop our audiences. And as well as part of kind of the wider V&A, we've got two more sites opening as well. Amy Akino-Wittering: So how as an organisation are we going to work together to kind of be in this new family of sites and work together through there? So I think for us in the kind of coming year is all about, what's next? We've opened the door. We started with a really strong foundation and a really strong vision, but then how can we keep on innovating and keep iterating that to improve? Paul Marden: Excellent. I'm going touch on stuff that Lewis talked about a minute ago. One of his reflections I really liked was thinking about how do we create a space for colleagues to engage with some of these really important issues that have been on the PowerPoints. Zak, maybe you could start. What do you think your organisation can do to act as bottom up catalyst for change as opposed to trying to drive these changes from the top down? Zak Mensah: I think the first thing is about understanding that there are a lot of people who do want to be able to voice their hopes and fears around a whole host of subjects, whether it be specifically around, if you're ethnic minority, about your fear of living in the UK, if you have climate, lots of important subjects people want to talk about. You know, I think certainly internally, and I'll be very clear about this, I think there's a very different view sometimes about the difference between internal and the external voice of the organisation. So what we see a lot of is staff individually believe that as a service there are lots of things we could and should be talking about publicly that may or may not directly align with how as a leader we see it. Zak Mensah: So, you know, there are lots of fights we do get into. We can't get into every single fight. And sometimes there's a real fine balance around what we decide to go for. So if you take during Black Lives Matter example, me and Sarah Shropshire started in November 2020, there was an expectation that immediately we would be like the spokesperson for the whole museum sector about black and brown issues. And like, it's really hard to say, actually. I am not speaking on behalf of every single person in the whole country. I do take it seriously and we set up internally ways people to talk about it, but didn't always feel appropriate. Zak Mensah: And I'll give another example is around, for example, war. Any one time there's something like 15 global conflicts happening and, you know, we talk and go backwards and forwards internally sometimes about, you know, do we talk about them publicly? If we talk about them internally, how we talk about them, do we single one out or do we talk about them all? Are they equal? How do you equally talk about things are very horrific for a number of people?Zak Mensah: And knowing that we've got staff from dozens of countries who all have different views on how their homeland or area they're interested in is impacted. Things are very horrific for a number of people. But I do think that there's always. It's always really tricky because the best conversations and the best conversations need care and a lot of the conversations happen in like, pockets that we have no control over. Zak Mensah: And so it's again, how do you set an environment as a leader that is allowing the bottom up to do their own thing, but in a way that isn't going to be detrimental to the whole workforce? Because I think it is. Again, I mentioned it's been. It's really tricky and that's the simple truth. It is no easy answer to these things because if it was easy, we'd all solved it. Yeah. But acknowledging it there, it's the elephant in the room, I think is really important and growing to be more and more important for us as leaders. Paul Marden: I think Lewis was saying it's really important to know where you stand on issues and it is okay for you to have a stance on issues that says, I'm not going to make a stand on this one issue. I thought that was a really interesting perspective. Imy's talk. I think were talking a lot about the journey of Titanic Belfast, which I love as a museum, to go to a museum that emotionally moved me as much with so very few actual artefacts. I just think it's an amazing storytelling experience. But you talked a little bit about the team and what you do to be able to nurture that team. And one of the things that we're talking about is trying to get 110% out of everybody getting to more with less, getting them to innovate. Paul Marden: How do you balance all of those challenges and not break the people and maintain a 98% retention rate like Titanic does? Paul? Paul Sapwell: Well, maintaining a 98 retention rate, I think fairly unprecedented and huge congratulations. I mean, I think it follows on a bit from what Zak was saying, actually. You know, it's tough, isn't it, being leaders in terms of whether you're making that kind of external message or whether you've got a tough internal message. I mean, I've always taken a stance that you've got to be as transparent as you possibly can be and people will go a long way with you if it doesn't appear that things are being taken in a dark room somewhere. And I think for us, what we've tried to do is to put in the mechanisms for that to happen. I've been really fortunate to work with a fantastic people director, Hampshire Cultural Trust. Paul Sapwell: One of the first things, I think you've also got to make a stance, by the way, on people being important. One of the first things I did as CEO was say we need a people director. It's quite rare in the heritage sector. I came from hospitality, it was the norm. It's an odd thing that people and HR doesn't always sit at the top table. Sometimes it's sort of delegated down in operations or even finance. So I think that's really important and we needed a strategy and part of that is putting in place a lot of the stuff that you talked about of the Titanic, which I think is really impressive. And we're somewhere on that journey, but not quite as far along, but proper employee forums where you listen. Paul Sapwell: I meet with an employee elected employee forum quarterly and talk to them about all issues with nothing off the table. We also have an EDI group with a mix, again, senior leadership on there talking about these issues. And I think that, you know, if there was one thing I would say it's, you're not always going to be able to give easy answers, are you? This year we're being hit with an enormous national insurance hit to the staff costs and that is going to affect pay. I can't pretend that it isn't. And if we're going to not run out of money in the next few years, we're going to have to give less of a pay increase this year than we would like to. Paul Sapwell: But we've been talking about that openly since it hit and I hope that our team will go, will understand, but obviously that doesn't make it, make it easy. And I think the same is true with the issues that you're talking about. You can't take a stance on every single issue that comes through each of these forums every quarter, but you have a conversation about it. And I think that's the most important bit for me. Paul Marden: Amy, I'm going to segue wide away from today's talks. Regular listeners will know that I'm a Trustee of Kids in Museums and I was chatting with my fellow trustees about today's event and we wondered, given the impact of the cultural sector, on the impact that it has on the lives of young people and how there are so many challenges at the moment for disadvantaged young people to engage in the sector. You know, we all know that post Covid, many schools have cut their school visits into museums and galleries. I pick you because Young V&A was the winner of Kids in Museums Family Friendly Awards last year. So let's just start with you and talk about what are the innovative things that you've done to break down barriers to encourage children and families to engage in the museum. Amy Akino-Wittering: Yes, of course. So Young V&A when we kind of opened its entire purpose is about engaging children. It's all about kind of that creative confidence in Generation Alpha. And so the whole museum has been designed with and for young people. So its target audience is between naught to 14 year olds. We spoke with over 22,000 young people in the development of the museum to hear what do they want from it. I think there's a survey which said that 40% of children thought that museums were boring and it weren't places for them. So, well, what can we do as we've got this opportunity to redevelop, to make sure that it is a place that people want to go and enjoy and be themselves. Amy Akino-Wittering: And so that was kind of like the North Star in terms of what every kind of decision in the kind of opening and making and running of Young V&A is really centred around this as well. And so it goes from the aesthetic in terms of the height of things, the bright colours from this swirling staircase that we have at Young V&A, which came from an idea that someone wanted to helter skelter in the space to the tone of voice in our interpretation and also how the objects are displayed. We've got objects from across the V&A, we've got over 2,000 objects. But it's not just the museum as was the Museum of Childhood collection, it's from across all of the different departments of the V&A. And it's been curated with that kind of child centred and child focused way. Amy Akino-Wittering: Co design is also a really kind of core part of it as well. So we kind of co designed with local audiences and children for various design displays and also co curation. So each gallery was co curated between the learning team and the curatorial team as well. And then obviously we've kind of got to actually open the building and have a team to deliver that visitor experience. And again, that is all very much fed through that audience lens. And so we looked at our structures of, you know, what types of people do we want in the space? You know, our core audience are children. We need people who want to engage with that audience. It's a very specific kind of audience, but also we are a hyper local organisation as well and so how can we encourage applicants from the local boroughs? Amy Akino-Wittering: So we drove a very inclusive recruitment process where we basically did a behaviour led process for recruitment, we redid all the job descriptions, went out into our local community, did workshops and CV surgeries and basically just made it as easy as possible for people to apply and get interview. And the kind of core things that were looking at was behaviours. We can teach people how to go on a till or to learn how to do fire evacuations, but actually it's much harder to get people because that's what the job is. You know, the majority, you know, all your visitors will come to a touch point with the front of house team. They are your most important ambassadors. Amy Akino-Wittering: So we need to make sure that we've got the best kind of resources and time and structure in place to support them, to give the best possible experience that we can. So we spent a lot of time doing that. We spent a lot of time as well working Kids in Museums come in and do training about specific family engagement training as well, which has been really beneficial. And then also we really believe that, you know, the customer experience, the visitor experience is directly impacted by the employee experience. You can't expect the team to deliver this amazing, joyful visitor experience if actually they're pretty miserable behind the scenes. So how can we make sure that the structures that we have and the environment that we have is reflective of how we want them to be on the floor as well? Amy Akino-Wittering: So we make sure that we have forums to make sure that, you know, people can have their say. We make sure. So we did this team charter, which was this sort of collaborative effort to see, like, how do you want to feel in the workplace, but also how do you want your visitors to feel? And actually, it was all very similar in terms of the outcomes that came from that kind of exercise. And it's these kind of agreement that we have together to how we're going to work together and those kind of things which we do to ensure. It's that kind of frequent communication and making sure that we're on the same page and it kind of brings that joy which then comes out to the visitors. Amy Akino-Wittering: And that is kind of I think all those things together has all really helped in terms of when someone comes into the space, children, they're front and centre. They really feel like it's a place for them and they've got kind of people around them which really get them and that they will help facilitate their curiosity and things like that. So that's what we've done. Paul Marden: Amazing. Paul, have you got some thoughts? Paul Sapwell: Yeah. I love what you're saying about the visitor. The visitor services guys on the front desk. I mean, they are the most important people, essentially, and that's why I was nodding vigorously. I think that's part of what I was talking about earlier in terms of pivot into more of a commercial view, because a commercial company completely relies on their customer who comes in. And I think my experience of being in an organisation that's moved out of being run predominantly by a council to one that's independent now was, I've got to be honest, at the start, that wasn't how it felt. Paul Sapwell: And actually you could produce big lists of visitor figures, but ultimately, if they went up or down, it didn't really matter because the funding was going to stay the same, whatever, and there would be other metrics, and I think that's the big shift in mentality, because if you don't give the customer what they want, and that means really valuing people on your front line. And, you know, we've had conversations at the Museum Association about it, about how there's almost been that divide in museums between the people who talk to your customers and the museum staff. And I think that's a really. Or people who would see themselves doing proper museum work. And I think that, you know, that's something we've got to. We're moving in the right direction, but we've got to move quicker. Paul Marden: All of our best memories, aren't they, of going to these places are not necessarily about the amazing artefacts, it's the stories that your team tell people when they interact with them. You feel so happy as a result of it. I think of some amazing experiences. Zak, have you got any thoughts on this? Innovative ways in which we make museums family friendly, how we encourage make them more children friendly? Zak Mensah: Well, the first thing is it's something like 50% of people have children. And so knowing that is in the UK is a thing. Just knowing that as a fact. Right. Means that thinking then about families who will come, but also the staff workforce. Because again, like, you know, if your staff, you're your biggest advocates we just talked about is making it friendly for people to have children in the workforce means that most people recommend it and word of mouth is the biggest way that you can influence people and then from that when people come. So we've got nine venues overall pre pandemic, have a million visitors a year. Zak Mensah: We say we're family friendly, but I've got two young children and quite often the experience, not just my place, but other places doesn't actually say match up with that because like just saying to a seven year old, you must love art, doesn't really work, right, if it's Blue. Paul Marden: Can't tell them. You can't just make them like, yeah. Zak Mensah: I can't tell anything because anyone in my family anything. If you convince about bluey=, then you've got another chance. But you know, you've got to think about actually what is their experience going to be. So, you know, have you got picnic area? Have you got toilets? Lots of toilets. Do you allow your staff, for example, in previous roles? We allow people, if they want to do potty training, they could do potty training in the gallery. Because the reality was if they didn't use the potty that they had in their bag, it was going somewhere else. And so I remember watching in horror as someone literally tried to scoop up a child and move their parent out of a gallery to start to go to the toilet. Zak Mensah: And I was like, there was no way they were going to make it out that door. I would love to have that CCTV footage because I bet that was quite interesting. But, you know, it sounds, you know, some sort of flippant and fun. Zak Mensah: But that's the little thing because like all those little things about making it, you know, enjoyable. Because if you can make it enjoyable for the. For the parent or the guardian, you can make it fun for the, you know, for the kids. You know, you have to have sharp crayons and pencils. Whatever it is, like always things that's really kids don't want much. That's the little thing because like all those little things about making it, you know, enjoyable. Right. Like, if you can give them almost that version of experience to make people think it's good. Because I think we sometimes dissociate the child's experience with the fact they're with someone else. So actually you've got to make it good for the people that they're with. And quite often people do it, you know, who take. Zak Mensah: They might take the extended family. So they'll say like, you know, I'll take my niece or whatever, I'm there. And they don't usually actually have to have the children. So sometimes they need help as well, you know, to make sure the experience. Paul Marden: Extra needs to be able to solve the kids' problems. Zak Mensah: Absolutely. So for me it's about making it that friendly from that perspective. So often with school trips, for example, it's how can you make the school trips fun? Because I see quite a lot of kids on school trips that they sort of being marched through and forced to go. So then they're less likely to recommend it to their parents and their parents just like to come. So for me, it's kind of like trying to use that learning visit which often people's first. Most people tell me, I've been to museum as a child and they usually get towards school age, secondary school, and they don't go anymore. Paul Marden: Yes. Zak Mensah: So it's like, how do we make sure that. I don't think as a sector where family friendly enough, other than those people who already are super engaged, they make the kids have fun. I'm probably talking about my trauma now. Paul Marden: Let's return today's speakers. Let's just talk a little bit about Mike's discussion of using behavioural models to influence buying decisions. Yeah. What are the biggest behavioural barriers that you see within your organisation? In terms of visitor experience, from kind of awareness through to decision making, what could you do? What could you change? Zak Mensah: So the first obvious one is a lot of people are terrified of being in spaces because they're not sure how to behave. There's this weird secret code that doesn't. It's not actually written down anywhere that people think the museum experience has got to be quiet, that it's got to be. That you've got to know what you're looking at. It can't just be fun. And actually having. Just having fun is a really important part of what you want to do. So for us, I think the problem is, as well as once you work in the sector, those barriers are invisible because you just work there. You feel comfortable now coming. Yeah. And so the behaviour part is super interesting. And so, for example, it's a phrase I sometimes use around, like. Zak Mensah: It's around this idea of, like, “People like us do things like this”, which I stole from Seth Godin. So, you know, what we did, for example, is w e now don't have staff uniform because we've got quite a diverse. We're dividing diversity in Birmingham and we want people to feel comfortable and recognise people outside the building who then might be going, like, sure, I might. Hoodies, for example. If you wear a hoodie, you might own. The museum's. Not for me, the museums for other people who wear suits, etc. So actually, if they see staffing. Yeah, if they see staff in hoodies or whatever, in hijabs or niqab, whichever outfit they want to wear, then that is a signal about those people are welcome. Zak Mensah: That's one example where that idea came from the team about how we can show and tell and do what we say we're going to do, rather than just saying, “Oh, but we're really friendly museums are great and come in.” Because actually they are intimidating from the outside. They're often intimidating intellectually. Paul Marden: Yep. Zak Mensah: The train, the media, all the time is being really high brow all the time. So it's like actually we. We have to find ways to accept that those barriers exist. And that often means finding people who don't use you to actually tell you that. And we've just finished a citizen's jury, for example, which had almost 30 people who are representative of the city come in and 80% of them at the first meeting said they didn't think the museum is relevant to them. Those are ordinary people who live in the city who. That's 80% of those people. Four in five people don't think the museum is relevant for them, even though we know that we could make it relevant to them. And that was a really sad, shocking figure, but also is motivating. Zak Mensah: And I think our job, you know, as leaders is how do we help people feel inclusive, to be an inclusive space and then like. And go for it. Paul Marden: Excellent. Thank you, Amy. Amy Akino-Wittering: Yeah, I think a lot of what we have done as well is to try and go out of our four walls of Young V&A as well. So we do a lot of kind of community engagement as well through kind of the learning team as well as for volunteering programme. Like we rocked up at stores at Whitechapel Market and kind of saying, “This is our kind of programme”, just chatting with people where they haven't heard of Young V&A even though it's down the road. And so it's like, how can we, yeah, kind of go out and about and also kind of advocate across as well. And then also it's like when people do kind of take that step to actually go onto our site and then come into the building making sure that the visitor experience is as inclusive, as welcoming as possible. Similar. Amy Akino-Wittering: We also just have aprons and they can wear whatever they want underneath and just again, so as people feel relaxed and they feel when our audiences come in, they say, oh yeah, no, that's something that I might wear. Or you know, they just feel more kind of settled and at home. So that's something that's really important that we kind of do as well. Paul Marden: Lovely, Paul. Paul Sapwell: The biggest challenge for us, I mean being a smaller organisation and a brand that isn't known. As well as it could be, I think our biggest challenge now is that customer journey from online through to what you get when you arrive and we're not consistent enough. And I know we'd all talk about this forever but you know, big commercial organisations do this really well. You know, you're going to sell a ticket within a couple of clicks from a social media piece, you're going to get a follow up email that looks exciting and you know, then your product is either going to arrive or you're going to arrive at it and it will be like you thought you were buying. And I'm not sure that we always do that. Paul Sapwell: I've got to be honest and I think to do that you've got to put a lot of investment in it. And that's what we're part of the strategy that we've launched, we launched back in November is about that. Paul Sapwell: And again, that comes back to, you know, commercial mindsets that matters. It matters that we put the right image in whatever way that is to the right customer who we're trying to attract. We've got to understand those customers better and then make sure that's, that's seamless. And, you know, we run 20 venues. They're really different. We've got everything from the Great Hall, Mediaeval Hall in Winchester, which is full of people on from travel trade have come off of cruises and things. And then we've got Milestones Museum in Basingstoke, which is a sort of family living history museum. Paul Sapwell: They don't get any international tourists. So having a really limited pot of marketing to be able to go all these sort of areas is really difficult. But I think that would be the challenge. But thinking about it holistically, really, because it's the same person who clicks on the social media ad to the person who ends up arriving in your venue. And that needs to be really consistent. Yeah, it sounds like cash is the barrier. We're going to try and work with it. But that's the important bit for me. Paul Marden: I'm grinning like the village idiot because this is what I advocate all the time. I'm looking at my marketing friends in the audience who would also share. Share your thoughts on this. We know from the Rubber Cheese survey that it's eight to 10 steps it takes people to checkout. I tried to buy tickets for an aquarium last year and they made me enter a password along with the names and addresses of everybody that was joining me and then told me off three times for getting the password wrong in the checkout process. I had to be really to buy those tickets and. Paul Sapwell: Well, yeah, you touch on. Yeah. I mean, we could have a whole conversation, but no, I mean, we love a complicated ticketing system in the cultural sector, don't we? I mean, with all the right intentions. I mean, even the list in some places of different concessions. I mean, you don't want to go. I think I'm that or I'm that. You know, and it's done with the right intention. But it's an enormous barrier. Paul Marden: Yeah, completely. Paul Sapwell: And you know, we make things so complex and I don't have the fix, but I know we've got to fix it. And that means putting sort of. Again, learn from companies who do this really well rather than. Yeah. Looking for ideas ourselves. Lots of people do it really well out there. That's what we got to do. Paul Marden: Thinking of lots of my team who might think that this is something somebody should solve. Zak Mensah: The fix is simple, isn't it? Because you just said then that there are other people doing it well. What we're not really good at artists actually copying people. Zak Mensah: Like just copy someone else who's done it better than us. It's really. It really does annoy me. Let's just say that what always happens is that we make decisions by committee, don't we? So it would have been two steps, but then someone from marketing said, but you've got to have a newsletter. And someone from another team would say, “You've got to also ask for this. And then you've got to do this. Then you've got to try and get the kids to come for school trip.” Before you know it, people mean well and they've made it really complicated. I think sometimes it's like, actually, let's just do the simplest thing. Let's do all the hard work to remove those barriers and then we can try and flog them stuff when they get there. Paul Marden: So friend of mine, Andy talks a lot about you don't go to a fine dining restaurant and walk up to the maitre d and he says to you, “Would you like a table, by the way, are you going to have dessert? And would you like a coffee? And what are you going to have for your starter main course and dessert? Oh, right, I'll take you to your table.” You have a conversation with people and you lead them and you don't try and pack everything into the very first time you ever talk to the potential client. Zak Mensah: Which is why Greg's does so well. Paul Marden: Yeah, look guys, I could carry on about this conversation, but we are the barrier to everybody getting to their drinks and nibbles and so we've got. Paul Sapwell: Including us. Paul Marden: I know, sorry. We've got a couple of things that I must cover. So we always ask our guests for a book recommendation. It can be a novel, it can be work related. So Zak, would you like to go first with yours? Zak Mensah: Yeah. Turn the ship around! I think it's David Marquet. It's a book about a nuclear submarine commander who basically realises all these stupid rules. And so he just said to everyone, just tell me you intend to. So say to him, I intend to turn the ship left, I intend to take holiday, etc, because he realised that there were so many stupid rules and I think museum will have loads of stupid rules. It's a really good thing. And I know most of you won't read the book because most people say, “Yeah, I'll read it. They don't read it.” There's a 10 minute YouTube video. Surely you can spend 10 minutes of time if you can't be bothered to do that. There is literally a 30 second Wikipedia article about it. But please don't do it. Paul Marden: Zak feels very strongly about this. Paul, your book recommendation, please. Paul Sapwell: Well, last year I read Wild Swans by Jung Chang and I'm trying to find a way of getting into a business conversation. I think there's so much that comes out of that book, but I think, yeah, striving for Utopia is often, you know, the book. Right. Most people in terms of living under communist China and we know we could go on about utopian things that haven't worked, but I think there's, for this conversation, that's perhaps where we need to think, you know, going forward here. There isn't a sort of utopian way that things should be done for our sector. There is, you know, we're making our way here and yeah. Obviously it's a fantastic book. Paul Marden: Excellent. Thank you, Paul. Amy, your recommendation? Amy Akino-Wittering: Yeah, so mine isn't linked to like professional development at all. Mine. Paul Marden: Well, you did have one. Amy Akino-Wittering: Well, I did have one and you were like, no, just go for your favourite one. So I was like, Persuasion by Jane Austen. It's a classic. Paul Marden: We've got, we've got big anniversary at the moment, haven't we? In Chawton where Jane Austen lived has got big thing about 200 years, 250 years? Amy Akino-Wittering: Celebration for the whole year. So I'm gonna go in. Paul Sapwell: Yeah, everyone's trying to get in on this, by the way. I just have to put this out there. You know, she was born in Hampshire. Paul Marden: I know. Paul Sapwell: Born in Hampshire, actually. Born Basingstoke. Paul Marden: I know.Paul Sapwell: Yes. Paul Marden: There's a lot of celebrations for Jane this year. Paul Sapwell: Yeah, everyone's trying. I've seen so many angles for her. Oh, she was here and she went to the toilet. Fair enough. I mean, it's a big celebration. Paul Marden: If you'd like a copy of the book or any of these books, head over to Bluesky and like and repost the show announcement saying, I want Zak, Paul or Amy's book. And the first person to do that will get the book sent to them. Thanks for listening to Skip the Queue. If you've enjoyed this episode, then please leave us a five star review. It really does help more people to find us and remember to follow us on Bluesky , X or Instagram for your chance to win the book. Thank you very much, everybody. Paul Sapwell: Thank you. Amy Akino-Wittering: Thank you. The 2024 Visitor Attraction Website Survey is now LIVE! Dive into groundbreaking benchmarks for the industryGain a better understanding of how to achieve the highest conversion ratesExplore the "why" behind visitor attraction site performanceLearn the impact of website optimisation and visitor engagement on conversion ratesUncover key steps to enhance user experience for greater conversionsDownload the 2024 Rubber Cheese Visitor Attraction Website Survey Report

Send us a textWelcome back to Headfirst: A Concussion Podcast! In today's episode, we're thrilled to be joined by Tony Collins, a renowned historian and Emeritus Professor. With a career spanning decade, Tony is a leading expert in sports history, having authored over 12 books and won the prestigious Aberdare Prize four times. His expertise has been sought after by major TV programs like BBC Radio 4's Sports and Football: A Brief History on the British and History Channels.Tony's impact on the world of sports history extends beyond publishing. He has contributed to organizations like Rugby League Cares, the RFU's World Rugby Museum, and the Heritage Lottery Fund. He has also held significant leadership roles, serving as the chair of the British Society for Sports History and as editor of Sport in History, an academic journal dedicated to sports studies.In addition to his work as a historian and consultant, Tony has taught at institutions like Leeds Metropolitan, De Montfort University, and is currently a professor at Loughborough University. -       Tony Collins Introduction to Sports History (1:30)-       Formation of Ball Sports (03:39)-       Divergences from One Game to Many Football Codes (05:58)-       Formation of Rules (10:32)-       How Soccer Over Took Rugby Union & The Importance of the FA Cup (15:00)-       The Importance of 1903-1905 in Sport: Ruby Unions Split to Rugby Leagues (23:53)-       The Importance of 1903-1905 in Sport: NFL/ Gridiron (27:35)-       How Soccer and Rugby Where Perceived in Terms of Danger in 19th Century (31:15)-       Split in NFL and NCAA (34:38)-       Effects of World War on Sport and History of Women's Football (37:36)-       Important of the split in Rugby Union and Rugby League (47:30)-       Impact of Off Side Rule in all Football Codes (56:01)-       How did Soccer Get its Name? (1:00:22) -       Professor Collins Favourite Football Moment (1:02:45)-       Where to Find Professor Collins (1:07:52) Tony Collins:x/twitter: @collinstony http://www.tonycollins.org http://www.rugbyreloaded.com Rugby Reload Podcast 

Clare hikes along a section of the GM Ringway, Greater Manchester's new walking trail. It's a 200 mile route split into 20 stages, starting and ending in Manchester city centre. It goes around the edge of the county through all 10 boroughs of the region, and it's linked with public transport so people can easily access the linear stages. Joining Clare as she walks part of Stage 6, which is Strines to Marple, is Andrew Read whose brilliant idea this was. He was awarded £250k of funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to make it happen. The project also depends upon a legion of keen volunteers, several of whom join Clare for today's walk. One of these is ‘Stage Guardian' Roz Hughes who explains how important volunteer involvement is to keep the walk maintained in the long term. The starting point of the walk, Strines Station, was described in The Railway Children. Craig Wright joined the group to share his enthusiasm for this classic children's book, and - while reading a short section - points out aspects of a view that can be recognised from Edith Nesbit's descriptions. Presenter: Clare Balding Producer: Karen Gregor

This week's guests are James Cairncross and Angela Lewis from the Midlands Parks Forum which has its annual conference on the 17th of October at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. Highlights include keynote speaker Dr. William Bird, a GP who contributed to a select committee report on access to green space who will speak on health benefits of physical activity and green spaces."Other speakers include people from MHCLG, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Heritage Lottery Fund, and also some experience from out in the real world, such as Islington Borough Council" Angela explains and she outlines workshops also to be run at the event.James addresses the "perennial problem" of parks budget cuts. "Despite there being quite a clear return on any investment in parks, local authority officers are still struggling to protect what they've got, let alone improve the funding for green spaces."Our chair of trustees Liz Stuffins attended the previous Government's DEFRA inquiry into urban parks, and they found that both the quality and the quantity of urban parks are in quite serious decline.This exacerbates the skills shortages suffered by the parks sector but The Midlands Park Forum aims to help overcome this by offering learning events, the conference and webinars "focused on the skills and competencies in a framework that aligns with the Landscape Institute's framework on competencies identifying over 60 skills in six categories, which we've identified as being important for a good park manager. And it's not just about cutting grass. This is people skills, environmental stewardship, income and finance, future visioning and planning, and all the competencies that go with being a professional."The lack and loss of expertise in the sector combined with budget cuts means some parks "are already losing their green flag awards because the authorities can just no longer attain the quality that's needed to keep those award...some councils now can't even afford the cost of the application, let alone the quality".With a new Government installed, James acknowledges parks will have to "join the queue" when asking for more state funding but top of his list of asks is "a national urban parks strategy and it needs to be integrated into public health because the benefits of that are both obvious." Close behind is a wish that the Green Jobs Task Force be expanded to include the green spaces sector.They discuss best practice in the sector and for Angela it means "local spaces that can become the hub of the local community and making sure that people do look at different collaborations locally, whether that's with local charities providing physical activity and exercise or local charities that provide volunteers to look after the green spaces and just making sure that all those things are considered in terms of local people having that space that they've got within 15 minutes of home".For the future, the Forum wants to "continue to deliver quality service to members" including CPD offerings, via learning events and knowledge sharing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Discover the fascinating ancient art of coppicing as we visit Priory Grove in Wales' Wye Valley, where the technique is still practised on a small scale to benefit both people and wildlife. We meet site manager Rob and contractor Joe to learn more about the coppicing carried out here, and how this interaction between people and nature has enabled the two to develop and evolve in tandem. Also in this episode, find out how an unfortunate end for ash trees resulted in a fantastic sea of wild garlic, the team's efforts to encourage dormice, bats, pine martens and other wildlife and which tree to identify by likening the trunk to elephants' feet!  Don't forget to rate us and subscribe! Learn more about the Woodland Trust at woodlandtrust.org.uk Transcript You are listening to Woodland Walks, a podcast for the Woodland Trust presented by Adam Shaw. We protect and plant trees for people, for wildlife.  Adam: Well, today I am off to Priory Grove, which is next door really to the River Wye near Monmouth in Wales to meet the site manager Rob there who's gonna give me a bit of a tour. It's predominantly made up of ancient woodland and provides a wide range of habitats for wildlife. Things like roe, fallow deer, they're known to forage throughout the area, and a wide variety of bird species, including the tawny owl, sparrowhawk, and the great spotted woodpecker, which can all be seen on the wing here. All very exciting and I've just got to find it and find Rob.  Rob: Hello, I'm Rob Davies, site manager, South East Wales.  Adam: So tell me a little bit about where we are and why this is significant.  Rob: This is Priory Grove woodland. It's quite a large site on the outskirts of Monmouth, but nobody really knows what its history is. It's it's called Priory Grove, presumably because it was attached to one of the monastic estates round here. And that probably accounts for its survival as one of the one of the largest ancient woodlands next to Monmouth. And it did retain a lot of its coppice woodland, which is quite important for biodiversity.  Adam: Right. And what we're, I mean, we're standing by some felled, are these oak?  Rob: These are oak. Yes, oak, oak in length.  Adam: So why why have these been felled?  Rob: This is part of the coppice restoration programme, so coppicing on this site has been a management tool that's been used for hundreds if not thousands of years in this area and it's used to produce products like this, this oak that will go into timber framing and furniture and all those good things. And also, firewood is part of the underwood and the the the hazel and the the the understory coppice. So products for people and in the past it was used for all kinds of things before we had plastic. But it's still very useful, and so because it didn't cease until recently on this site, the animals and plants and the fauna that relies upon this method that have evolved with it essentially in the last 10,000 years or so since we've been managing woods in this way, still are present here on this site or in the local area. So if you continue the cycle you continue this interaction with the wildlife and you can help to reverse the biodiversity declines. So it's very holistic, really this management technique. But it does mean that to make space for the coppice regrowth, because trees don't grow under trees, you know it needs the light. The light needs to be there for the coppice to come up again. You have to take out some of these mature oaks that were planted 150, 200 years ago, with the intention of being used in the future. So we're planting things and we're carrying out the plans, we're bringing them to fruition, what people enacted a couple of hundred years ago.  Adam: It it's interesting, isn't it, because it it it is an ancient woodland, but that doesn't mean it's an untouched woodland, because for hundreds of years it's it's been managed. Man has had a hand in this and not only that, commerce has had a hand in that, so often I think we think of these things as a dichotomy. You have ancient woodland, nice, pristine sort of nature, and then you have sort of horrible invasive commerce. Actually, I think what's interesting about this site is that there isn't that dichotomy. They both work in tandem, is that fair?   Rob: That's right, it's a false dichotomy. So the reason these woods have survived is because they were used for people, and because of the way they're managed, coppicing and thinning is quite a sensitive technique, it allows space for nature to be present and to develop and evolve in tandem, so they're not mutually exclusive.  Adam: Yes. So tell me about coppicing is an important part of this site, tell me a little bit about what you're doing at the moment with that.  Rob: Yeah, so we've had a grant actually from the Wye Valley AONB from, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, to to do some coppicing work on stands that were coppiced about 20 years ago. So we're continuing that cycle. And we've been working with a company called Wye Coppice Community Interest Company, Wye Coppice CIC, and they're quite developed in, in the Wye Valley area. And we formed a good relationship with them and through them we've been able to do half a hectare of coppicing up on the other slope higher up in the site there. If you like we can go up and meet Joe?  Adam: That would be wonderful. Yeah. You you lead on I will follow. Well, you can hear from this I'm a bit out of breath, we've claimed, OK, I'll be embarrassed to say it's a hill, a small incline, but we've come across this stand of of felled trees. So just tell me a bit about what's going on here.  Rob: Exactly. So all these stumps you can see scattered throughout the stand. This is the coppice, so it's cut down to just above base ground level there now and it will just regrow. So it's kind of a natural defence strategy that we're just exploiting. So it's it's been used to, it's, you know, since it evolved things like hazel especially, it‘s used to being browsed off by animals, the animals move on and then the tree just comes back. So it's like a phoenix strategy it comes back, back up again. We're just exploiting that. So we'll cut the tree to base and then we'll protect the regrowth from the browsing animals and then the tree will come again.  Adam: Right, and this is the work done by Joe?  Rob: Yeah, this yeah so this is the work done by Joe Weaver. Joe's just down the end there actually if you want to come and meet him.  Adam: OK, let's go have it let's go meet him. Ohh I've got stuck. OK, so Joe, this is all your handiwork.  Joe: It is, yes.  Adam: Tell me a bit about what what it is you do then.  Joe: So I run Wye Coppice CIC, we're a coppice contracting company and working with Woodland Trust, Natural Resource Wales and Wildlife Trusts throughout the Wye Valley and we're embarking on a project to restore areas of the Wye Valley to restore, do a coppice restoration project for for various organisations throughout the Wye Valley. The what you see, what you see here is about 1 1/2 acres of cut down trees with 7 or 8 standards.  Adam: What are standards?  Joe: The standards are the trees that we've left behind, so, so they're the large, they're the larger trees.  Adam: Oh, I see right. So you wouldn't be coppicing, these are very well established big trees, you don't coppice trees like that, you coppice quite small trees, don't you?  Joe: Yes, so all the small diameter understory trees we've cut down to ground level and and they will, they will resprout and grow back again. We can then come back in 10 years and recut them and have a healthy supply of continue, a continual healthy supply of pole wood.  Adam: And yeah, so what you're trying to get with coppicing is sort of quite it's quite small diameter wood, is that correct?  Joe: Yes, generally speaking, so this is a restoration project you can see this first cut is fairly large diameter. And so most of this will go to make charcoal but generally speaking after 10, maybe 15 years of growth, we'll have poles about sort of thumb size and maybe up to about 50 pence diameter.  Adam: Right. And that's ideal size, is it?  Joe: And that's a really good size for products like bean poles, hedging stakes and binders that go on the top of naturally laid hedging and then various other pole wood applications.  Adam: And and when you see a coppiced tree, evidence that it's been coppiced, there's, I'm trying to look over there, is is this where you see lots of different branches actually coming out from the stump in the ground? That's evidence that's been coppiced, cause it not just one thing grows, lots of them?  Joe: That's right. So you can, if you have one birch tree standing up, for example, you can cut that down to the ground, and when you come back in a few months' time, you'll notice about 5 or 6 shoots coming from that one stump at the bottom of the ground. So if we can protect that from deer browsing and rabbit browsing, then those stems, those five or six shoots will grow up into individual stems that we can then use use in pole wood products.  Adam: It's odd, isn't it that that happens, though, that you chop down one sort of main stem and you get four or five coming back, that's sort of an  odd natural thing to happen, isn't it?  Joe: It is. I think it's the tree's response to the stress of being cut down. So it sort of puts out a lot of it puts a lot of energy into regrowing new growth to try to survive because essentially these broadleaf species, trees, they're they're forever growing, you can cut them down they'll regrow, cut them down again, they'll regrow again. So it's a constant cycle of of regrowth.  Adam: Yeah it's it's like sort of, you know, thumbing their nose at you isn't it, going well, you cut me down well I'm gonna come back fivefold. You know, that's it's a sort of really funny response.  Joe: Indeed. But we can reap the benefits of that.  Adam: Yeah no, no, it's, I get, I get why that's good. And coppicing itself, that, and that's an ancient art, isn't it?  Joe: It has, certainly here in the Wye Valley it was practised at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to produce charcoal to power the Industrial Revolution until coal was iintroduced and so it happened for hundreds and hundreds of years here.  Adam: Right. So you think, do you think I mean there's no need for you to be an historical expert on the history of coppicing, but do you think that's the first big sign of it happening, sort of Industrial Revolution time?  Joe: Certainly around here it is yeah, and there's some of the coupes that we've cut, some of the coppice areas that we've cut here, we've found evidence of charcoal hearths. So you can see flat areas with bits of charcoal sort of sliding down the bank.  Adam: So that would be ancient sites in here, well, ancient, I mean, a few 100 years old of them actually making charcoal in this woodland?  Joe: Yes, in this woodland, throughout the Wye Valley all the way throughout the Wye Valley here, yes.  Adam: Amazing. Now so your company, it's not just a traditional sort of private business, it is a a different sort of form. Just explain how that works.  Joe: So we run a community interest company and that allows us to access grant funding if we need to. Essentially, we're run as a private business, but we are able to do community outreach work as well and that's part of what we do is to try to educate people about sustainable woodland management.  Adam: And how did you get involved in all of this then? Did you grow up as a boy going I want to chop down trees to make fences.  Joe: No, I didn't. I was walking in the Dolomites, I saw two stoats fighting and thought woodland life is for me *laughs*.  Adam: Ok, well, fantastic, never heard that, so inspired by the the battle between two stoats and the and and the Dolomites. That's fantastic, but a hard life, I would have thought to run a business to, I mean it's physical work anyway, but that's my perception from the outside, is it hard work?  Joe: It it can be very difficult, it does have its benefits. Obviously it keeps you fit and it gets you outside but yes, it is a hard life and and you know it's it's quite a technical job as well and the training is expensive so we're trying to introduce a training programme as well through through our through our business Wye Coppice to try to get young people interested in woodland management.  Adam: And do you find that people sometimes don't understand or or perhaps disagree with the fact that commerce and nature can be actually mutually beneficial? Do you find that an issue at all?  Joe: Yes I do. Yes, and we're we're we're always willing to stop and talk to dog walkers especially. Shortly after COP26, we had two dog walkers come past and shout at us for chopping the trees down, after sitting down with them and having a cup of tea, they bought a bag of charcoal off us.  Adam: Right ok very good there we are. You're bringing them round one by one, one by one, those customers are coming over. Well brilliant and we've had not a bad day. I thought I might have to put my wet weather gear on, but it's been it's been OK. Anyway well, that's brilliant thank you very much. That's been really interesting.  Joe: Thank you.  Adam: So we've got this stand of trees we're looking at Rob. A couple couple of oak. Did you say that was a lime?   Rob: That's a lime yeah.   Adam: That's the lime, that that one with lots of ridges in it is that the lime?  Rob: That's it, yeah.  Adam: That's the lime. So why have you left these trees? Is there particular reasons you didn't take these ones out?  Rob: Yeah. So these as you can see, these are all mature trees and so you don't take these decisions lightly. So when we coppice this sort of half a football field area here, there were thirteen of these big mature trees, trees you can barely get your hands around as they're so large, taken a couple of hundred years to grow, so you've got to be quite careful and quite selective, although you need the light. There's an old adage about oak trees, it goes something like this that to fell an oak tree you need three things. You need a good eye, a sharp axe and a cold heart because these trees, you know they've been grown and nurtured and developed, and they're impressive life forms. And so it's not something you do without considering it very carefully so so you can see a couple of trees in here which are a couple of oaks, good size, but they're full of ivy, very dense ivy and that's very good for wintering bats. For hibernation, or for potentially summer roosting.  Adam: So the bats would live just amongst the Ivy, they'd sleep amongst the ivy?  Rob: Yeah when it gets as dense as this, when it's really all knotted, entwined, there's lots of gaps behind it. You could stick your hand in and find little cavities and several species of bat, especially pipistrelle, they they will hibernate over winter in this kind of growth. So you really don't want to be disturbing this.  Adam:  Right. And and what what's, is there something specific about lime that wildlife like is there any particular wildlife?  Rob: Well, it's good for bees. It's good good good pollen.  Adam: You get beehives in there? Oh I see, the pollen itself is good.  Rob: They like the flowers. Yeah yeah it produces lots of the small leaved lime it produces lots of good flowers and and it will attract aphids which is actually a food source for for dormice in the summer. So they they feed on the feed on the lime sap, you know if you park your car under a lime tree, you'll get this very sticky kind of substance coming off it.  Adam: Yes, yeah, yeah. Of course it does. Yes. Yeah, yeah.  Rob: So that attracts aphids, attracts the dormice, it's good for insects who like nectar as well. So it's a it's a very valuable tree and and you know  Adam: So interesting it's it's not valuable commercially, it's valuable for nature.  Rob: Yeah, absolutely. And it's quite it's quite a special tree in the in the Wye Valley, it doesn't occur much outside this area naturally, and it's kind of an ancient woodland indicator in this part of the world, perhaps not officially, but it's a.  Adam: OK. Any other trees we've got here?  Rob: Yeah. The rest of the trees, then are beech.  Adam: Right and you've kept those why?  Rob: Yeah, because you can see if you look at this one here, it's got quite a few cavities in it at the base at the top, beech tends to do that. It tends to take, form little cavities, rot holes and ways in, and that's ways in for fungus and then they eat out and hollow the tree. So the potential for harbouring bats again is very high in these trees. Without sort of going into them, doing some invasive exploration, you can't tell, but it's it's very high potential for bats. So again, bats, all species of bats in this country are protected under law because they've had massive declines like a lot of woodland species. And so we'll do everything we can to retain that habitat.  Adam: It's it's the Field of Dreams, philosophy. You you build it and they will come.  Rob: Yeah, yeah. This as long as it stays there, it'll always be valuable as habitat and so at least then, there are future sort of veteran trees within this stand.  Adam: It is interesting you you've already, I mean, we've only done a short part of this walk so far, but you talked about whoever was managing this woodland 100 years ago knew what they were talking about. And I think that's fascinating that we don't know who that person is or who who they, who those people were. And in 100 years time, people won't know who you were p.sumably, but the the evidence of your work will be here. They'll go yeah, that was a good bloke who did all this and left us with something.  Rob: That's it, you you don't plant trees for yourself, you plant trees for the future generation so you know, I won't see the oaks I plant develop. I'll be dead long before they mature and it's the same for the person who did this. But you can see the ones we took out, the ones I took out and selected were tall and straight. And that means that the coppice is well managed, because there was enough light for the hazel in the understory to come up straight away. If you cut hazel to the ground and you protect it, in a couple of years, it'll be way above six, eight foot and it'll just continue to get higher and higher over the next few years. And what that does is it shades the stem of the oak and it prevents side branching. So you get this very tall initial first stem. And that's what you're looking for. And that's what these trees had. So this would have clearly been cared for and these trees have been selected, they were on a journey from the moment they were planted.  Adam: OK. And just on my journey of education about trees, how do, what, they're beech, I wouldn't be able to spot that myself, what tells you they're beech?  Rob: It's a smooth trunk. If you look at this one here now you can see I always think of them as sort of elephant legs. They're grey and they're tall and they're smooth and they quite often have sort of knobbly bits on the base like an elephant's foot. And if you go through a stand of pure beech, it looks like it looks like a stand of elephants' feet, really tall, grey stems and these big huge buttress roots.  Adam: Fantastic. I am never going to forget that and I will always think of elephants when I look at a beech, a brilliant brilliant clue. Thank you. Right. So where we off to now?  Rob: We'll walk around so you can see the top of the coupe and just see the extent of it and and then we'll walk back down perhaps and have a look at this oak.   Adam: Brilliant. Well we've come to the, over the brow of the hill and along this path, there's a tiny little path for me to walk, and on either side there's a carpet of green. And I think I know what this carpet of green is. Rob, what is it tell me?  Rob: This is wild garlic.   Adam: Yeah. This is the time of year, is it?  Rob: Yep, you can see the flower heads. Ramsons it's also called, it's just about coming into flower now.  Adam: Sorry they're called what?  Rob: Ramson.  Adam: Ramson. Is that the flower itself is called ramson, or is that?  Rob: Well, just the plant.  Adam: We call it wild garlic but it's it's real name is ramson?  Rob: Well some people call it ramson too.  Adam: Right OK. And I never, I mean I have never picked and eaten anything from a forest because I am sure I will kill myself, but all of this, I mean, I've seen loads of people do that, pick wild garlic and it's, I mean there's there's acres of the stuff here.  Rob: It can it can yeah any kind of wild plant comes with the caveats that you need to know what you're doing.  Adam: Yes, which which I don't.  Rob: Yeah, absolutely. It's funny yeah, this site is quite well known for its ramsons, for its wild garlic carpets. This this is in response to something here, quite a sad thing actually. We're right next, you can probably hear the road noise there, we're right next to the main road from Monmouth into the Forest of Dean, Staunton Road there, and unfortunately, a lot of the trees along the road edge were big, big, mature ash trees. And they all had dieback and they were all dropping limbs and about to crush a car. And so, you know, we take that very seriously in terms of health and safety so the trees just along the road edge, we left the ones in the wood, just the road edge trees we had to do something about them, so they've either been reduced or felled and what that's done in this woodland where in the last 60 years, you have had very little management, like most woods, post war, very little has happened. So it becomes very high, very closed canopy, very dense. And what's happened, because of the ash felling is, you've got this pocket of light here and the ramsons have immediately responded to that. So this wasn't here last year. This carpet like this.  Adam: What so this is this is brand new?  Rob: This is brand new. It was the odd plant coming up every year, patches of it.  Adam: I'm shocked because this looks like something from the Wizard, if this was yellow, this would be we'd be in the middle of the Wizard of Oz set here, the yellow brick road. It just I mean it it's just a beautiful, winding, lush, dense path of wild garlic. It looks like it's been here forever.  Rob: And in a sense it it was. It was just waiting for the opportunity, waiting for that temporary disturbance caused by the ash felling. And so like with the coppicing, that's what we're trying to recreate essentially, is these temporary pockets of disturbance where you you break up the canopy, you get this flush of greenery and then until the trees recover it and regrow again. So you don't want this homogeneous block of woodland really. You want, you want variation, because that's the key to success for, for wildlife and biodiversity, different niches, different ages. If you look closely, you can see it's not just the garlic either. You can see wood anemone, you can see greater wood vetch, you can see little violets. So, you know, quite quite a lot of species are now taking advantage of this temporary light that the ash felling's produced.  Adam: It is a nice positive message, isn't it? Because ash dieback has been a real tragedy. But even in the midst of problems there are opportunities which nature comes back with, it's an optimistic sign.  Rob: There is and so this as I say, you know these these trees would have coppiced without us because you know when animals browse them, they they they they come back after that so all we're doing is sort of recreating these natural processes through the management of the woodland. A once in a lifetime storm might have knocked these ash out or a hurricane, something like that, could have felled the whole area and then temporary open space, the plants capitalise and then the wood comes back again, so we're just just mimicking what nature does anyway.  Adam: I'm going to take a photo of this, put it on my Twitter feed. It's fantastic. So we've just taken a little stop on this path of wild garlic. So over to the right is well, I thought it was a bird box, it's a large bird box. You tell me it's actually something very specific.   Rob: Yeah, this is a pine marten nest box cause there was there has been a big release of pine marten. Pine martens are native to this country. It's kind of like a large weasel that lives in the trees. That's a really bad way of describing it, but it's a it's a mustelid. It's a large, impressive, intelligent animal and they were sort of pressed to persecute, to extinction, with persecution in the past. But they're very important in these woods for regulating, you know, the biodiversity, they, they prey on the grey squirrel especially, and they'll regulate bird numbers like any predator does. So it's it's great to see them coming back and it's a success story actually, because a couple of years ago now there was a release programme where captive animals were put into the Forest of Dean which is just over that direction. And so we put up some boxes and monitored them and pine martens are moving back into this area now. Whether they're using the boxes or not, we're not entirely sure, but they are moving in, so it's a, it's a really good story. So we'll do whatever we can to sort of encourage them because we've we've lost a lot of this old growth woodland that we're trying to protect and so they haven't got the nest cavities, so temporarily we'll provide this habitat.  Adam: And over the other side of the little dip, there's another pathway and it looks like the bank has been cut away and it's very black so that it doesn't look quite natural. What's going on there?  Rob: Well the the track that's been put in there is exposed, an earlier industry, so that's that's a charcoal platform. See what is it about five, five metres in diameter. Sort of sort of circular and very, very thick layer of charcoal. A huge fire has been there, but that's that's lots and lots of fires, one on top of the other.  Adam: So this is this is not current, this is probably a couple of hundred years old?  Rob: I think the last burn in this woodland would have been before the Second World War.  Adam: Oh right, so not that old.  Rob: Well, I mean, if they were still burning, they would have had the odd one, but this probably dates to sort of the the height of the the periods of the the late 19th century. So this here, it's been buried and forgotten about. But it shows you as Joe was saying earlier, at one point this was a managed wood and quite a few woods in Wales if you look on the maps you'll see things like coed poeth, which probably roughly translates as sort of hot wood or or burning woods, very roughly, probably, which gives you, may may give you an indication that these woods were worked and if you came here, you would have probably seen people living in the woods with the charcoal, tinner and charcoal workers, especially in the the 19th century, would have moved in in the summer to do the charcoal production with their families.  Adam: Just living in a tent or something?  Rob: Living in on site yeah, because then you know you don't want to move products, move things twice. You know, it's it's an economic, so you bring your family in, you produce your product, and then you come out with it at the end of the season so it's very peaceful here today. You can hear the birds. It's great for wildlife, but it would have been a managed landscape and we're trying to introduce a little bit of that. Obviously not people living in the woodlands anymore, but there's space for both here within this woodland, a bit a bit of coppicing a bit of management and reserve areas.  Adam: And I mean, I I hadn't quite noticed it while we were walking, but now we're we're standing here on this green carpet, there is an overpowering smell of garlic, it's quite extraordinary. It's very fresh, you know, sometimes when you're in the kitchen and the garlic it's it's, it's not fresh, it's pungent, but this is, you know, it's mixed with the sort of cool air, it's a really lovely smell.  Rob: It's making me hungry, actually.  Adam: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. Well I was thinking whether I should pick some for dinner.  Rob: Chop some up. Pasta sauce. It's lovely with that.  Adam: Yeah, yeah, yeah, lovely. And and there's another one amongst this wild garlic, it's clock, what was it?  Rob: Yeah, this one here, it's the town hall clock or moschatel as it's known.  Adam: Town hall clock that's it. So just, what's the what's its proper name?  Rob: Moschatel. Well, that, that's it's another acronym, ah pseudonym really it's moschatel.  Adam: Moschatel.  Rob: Or town hall clock. I forget the Latin actually, to my shame.  Adam: Is moschatel the Welsh word for it, or it's not  Rob: No, it's not. It's a general general word, just a colloquial local term.  Adam: And why is it called the town hall clock?  Rob: Look you can see these four, the flowers have four sides to them, like an old town hall clock would.  Adam: Right, lovely. It's really quite, quite a rich path we're wandering down.  Rob: You see the the bluebells are out look just now, if you look up into the wood there you can see them. In Welsh they're called clychau'r gog, which is the cuckoo bell.  Adam: Wow. Cuckoo bell.  Rob: Because it comes out when the cuckoo comes. Apparently, the grant paid for like a fence, contractors to fence off that, this boundary here, stop the deer coming in from the Dean. To stop the wild pigs actually, pigs are a  Adam: You get wild pigs here?  Rob: They're a nuisance round here, yeah.  Adam: Wild pigs?  Rob: They call them, they're not really boar, because a boar will produce like, I don't know, maybe a litter of six, and these pigs will do 22.   Adam: Right. Blimey. And how big are they?  Rob: They look like boar.  Adam: So and boar can be quite violent, can't they, quite aggressive.  Rob: Yeah, they're sort of half breed, half pig, half boar. They're big animals, got a cute little stripey piglets, just like a boar does. But they, you know, they're exponential in their reproduction, so they're  Adam: And and they're around this wood?  Rob: They're here.  Adam: So do they cause a problem with eating or do they nibble on the new trees and stuff?  Rob: Yeah, yeah, well, they sort of rootle, I mean you want boar, because they were here originally. You want boar, like the deer, you want them in sustainable numbers, they're all sleeping now.  Adam: Do they come out at night?  Rob: They only come out at night yeah.  Adam: I'll have to return.  Rob: Yeah. I mean you'd see them if you went up to the top path up there.  Adam: We haven't done a night podcast. I think we should do some bats and.  Rob: You can do bats, if you wait, while you're waiting for the badgers to come out, you can do the bats. There's a few sites around here where you can watch them.  Adam: OK, well maybe  Rob: I'm sure there's other Trust sites where people know.  Adam: Maybe I'll come back.  Rob: One summer when I was doing my bachelor's degree, I was working in Llanelli in like a, just a café just to get some money. I was working with the local girls there, I'd been out surfing in Llangennith on the Gower the day before and I was like just telling her how the seals came in because they chased the mackerel in just beyond the surf line and I was sitting there and the water just boiled with the stench of of fish and mackerel and I looked around and two seals popped up and they were driving the mackerel into the back of the waves to hunt them. I was telling her this and she was like, what, you're telling me there's seals in the water here, in Llanelli, where? I said just in the Gower. Seals? Like seals seals, like live in water? I said there's seals there, yeah, they've always been there, we just don't value what's around us.  Adam: We don't notice it.  Rob: We don't notice because you can't see it, you don't see it, yeah.  Adam: It's interesting, isn't it, Attenborough has done a series recently on the UK and you go, you don't have to go to Africa or Latin America to see these things.  Rob: There you go. I was in West Wales last week in Aberaeron, and you can see bottlenose dolphins. Increasingly under threat there's that number of point but yeah, but they're there. You can see the seals, you can see them all around us, yeah. This is doing well.  Adam: Well, I'm going to have to leave our little trip down the Wye Valley with some rather unexpected chat about seals and bottlenose dolphins and a promise to return one dark night to meet some bats. Until next time, happy wandering.  Thank you for listening to the Woodland Trust Woodland Walks with Adam Shaw. Join us next month, when Adam will be taking another walk in the company of Woodland Trust staff, partners and volunteers. Don't forget to subscribe to the series on iTunes or wherever you're listening to us and do give us a review and a rating. And why not send us a recording of your favourite woodland walk to be included in a future podcast? Keep it to a maximum of five minutes and please tell us what makes your woodland walk special or send us an e-mail with details of your favourite walk and what makes it special to you. Send any audio files to podcast@woodlandtrust.org.uk. We look forward to hearing from you. 

Summer Solstice Greetings Glocal Citizens! I'm fresh off of a couple of weeks of ramping up the summer in Europe where the sun was truly a superstar right alongside my guest for the next few episodes. James Barnor is a Ghanaian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana) photographer who has been based in London since the 1990s. His career spans six decades, and although for much of that period his work was not widely known, it has latterly been discovered by new audiences. In his street (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_photography) and studio photography (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_photography), Barnor represents societies in transition in the 1950s and 1960s: Ghana moving toward independence (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ghana#Independent_Ghana), and London becoming a multicultural metropolis. He has said: "I was lucky to be alive when things were happening...when Ghana was going to be independent and Ghana became independent, and when I came to England the Beatles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles) were around. Things were happening in the 60s, so I call myself Lucky Jim." He was Ghana's first full-time newspaper photographer in the 1950s, and he is credited with introducing color processing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_photography) to Ghana in the 1970s. It has been said: "James Barnor is to Ghana and photojournalism what Ousmane Sembène (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ousmane_Semb%C3%A8ne) was to Senegal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senegal) and African cinema." Barnor has spoken of how his work was rediscovered in 2007 during the "Ghana at 50" jubilee season by curator Nana Oforiatta-Ayim (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nana_Oforiatta-Ayim), who organized the first exhibition of his photographs at Black Cultural Archives (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Cultural_Archives) (BCA). Appreciation of his work as a studio portraitist, photojournalist (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photojournalism) and Black lifestyle photographer has been further heightened since 2010 when a major solo retrospective exhibition of his photographs, Ever Young: James Barnor, was mounted at Rivington Place (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivington_Place), London, followed by a series of exhibitions including in the United States and South Africa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa). His photographs were collated by the non-profit agency Autograph ABP (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autograph_ABP) during a four-year project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage_Lottery_Fund) and in 2011 became part of the new Archive and Research Centre for Culturally Diverse Photography. Barnor's photographs have also in recent years had showings in Ghana, South Africa, France - (Paris Photo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Photo) 2011, Galerie Baudoin Lebon; Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière), The Netherlands (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Netherlands), the UK and the US. The first monograph of his work, entitled James Barnor: Ever Young, was published in 2015, including an extensive conversation between Barnor and Margaret Busby (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Busby) with Francis Hodgson. I'm honored to be able to share his story--the history, the craft, the artistry and the humor of Uncle Jim. Where to find James? On LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-barnor-42569b11/) On Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/james_barnor_archives/?hl=en) On Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/james.barnor/) In the New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/30/arts/james-barnor-dia-ghana.html) What's Uncle Jim watching? America's Got Talent (https://www.youtube.com/user/americasgottalent) Britain's Got Talent (https://www.youtube.com/@BGT) Other topics of interest: About Two Coronations (https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/birth-of-tv/two-coronations/) Accra earthquake 1939 (https://www.nature.com/articles/147751a0) A brief history of housing in Ghana (https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/A-brief-history-of-housing-in-Ghana-117756) 1942 Shipwreck (https://www.science.org/content/article/germans-torpedoed-ship-during-world-war-ii-wreck-now-revealing-secrets-about-underwater) What is Akpeteshie? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akpeteshie) On Kodak's Baby Brownie Camera (https://www.fi.edu/en/kodak-brownie-camera#:~:text=Eastman%20Kodak%20introduced%20the%20new,by%20a%20major%20advertising%20campaign) Other Kodak cameras (https://thedarkroom.com/resurrect-old-620-film-cameras-with-120-film/) Ghana's Daily Graphic (https://corporate.graphic.com.gh/about-us/our-history.html) Letterpress vs the Next-generation Press (https://hellolovely.design/top-tip/2022/3/26/letterpress-an-endangered-and-at-risk-craft) Ghana's Prized Boxer Roy Ankrah (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Ankrah) About British Accra and the Seaview Hotel (http://www.ghanadot.com/Review.amarteifio.jamestownaccra.111015.htm) Krobo Edusei (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krobo_Edusei) World University Service - Canada (https://wusc.ca/) Drum Magazine (http://www.robertnewman.com/1950s-covers-of-south-africas-drum-africas-leading-magazine/#:~:text=Drum%20was%20a%20South%20African,anti%2Dapartheid%20protests%20and%20events) Achimota School (https://www.achimota.edu.gh/) Medway College of Arts - Kent (https://www.wearemedway.co.uk/learn/university-of-creative-arts/) Oko Kolamashie (https://www.facebook.com/FlyToGhana/photos/a.1201015243436520/1867644386773599/?type=3) Special Guest: James Barnor.

Summer Solstice Greetings Glocal Citizens! I'm fresh off of a couple of weeks of ramping up the summer in Europe where the sun was truly a superstar right alongside my guest for the next few episodes. James Barnor is a Ghanaian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana) photographer who has been based in London since the 1990s. His career spans six decades, and although for much of that period his work was not widely known, it has latterly been discovered by new audiences. In his street (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_photography) and studio photography (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_photography), Barnor represents societies in transition in the 1950s and 1960s: Ghana moving toward independence (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ghana#Independent_Ghana), and London becoming a multicultural metropolis. He has said: "I was lucky to be alive when things were happening...when Ghana was going to be independent and Ghana became independent, and when I came to England the Beatles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles) were around. Things were happening in the 60s, so I call myself Lucky Jim." He was Ghana's first full-time newspaper photographer in the 1950s, and he is credited with introducing color processing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_photography) to Ghana in the 1970s. It has been said: "James Barnor is to Ghana and photojournalism what Ousmane Sembène (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ousmane_Semb%C3%A8ne) was to Senegal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senegal) and African cinema." Barnor has spoken of how his work was rediscovered in 2007 during the "Ghana at 50" jubilee season by curator Nana Oforiatta-Ayim (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nana_Oforiatta-Ayim), who organized the first exhibition of his photographs at Black Cultural Archives (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Cultural_Archives) (BCA). Appreciation of his work as a studio portraitist, photojournalist (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photojournalism) and Black lifestyle photographer has been further heightened since 2010 when a major solo retrospective exhibition of his photographs, Ever Young: James Barnor, was mounted at Rivington Place (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivington_Place), London, followed by a series of exhibitions including in the United States and South Africa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa). His photographs were collated by the non-profit agency Autograph ABP (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autograph_ABP) during a four-year project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage_Lottery_Fund) and in 2011 became part of the new Archive and Research Centre for Culturally Diverse Photography. Barnor's photographs have also in recent years had showings in Ghana, South Africa, France - (Paris Photo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Photo) 2011, Galerie Baudoin Lebon; Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière), The Netherlands (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Netherlands), the UK and the US. The first monograph of his work, entitled James Barnor: Ever Young, was published in 2015, including an extensive conversation between Barnor and Margaret Busby (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Busby) with Francis Hodgson. I'm honored to be able to share his story--the history, the craft, the artistry and the humor of Uncle Jim. Where to find James? On LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-barnor-42569b11/) On Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/james_barnor_archives/?hl=en) On Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/james.barnor/) In the New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/30/arts/james-barnor-dia-ghana.html) What's Uncle Jim watching? America's Got Talent (https://www.youtube.com/user/americasgottalent) Britain's Got Talent (https://www.youtube.com/@BGT) Other topics of interest: About Two Coronations (https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/birth-of-tv/two-coronations/) Accra earthquake 1939 (https://www.nature.com/articles/147751a0) A brief history of housing in Ghana (https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/A-brief-history-of-housing-in-Ghana-117756) 1942 Shipwreck (https://www.science.org/content/article/germans-torpedoed-ship-during-world-war-ii-wreck-now-revealing-secrets-about-underwater) What is Akpeteshie? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akpeteshie) On Kodak's Baby Brownie Camera (https://www.fi.edu/en/kodak-brownie-camera#:~:text=Eastman%20Kodak%20introduced%20the%20new,by%20a%20major%20advertising%20campaign) Other Kodak cameras (https://thedarkroom.com/resurrect-old-620-film-cameras-with-120-film/) Ghana's Daily Graphic (https://corporate.graphic.com.gh/about-us/our-history.html) Letterpress vs the Next-generation Press (https://hellolovely.design/top-tip/2022/3/26/letterpress-an-endangered-and-at-risk-craft) Ghana's Prized Boxer Roy Ankrah (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Ankrah) About British Accra and the Seaview Hotel (http://www.ghanadot.com/Review.amarteifio.jamestownaccra.111015.htm) Krobo Edusei (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krobo_Edusei) World University Service - Canada (https://wusc.ca/) Drum Magazine (http://www.robertnewman.com/1950s-covers-of-south-africas-drum-africas-leading-magazine/#:~:text=Drum%20was%20a%20South%20African,anti%2Dapartheid%20protests%20and%20events) Achimota School (https://www.achimota.edu.gh/) Medway College of Arts - Kent (https://www.wearemedway.co.uk/learn/university-of-creative-arts/) Oko Kolamashie (https://www.facebook.com/FlyToGhana/photos/a.1201015243436520/1867644386773599/?type=3) Special Guest: James Barnor.

Summer Solstice Greetings Glocal Citizens! I'm fresh off of a couple of weeks of ramping up the summer in Europe where the sun was truly a superstar right alongside my guest for the next few episodes. James Barnor is a Ghanaian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana) photographer who has been based in London since the 1990s. His career spans six decades, and although for much of that period his work was not widely known, it has latterly been discovered by new audiences. In his street (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_photography) and studio photography (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_photography), Barnor represents societies in transition in the 1950s and 1960s: Ghana moving toward independence (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ghana#Independent_Ghana), and London becoming a multicultural metropolis. He has said: "I was lucky to be alive when things were happening...when Ghana was going to be independent and Ghana became independent, and when I came to England the Beatles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles) were around. Things were happening in the 60s, so I call myself Lucky Jim." He was Ghana's first full-time newspaper photographer in the 1950s, and he is credited with introducing color processing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_photography) to Ghana in the 1970s. It has been said: "James Barnor is to Ghana and photojournalism what Ousmane Sembène (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ousmane_Semb%C3%A8ne) was to Senegal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senegal) and African cinema." Barnor has spoken of how his work was rediscovered in 2007 during the "Ghana at 50" jubilee season by curator Nana Oforiatta-Ayim (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nana_Oforiatta-Ayim), who organized the first exhibition of his photographs at Black Cultural Archives (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Cultural_Archives) (BCA). Appreciation of his work as a studio portraitist, photojournalist (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photojournalism) and Black lifestyle photographer has been further heightened since 2010 when a major solo retrospective exhibition of his photographs, Ever Young: James Barnor, was mounted at Rivington Place (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivington_Place), London, followed by a series of exhibitions including in the United States and South Africa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa). His photographs were collated by the non-profit agency Autograph ABP (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autograph_ABP) during a four-year project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage_Lottery_Fund) and in 2011 became part of the new Archive and Research Centre for Culturally Diverse Photography. Barnor's photographs have also in recent years had showings in Ghana, South Africa, France - (Paris Photo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Photo) 2011, Galerie Baudoin Lebon; Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière), The Netherlands (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Netherlands), the UK and the US. The first monograph of his work, entitled James Barnor: Ever Young, was published in 2015, including an extensive conversation between Barnor and Margaret Busby (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Busby) with Francis Hodgson. I'm honored to be able to share his story--the history, the craft, the artistry and the humor of Uncle Jim. Where to find James? On LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-barnor-42569b11/) On Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/james_barnor_archives/?hl=en) On Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/james.barnor/) In the New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/30/arts/james-barnor-dia-ghana.html) What's Uncle Jim watching? America's Got Talent (https://www.youtube.com/user/americasgottalent) Britain's Got Talent (https://www.youtube.com/@BGT) Other topics of interest: About Two Coronations (https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/birth-of-tv/two-coronations/) Accra earthquake 1939 (https://www.nature.com/articles/147751a0) A brief history of housing in Ghana (https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/A-brief-history-of-housing-in-Ghana-117756) 1942 Shipwreck (https://www.science.org/content/article/germans-torpedoed-ship-during-world-war-ii-wreck-now-revealing-secrets-about-underwater) What is Akpeteshie? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akpeteshie) On Kodak's Baby Brownie Camera (https://www.fi.edu/en/kodak-brownie-camera#:~:text=Eastman%20Kodak%20introduced%20the%20new,by%20a%20major%20advertising%20campaign) Other Kodak cameras (https://thedarkroom.com/resurrect-old-620-film-cameras-with-120-film/) Ghana's Daily Graphic (https://corporate.graphic.com.gh/about-us/our-history.html) Letterpress vs the Next-generation Press (https://hellolovely.design/top-tip/2022/3/26/letterpress-an-endangered-and-at-risk-craft) Ghana's Prized Boxer Roy Ankrah (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Ankrah) About British Accra and the Seaview Hotel (http://www.ghanadot.com/Review.amarteifio.jamestownaccra.111015.htm) Krobo Edusei (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krobo_Edusei) World University Service - Canada (https://wusc.ca/) Drum Magazine (http://www.robertnewman.com/1950s-covers-of-south-africas-drum-africas-leading-magazine/#:~:text=Drum%20was%20a%20South%20African,anti%2Dapartheid%20protests%20and%20events) Achimota School (https://www.achimota.edu.gh/) Medway College of Arts - Kent (https://www.wearemedway.co.uk/learn/university-of-creative-arts/) Oko Kolamashie (https://www.facebook.com/FlyToGhana/photos/a.1201015243436520/1867644386773599/?type=3) Special Guest: James Barnor.

Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is  Kelly Molson, Founder of Rubber Cheese.Download the Rubber Cheese 2022 Visitor Attraction Website Report - the first digital benchmark statistics for the attractions sector.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website rubbercheese.com/podcast.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this podcastCompetition ends July 31st 2023. The winner will be contacted via Twitter. Show references: https://bristolzoo.org.uk/https://www.wildplace.org.uk/https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-coe-mba-943a7985/ Mike Coe (MBA), Commercial Director: Mike has over 20 years' experience working in commercial and leadership roles within both charity and the private sector. Mike joined the Society in December 2021 and is responsible for the commercial and public engagement strategy.  Previous to joining the Society he was CEO at the Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum developing funding strategies and vision delivery in conservation, education and participation at the National Arboretum.  Before that Mike was also CEO of Arnos Vale, leading the successful restoration and sustainable financial transformation programme within the iconic heritage and wildlife estate. Mike also led the relaunch of the Bristol Aquarium alongside leading successful consultancy projects supporting organisational change and delivery within the visitor economy. Transcriptions:  Kelly Molson: Mike, thank you so much for coming on to Skip The Queue today. It's lovely to see you. Mike Coe: Thanks, Kelly. Kelly Molson: We are recording on a very snowy March day, but Mike and I are inside in the warm, so we're quite happy. Mike Coe: Yeah, well, still got a bit of snow outside at Wild Place. We had loads yesterday and had to try and shovel that all off and get the site open, ready for the visitors. Our visitor services team were out moving water around the site and shoveling snow, but it's all pretty much melted away now, so it's still quite wintry looking out there, but, yeah, not so slippery. Kelly Molson: There you go. The visitor experience team, they're the heroes of the day. Right, Mike, we're going to start off with some icebreakers, so I want to know if I could gift you a month off tomorrow and you could travel anywhere in the world. I know, right, please, let's put that out of the universe. Where would you go? Mike Coe: So when I left university, I actually travelled around Southern Africa. So I spent some time in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa. Really enjoyed my time there. I was teaching there and working in a rhino sanctuary and did a number of things out there and always wished, always wanted to go back. I'll be back all the time, but actually, I never got the opportunity to head back there and then had children. You need a length of time to get out there. So, yeah, if I had a month, I would definitely go back and sort of retrace those steps and just see how much things have changed over that time period, from sort of 2000, 2001 to sort of where we are now, sort of 20 odd years later. Mike Coe: So, yeah, I think I'd love to be able to do that and take my time and travel those areas. I'm a massive fan of the culture over there, but also, as you're probably not surprised, the wildlife over there, so it'd be a great chance to see how that's changed and transformed. Kelly Molson: Amazing. Would you go on your own or would you take kids? Mike Coe: I think I'd probably go on my own. Kelly, boy, I think as much as I'd love it, my little boy loves an adventure. Charlie I just think, yeah, sometimes, you know what I mean? It's having to think about them while you're trying to discover the place. Might be getting away a bit. Kelly Molson: Yeah, I hear you. It's funny because we've always said if we were lucky enough to have children, they would be part of our travel adventures as well. Now I'm like, yeah, maybe not. I changed my mind on that.Mike Coe: Keep your eyes on them, as well as what's going on. Kelly Molson: Great. Okay, if you were in a karaoke booth, what is your karaoke go to song? Mike Coe: Probably Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer. You can imagine that after a few drinks, microphone on hand, thinking you're a Rock Gods, melting that one out. It's a classic. Classic's spud a goody.Kelly Molson: I feel like if you're going to do karaoke, you've got to do a crowd pleaser that everyone knows the words too and then they carry you along, Mike. Mike Coe: Absolutely, you can't go into karaoke singing a song that you can sing. It has to be something that you literally can't hit any note on. And that's definitely one of those for me. Kelly Molson: We could do karaoke together. We're on the same level of karaoke skill here. Right, last one. Can you share with me one of your irrational fears? Mike Coe: Oh, cool. That's a good one. Actually, mine is always I would say it's about people letting people down. So I think when you sort of move up and you're in leadership roles, you're aware of what you can do. But it's always that sense of or fear of, have I done something? Have I let other people down? I can let myself down, but it's that letting other people down. So I do think I take great pride and passion in supporting teams, and if I feel I've let them down, I think that's the thing that hits me the hardest, if I'm honest.Kelly Molson: Would you say, because this is one of my biggest challenges, because I think I'm like a certified people pleaser. So one of the things that took at the beginning of this year was I need to be careful about things that I say yes to, because I put myself under a massive amount of pressure when I do that, because I don't want to let people down all the time. So I've started to kind of just take a bit of a step back and go, “Can I do this? I really want to do this. But do I have the capacity for this? What pressure is this going to put on me this year?” But that is one of my biggest things, is a fear of letting people down because of that. Mike Coe: Yeah, and I'm the same. And you do have to end up setting boundaries, and it's only you have to set those boundaries because by saying yes too much and doing too much, ultimately you are going to let people down. You just don't have the capacity to do a good job. And I think we're all guilty, everyone's guilty of taking too much on because you just want to do a good job. But actually, it's that setting those boundaries and actually understand that it's okay to say no as long as there's a reason for that. Kelly Molson: Yeah, absolutely. Boundary is the word of the year, I think. Thank you for sharing that. Right. What is your unpopular opinion that you've prepared for us? Mike Coe: I know, and I didn't know where to go with this one, to be honest, because I've got quite a few. And this one, and I'm going to apologise now because I've got many Parisian friends. We work with some here as well. But I just think that Paris is a little bit overrated, Kelly. And I know, like I said, I've got so many friends from France and Parisians, and they've tried to convince me. I've been there a few times, but for me, it's just expensive. I always seem to end up with bad service there. I had my wallet stolen there once. I suppose that set me off on a bad foot. Mike Coe: And then seeing some of those sort of images, the sites that you've been expecting, and reading books when you're younger, and then when you get there, they're just not quite for me and for me, just wasn't quite what I had expected. So, yeah, it's going to be an unpopular decision and an popular thing to say, but I just don't get Paris and the romanticism around Paris, and maybe I'll be convinced as I go in later into life, and somebody will take me there and I'll see it for what I should. But, yeah, Paris is overrated, Kelly.Kelly Molson: Paris is overrated, statement. I really like this one. I don't know how unpopular this is going to be. Interesting. I just got back from a conference, actually, where there was a Parisian speaker who was really funny. He does a comedy show in Paris about Parisians and their culture. And he said, “Yeah, we are rude. We are openly rude, and we celebrate in being rude.” And I thought, “Well, okay, yeah, at least own it.” Mike Coe: Yeah, maybe I don't get that. Maybe I should just accept that they are rude and just live with that. Kelly Molson: Yeah, go with that expectation. Again, that's a very sweeping statement, and that may not be my opinion. Just putting that out there. That was what the comedian was telling me. Mike Coe: I will add to it to any Parisian friends of mine watching this, I love you all. Kelly Molson: Mirabelle from Convius will be listening to this, I'm sure. And I adore you. This is, again, not my unpopular opinion. Thank you. That was a good one. Well, let me know what you think, listeners. Let me know if you're sharing Mike's, how do we get Mike's unsatisfactory opinion of Paris? Mike Coe: Yeah, my one star TripAdvisor review of Paris. Kelly Molson: Okay. Right. I'm really glad that you've come on the podcast today, Mike, because we are going to talk about something that we've never talked about on the podcast before and that's about actually the decision to close an attraction. Sometimes we're talking about attractions opening and all of the amazing things that they're doing, but this time we're going to talk about an attraction closing. So tell us a little bit about your background and then we can start to talk about what your current role entails and how you got to that decision. Mike Coe: Yeah, I've been in visitor attractions now since around about 2010 and then earlier through my studies, I studied leisure and tourism as well, but really got back into visitor attractions after a break, actually, with BP in their graduate scheme for a while. And I launched or relaunched Bristol, well, what was then Blue Reef Aquarium, but rebranded and relaunched Bristol Aquarium in Bristol, which was a great one for me, to be honest with you, launching a new product, new brand and a really nice new attraction for Bristol. So, yeah, growing and developing new attractions, certainly for me. And then on there, I was brought in chief executive of Arnos Vale, which is actually a cemetery in Bristol, but we was scheduled to close and we got some Heritage Lottery funding to reopen that as a heritage site, events as well going on there. Mike Coe: So were the first people doing events in a cemetery as a heritage site, as a museum, and we found a sustainable model for it financially to actually make it pay for itself. So this heritage site would save, secured, rebuilt with the Heritage Lottery Fund money and really a great success story of developing another new visitor attraction in Bristol as well. Then over to Westonbirt the National Arboretum, supporting Forestry England in the development and growth of Westonbirt the National Arboretum and some great new developments there. So always growing new commercial opportunities within visitor attractions. And then this opportunity with Bristol Zoological Society, which is very different, of course, because I hadn't closed a visitor attraction before. Mike Coe: But, yeah, that was what I moved over to Bristol Zoological Society to which, although I say it's about closing Bristol Zoo, it was a lot more than that, of course. So it's the closure of Bristol Zoo Gardens after 186 years, but actually the future and the positivity for the society that brings, because we also own an attraction called Wild Place Project. And the sale of the proceeds from the sale of Bristol Zoo Gardens that's going to be moved into, ploughed into the Wild Place Project with a brand new zoo for Bristol in effect and really reimagining what the zoo of the future should be. So, yeah, that's where it's gone from growing new visitor attractions to closing one and developing another one. Kelly Molson: Yes. So it's come full circle, isn't it? We started off that quite negatively, didn't we? But actually there's some really incredible opportunities that are coming from this experience. So we're going to start kind of at the beginning part of it, though. So, like you said, Bristol Zoo closed in September 2022 after 186 years. Got absolutely phenomenal. What was the decision behind it? What was the reason for that happening? Mike Coe: Yeah, it's one of those decisions, I think if you were to ask the Trust now, they probably should have taken earlier, in my view. So for a number of years, Bristol Zoo Gardens had been its revenues have been reducing and then in decline. So it had been losing money for a number of years over the decade before it. And it's a bit like that Region Beta Paradox. Have you heard of that?  And actually, what the Region Beta Paradox says is essentially a theory that sometimes the worse things are, the better the final outcome will be because you actually act on it and you actually make a change and you do something about it. So the recovery can be a lot quicker from a much worse situation. That worse situation, of course, was COVID. Mike Coe: So that really hits the charity reserves, in effect. And really, at that point, that decision had to be taken that they could no longer take the losses from Bristol Zoo Gardens and the site itself was crumbling. So the amount of investment that would have been required to restore Bristol Gardens as a visitor attraction, that wasn't falling effectively, the infrastructure was crumbling, so it would have taken a huge amount of investment to keep the site going in a space that had reduced visitor numbers year after year after year. So that was kind of the financial and commercial decision to close it. But the other thing, of course, is that Bristol Zoo Gardens was a twelve acre site, so quite a small inner city zoo. Mike Coe: Welfare standards amongst animals have changed from where they were 186 years ago into what size enclosures animals need for their welfare now. And Bristol Zoo Gardens, great space, but unfortunately just was too small to be able to provide the levels of welfare standards that are required now in zoology. So we're over here at Wild Place, ten times bigger than the sites at Bristol Zoo Gardens and the ability to develop enclosures far bigger than we were able to be, able to do at Bristol Zoo Gardens. So it wasn't just this commercial decision that we had to close the zoo. It's also, quite rightly, an animal welfare situation. Mike Coe: And what we can offer here is much better space and the chance with the money from that, the chance to develop a brand new type of zoo over here at Wild Place, a zoo of the future, where animals that we work with are involved in our conservation projects around the world. So it's not just about putting animals in for entertainment, it's about actually the purpose of those animals in terms of conservation and their conservation status. Kelly Molson: Let's talk about that then, because I'd love to know kind of what the vision is for what you're now kind of building on and that kind of positive aspect of it. Mike Coe: Yeah. And I think we start off it is about the animals that we have in the New Bristol Zoo. And the New Bristol Zoo will be developed with the sale of Bristol Zoo Gardens over the course of the next five to ten years. And the enclosures that will be here at first are much bigger, so the animals are in a more natural environment. So almost as you're walking through the gates, you're arriving somewhere other that you're almost on an on foot safari. So, you know, the traditional type of zoo. And another controversial thing I'll say is I'm not a big fan of traditional zoos, so I'm not a massive zoo fan. Certainly the modern zoos and the way we look at it is certainly the way to move. Mike Coe: And that's making sure that there's much bigger enclosures, that you're stumbling on those animals, you're not just looking from fence to fence that you actually have to do a bit of work while you're here to see those animals on foot. So this “on foot safari”, that's going to be a theme that sort of overrides what goes on here. The species of animals that we have here are going to be involved in the conservation projects that we have around the world, be that Africa, Philippines, we have a number of projects around the world and we're going to have the species here are the species that we're involved in those conservation projects. So actually, this is just going to be an insight into the world of field conservation, our in situ work. Mike Coe: So in situ means the work you do out in the field on those projects. So this is going to be an extension of those in situ field projects that we have out there, working with the same species of animals. We're also going to have a conservation campus. So within that campus, we're going to have university students who are involved in direct conservation work. They're going to be here on site, so our visitors are going to be able to walk through that campus as part of the visitor journey. So those students are going to be there interacting with our visitors. It's going to have a breeding centre, so they're going to see the breeding work that we do both here that supports the conservation work around the world. Mike Coe: So it's that whole what we do in the field, what we do here, and the breeding centre, linking that all together on this on foot safari. So something completely different to a standard zoo, I would like to think. Kelly Molson: What a phenomenal experience for the guests that's coming along as well. Because the opportunity that they could bump into students that they can talk to about their education path and what they're doing and the conservation aspects of there, that makes that visit even better than it would be just if you are just going to visit a standard zoo. Mike Coe: Exactly that. And what we realise is that if we want to save wildlife, and our vision at Bristol Zoological Society is to save wildlife together, we realise that we can't do that in isolation on our own. It has to be together, it has to be changing behaviours of the people that come onto the site. And a large proportion of those people that come on site are young people. We attract young people. So it's changing the behaviours of those young people for them to make correct, positive conservation decisions. And you're right, you talk about them engaging with those students as they're on site. We want them to become adventurers for the day when they walk in, so they almost become a conservation hero as they leave the gates. They come in as a visitor, become an adventurer and leave the gates as a conservation hero. Mike Coe: And that's what we want to do. We want everyone to come away with this impression of what they can do at home to make real world changes. You're going to come and visit. Kelly Molson: You absolutely sold that into me. Like, I'm there. I want to be an adventurer. Mike Coe: We'll get everyone wearing those Indiana Jones style hats as they come in, so they feel the part. We'll get our public engagement team coming up with some really exciting ways to make them feel like they're suddenly out on their in situ adventure. Kelly Molson:  Perfect. I can absolutely rock that hat. And I'm sorry I interrupted you mid flow, but I was like, “Gosh, yes, I'm really feeling this”. And I was like, the buzz that there is around this is quite tantalising. Mike Coe: Exactly. And it all relies once we get the sale of Bristol Zoo Gardens, then we can really start to make this vision and become a reality. And it's much bigger than just Bristol. It's this global conservation emergency that we're in that we'll feel like we're a part of and it's great that it's in our city. Bristol is known for being quite different in the way it looks at things. We're a great city, we're an ingenious city, and it's going to be great to have a zoo that does things a little bit differently, a bit like Bristol tends to like to do. Kelly Molson: Definitely, yeah. The ethos of Bristol is definitely different. This is amazing. So an incredible vision that you have there. Genuinely, there is an excitement there. I can feel it as you talk about it and the passion for it. I just want to go back a little bit, though, because I guess it's been quite a difficult decision to make from a financial perspective, anyway. And from a heart perspective, you're going to have a lot of team that have worked at Bristol Zoo for many years. And I know you weren't there from the start of this decision making process. But how did you go about communicating these decisions to the team and what was their reaction? Mike Coe: Yeah, like I said, I wasn't there when the initial announcement that the zoo would be closing. I know that it was an incredibly difficult decision, both making that decision, but also how that was communicated with staff. And the staff are clearly the first to be told before it was made public. And you think you've got a number of staff who have been there 30, nearly 40 years at that time. So it's dealing really sensitively with all the staff, especially those that have been there that time. And then you've also, unlike, I guess, other attractions, where you probably don't have as much attachment to the product, not that I'm calling the animals a product in a museum, you don't quite have that same attachment. Mike Coe: You've got keepers that have been working, say, with the gorillas for a decade, so they've seen them grow up and work with those. So you can understand how gut wrenching it must have been at the time for those stuff and how sensitively this had to be dealt with, because it was a decision that clearly nobody wanted to take, but ultimately had to take. And it was communicating that now. I was there when the actual final dates of a date closure for Bristol Zoo Gardens was announced, the 3rd of September being the last day. So I was there and we brought everybody into a big town hall and told all the staff that 3rd of September was going to be the final day. Mike Coe: And you go through this curve of emotion, this acceptance cycle, and that first stage is real despair amongst a number of the staff there and working and developing those through that, then there's that acceptance and then realisation of how we do that. Clearly there are as we move from two zoos to one zoo, there were some people that had to move on, unfortunately. But the good thing is we managed to do most of that through voluntary redundancies. So there's very talking ones or two where people were actually made redundant. The voluntary scheme meant that a lot of people made those decisions themselves, luckily. I guess we're kind of still just on the rise of that curve now. Mike Coe: So even now, although there's this great positivity around the future, there's still people still trying to get used to having moved over from Bristol Zoo Gardens and over to the Wild Place. And we'll continue to work with those people as well to make them see the vision of the new Bristol Zoo in effect. Kelly Molson: Yeah, because my next question is general public and what their reaction was, and I guess it's a very similar reaction.Mike Coe: I think, absolutely. When you're a zoo which is at the heart of a city or a society that's a heart of a city, then you're right. It's not just that the staff that work there. Visitors have been visiting the zoo. I remember I was there throughout the final closing weeks and we had people travelling from not just around the country, literally from around the world, to say their goodbyes from Bristol Zoo Gardens, people that have been visiting for 70 years. I had one talking to and just, I guess, more stoic understanding the reasons why it was closing. But still that sense of nostalgia, and that's what came out in those last few weeks, that sense of nostalgia, what the zoo had done for the city, really, and these people as well. Mike Coe: But actually what I did get was this overwhelming sense of people understanding actually what it is time for Bristol Zoo Gardens to close. It is too small in terms of welfare and these animals and these enclosures that ultimately were just too small for them. And people got the sense that actually time moves on. And what was right for a city centre zoo back in the 18 hundreds is now not what's right for the modern world. So there was that great sense of acceptance at the end. The good thing is that Bristol Zoo Gardens will, within our plans, be reopened as a development, which will still have the parks and gardens open, so people will still be able to come and enjoy the parks and gardens. I think that's the most important thing is what people said. Mike Coe: "We still want to be able to see some of the old monuments, we still want to be able to see some of the old park." Well, they were going to be able to do that, which is really exciting. They'd be able to see the old monkey temple. A number of those items are listed. The entrance building itself is listed as well. So the entrance building is going to be turned into something called the Clifton Conservation Hub. So there'll still be conservation work. We do a lot of conservation work around the Avon Gorge and Downs wildlife project. So Avon Gorge and Downs is a site of scientific and conservation interest, while the hub of that is going to be within the entrance building when the developments finish. Mike Coe: So conservation work and wildlife conservation will still go on at Bristol Zoo Gardens, in parks and gardens, and then in the wider Avon Gorge and Downs. Kelly Molson: It's really good to hear that as well. And I guess one of the things that we always talk about from an attraction perspective is how many memories are made at a visitor attraction, regardless of whether it's a zoo or a heritage, a park, et cetera. So it's lovely that the reaction from people is we still want to be able to see these places because they've got great memories for us. We've taken our children there, we'd love to be able to go back there ourselves, and that's wonderful. And I think, on the other hand, as well, what's really good is that the message around conservation and welfare of animals is obviously a very positive one and very clear one that you've been pushing out, because that's what people have accepted about the change that's going to happen now. Kelly Molson: So that's a real positive that feeds into the vision for the new attraction. Mike Coe: Absolutely. Like I said, we ran a campaign at the end called The Zoo and You or You and the Zoo, I think it was, and it was really just people sharing all those memories and all those pictures. Like I said, understanding that actually walking with an elephant or whatever they used to do is not something they can do now, but celebrating that as something that was done in our past and being a part of that, but understanding that actually we do have to move on. Kelly Molson: Yeah, talking about moving, actually, while we're on that subject. So we've talked about the kind of the financial and the emotional decisions that have gone around this, and we've talked about communicating to the people and how from a team perspective and from the general public, let's talk about the animals, because I can only imagine that this is a logistical nightmare. How do you move a zoo? How do you move a giraffe down the road? How does it even happen? Mike Coe: Yeah, we'll come back to how do you move a giraffe, I guess. But the first off, there are literally thousands of individuals at Bristol Zoo Gardens and a number of those animals are coming with us, but the majority of those are going to other institutions. So I think the first thing to explain, and I get this asked a lot, I'm still relatively new to zoo, so it's something that I'm still learning and it's that we don't actually within zoological societies around the country, in Europe and the world, we don't own our animals, they don't belong to us. They're coordinated through a network of institutions, European Institute of Zoos and Erza have EP coordinators. Those coordinators coordinate those animals all the time between institutions because they're involved in breeding programmes. Mike Coe: So you'll get breeding recommendations and the animals will be coordinated by those coordinators from the receiving donating Zoo to the receiving zoo because of breeding recommendations that have been flagged up. So animals are always moving in between institutions anyway, those member institutions, so we don't own those animals. That said, of course, this was a number of animals moving all in one go, or a lot of animals moving won't go. Some of those animals are still remaining at Bristol Zoo Gardens while we build their new enclosures at Wild Place, and we'll move directly from Bristol Zoo Gardens over to Wild Place. So the gorillas, for instance, will be at the Bristol Zoo Gardens for a little while longer yet, and so we've built their enclosures. Mike Coe: So once those coordinators have got those recommendations of where those animals go there's, then the paperwork has to be done, those medical inspections, certain animals, depending on the size. Have to be trained for a move. So we have to train those animals before they can move, to be able to go, if they're going into crates, to be able to comfortably go into those crates and the trains to be able to do that. So there's actually, arguably, at the closure of a zoo, there was more work for the keepers than ever before. And the coordinators doing all of that work, moving them on. And we've moved on a large proportion, literally thousands of individuals. Admittedly, some of those thousands of individuals are insects and fish and things like that. That kind of bumps the numbers up a bit. Mike Coe: But you can understand there's still an incredible amount of work that has to go on between both the society giving and the one receiving the animal, between those. So all of that work goes on in the background of paperwork. Brexit god love it. Does mean that if you're moving something over to Europe, instead of having just to do one piece of documentation and paperwork, each country around Europe would require its own documentation.  So the paperwork minefield that we now have to do if we're moving them out of the UK. So a lot of ours we've tried to keep within the UK, just for those reasons as well. Mike Coe: And then, obviously, the medical checks on those animals, you can't move them if they're not healthy to move as well, the medical stuff. So I guess when you say, how do you move a giraffe? I guess then that adds even more logistical implications. What are a giraffe? About five metres tall. So I guess avoiding low bridges on a giraffe would be the most important one. But also, again, even with a giraffe, that same process of the coordinators finding the right breeding recommendations, you've also then got to have the right transport. So specially licensed transport companies that are licensed to move animals would have to be found, I guess. I've seen the crates that they moved. I think our giraffes here at Wild Place, they came from Amsterdam, I think. And the crates that they obviously move in, especially designed crates for giraffes. Mike Coe: There's probably not many of those out there that you have to try and coordinate as well. So, yeah, those big crates and the animals have to be trained to go into those crates comfortably and those moves happen. One of our animal team does have a presentation on how to move a hippo, and it is the most interesting presentation of logistics that you can possibly imagine. Kelly Molson: We need to see this presentation, pop it in the show notes. Mike Coe: How to move a hippo. Kelly Molson: That blew my mind. I've got so many thoughts about that. I hadn't actually considered how many animals would be involved in breeding programmes. So I think my mind always goes to Pandas, because it's one that's talked about quite a lot on the news. We always talk about panda breeding programmes, but yeah, I hadn't really considered the fact that the zoo, it cares for those animals, but they're not the owners of those animals and there's so many different places and variables involved in where they go and what they do next. It's crazy. Mike Coe: Yeah, and we also, obviously, I mean, our keepers have to visit those institutions that those animals are going to make sure that they're happy as well, so it's not just the coordinator. So we visit all of those centres and we review and check and make sure everything is right for those moves as well. We wouldn't let animal go unless were absolutely confident that the receiving institution had everything in place for them. Kelly Molson: Percentage wise, how many animals are coming across to the Wild Place and how many are kind of going off and going to different places. Mike Coe: So as a percentage, it's quite high, but that's because within our breeding centre, a lot of the ectotherms, insects, lizards, fish are coming across into the breeding centre, so obviously that makes a large proportion of those. And it's interesting when people think of animals, they always think of the large, cute, those iconic, charismatic animals, but actually that's a very small proportion of the numbers that are held in zoo. So of those animals so we've really only got the gorillas, I guess you would say, moving across immediately over to Wild Place. And largely because, as I said right at the start, we want to be working with those species that were involved in our conservation projects around the world. Mike Coe: So a lot of the animals that come to Wild Place will be from other institutions where they're animals that we're working in, those areas that are critically endangered, that actually have a conservation value to be in zoos. They're not just there for entertainment purposes, like I said. So very few of the animals, the gorillas being the prime example of one where we are working with those in the field and endangered, so we are bringing those across. So a lot of them will not come from Bristol Zoo, but from elsewhere. Kelly Molson: I guess you need the time to be able to build the enclosures as well for them in a responsible way. And this is the final kind of piece of the puzzle, is planning for the development, like, how are you kind of developing the existing Wild Place site to accommodate all of the new things that you want to do? Mike Coe: And it is like a massive jigsaw with 100,000 moving parts of trying to make sure that we move the right things at the right time, open up the right areas at the right time to make sure that the visitor flows work. That the infrastructure that's required because obviously, as we open up large areas of Wild Place, we know there'll be an influx of visitors. You need things like car parking, toilets, cafes, all of those sort of secondary things that make sure that the visitor can have a great day. It's not just about building enclosures as well. So it's been a really big piece of work. We're currently doing some master planning work. We're into more detailed design on that master plan now, which really starts to map out all of these sorts of things, visitor flows, the conservation model of where everything's going. Mike Coe: Our species list has already been defined, so we know which species are coming across and we've published those. So things like within the Central African Forest, which will be our first area. The reason we clearly need to put the Central African Forest area in first is because we got the gorillas that we need to move across. They need a home to go to. Conservation campus is something we really want to get in the early stages as well, because we want to get those students here and engaging and with the breeding centre in there as well, to get those animals all off site from Bristol Zoo Gardens as well. So some of this is dictated by the logistics of it and some of it is dictated by the need to improve the infrastructure to deliver the visitors. Mike Coe: One of our core visions is to be sustainable, revenue sustainable, so we have to be able to have the secondary spends from the visitors coming through, because that's the money that's ploughed back into the conservation work in the field. And we do give a proportion of that money to our direct conservation in those countries and our native work as well. One of the big pieces of work we do is native conservation. So crayfish is a big part of the work. We're doing invasive species another one. So a lot of native work. And the great thing about Wild Place, unlike Bristol Zoo, it has semi ancient woodland, it's got wetlands, so we've got the chance to talk about native woodland and communicate native woodland in a way that we didn't maybe we didn't know so much of it at Bristol Zoo Gardens. Kelly Molson: It's such an exciting opportunity. I was thinking earlier when you were talking about the animals and the logistics and the paperwork and all of those things, I was thinking, there's going to be attractions, professionals that are listening to this going, "I don't want Mike's job. I'm going to stick to my theme park. I'm going to stick to my heritage site. I'm going to stick with my museum artefacts, because that all seems a lot simpler." But actually, when you started to talk about the planning and the master planning and how you're having to plan things, you have to think about things now that might not be developed for like five or ten years down the line and how that all works together. That's really exciting. Mike Coe: It is exciting. I was brought in to work on the commercials of closing the zoo and looking at some of the future stuff. And I'm sure there'll be the more detailed planning paperwork stuff. We've got teams working on that, so it's definitely not me. There's a number of people, the animal teams, they've done an incredible job with these animal movements. I wouldn't even know where to start with some of the things that they've been doing. They've been absolutely incredible, the whole team. So, yeah, I'm a very small cog in a very big machine here.Kelly Molson: A very important cog, though, Mike, for sure. Don't play it down. Thank you. I've loved understanding about this process and I feel real, genuine excitement about what you're developing down there at The Wild Place. I think that's going to be an absolutely phenomenal opportunity for the whole of the region to come and get involved, and I'll definitely be travelling down and seeing how that's developing over you. So thank you for coming on to sharing on the podcast today, we always ask our guests if they have a book that they'd like to recommend our listeners.  Kelly Molson: It can be anything, it can be something that you love from a personal aspect. We've had all sorts of suggestions recently from marketing books. We had a marketing book on the last podcast and we had cook books from Abbey at Castle Howard. So, yeah, what have you got for us? Mike Coe: Yeah, it's funny you asked this question. I'm not a massive reader of books, so I was doing my MBA about three, four years ago and I was thinking, when you asked that question, which management book? And even when I was doing the management course, all the management books and theories that are out there, porter's theory, you got 1 minute manager how to influence people. And whilst I was doing that, I was thinking of the book whilst I was doing the MBA that I read and thought to my child, Charlie, who was about six or seven at the time, and I remember reading it and thinking, "You know what, this is possibly the best management advice that I've ever given."Mike Coe: And I'm reading it from a children's book to my seven year old child, and that's a book that we'll all know, and it's over Oh, The Places You'll Go, which is a Doctor Seuss book. Do you remember it? Yeah. And I was just thinking, like even when I was reading out some of the quotes to Charlie and thinking," Actually, this is what management books are trying to summarise, but never seem to do it." Try 300 words to do it. Quotes like, you're on your own and you know what you know, and you are the one who will decide where you'll go, that you're in charge of your destiny. And things about that tells you to make mistakes, except you don't, because sometimes you won't. Mike Coe: I'm afraid that sometimes you'll play lonely games too, games you can't win because you'll play against you, but actually you're going to be the one holding you back in that as well. So there's loads of amazing management advice in other places you'll go, and it's something that I recommend that everybody gives to their child when they're going off to secondary school or even off to university as well, because there's some incredible quotes in there. You've got brains in your head, you've got feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself in any direction you'll choose. And I think that's kind of how I've lived my career up to date, is through the advice of other places you'll go and making those decisions yourself and sticking by those decisions, and the world is there to explore. Mike Coe: So it comes back to your thing about, where would I like to spend a month while Africa and going back there? Because that's the place I'd love to go again. Kelly Molson: But you're not taking Charlie with you? Mike Coe: No, he'll have read the book and be on his own journey by then, bless him. Kelly Molson: What I really liked is that you were quoting that book, so I know how many times you've reread that book to your son, which is lovely, and I was smiling. It's actually brought a little bit of a tears while because one of my really good friends has bought that book. She bought that book for my daughter when she was born. We've not read my daughter's 18 months old, it's not going to go in so much. Sitting on her shelf next to her bed, and I look at it every night. It's kind of the last thing that catches my eye before she goes in the cot. And when you said that book, I was like, “Oh, yes, that's just such a great book.”Kelly Molson: Listeners, as ever, we give a copy of this book away, so if you would like to win a copy of it, head over to our Twitter account, retweet Twitter this episode announcement and you could be in with a chance of winning. Mike's, fantastic book. Mike Coe:  That could be my controversial opinion that, Oh, The Places You'll Go! is the greatest management book ever written. Kelly Molson: I think maybe more people who would agree with you that on a pat than Paris one a slightly less controversial. Thank you for coming on and sharing that. It's been wonderful to talk to you. Where's the best place to find out all about what's happening? Mike Coe: Yeah. So if you go on to either our websites for Wild Place and the Old Bristol Zoo Gardens website is still there, and look at our vision and our future, and all of the information on the master planning work that's going on there and the vision in the future are there, and please come and visit us and see us here. We're right at the start of the journey, but over the next five to ten years, we're going to really transform this place.Kelly Molson: I don't think you're going to have any problem getting any of our listeners to come and visit. Mike, thanks again for joining us. Mike Coe: Thanks, Kelly.Kelly Molson: Thanks for listening to Skip the Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review. It really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned. Skip The Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes and transcriptions from this episode and more over on our website, rubbercheese.com/podcast.

Stephen and Kate take a trip to RSPB Scotland's Lochwinnoch nature reserve. They're joined by Senior Conservation Officer Toby Wilson who has some tips for things to keep an eye out for as we head into winter. Warden Dan Snowdon shows off his new scrapes which are proving to be a home for all kinds of wildlife. The team also has all the latest nature news.LINKSIf you want to see the scrapes at Lochwinnoch watch this video https://youtu.be/rChb6zIsFz8 This project is supported by the Scottish Government's Nature Restoration Fund, managed by NatureScot. It's also part of the wider Garnock Connections project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.Find out more about the Birdcrime report here https://www.rspb.org.uk/about-the-rspb/about-us/media-centre/press-releases/BirdCrimeReportLaunched/Info on the Nature of Scotland Awards https://www.rspb.org.uk/about-the-rspb/at-home-and-abroad/scotland/nature-of-scotland-awards/

Over the past few years, as well as making Accentricity, I've been working on the Manchester Voices research project at Manchester Metropolitan University, with Rob Drummond, Holly Dann, Sarah Tasker and Erin Carrie.As part of this work, we used oral history recordings to explore language change over time, and we've recently published a journal article about this work. We're really proud of this article, but it's not really that accessible to people who aren't professional linguists, and we wanted to find a way to share our work with everyone who's interested: so we made a podcast episode to act as a companion piece to this article.If you want to read the article in full, you can find it here.The oral history recordings we used for this research were provided by the British Library's Archives+ as part of their Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. In this episode I speak to Dave Govier, the project manager for the North West Hub. We focused on a collection of interviews by journalist Alec Greenhalgh. The full length interviews are available in the Archives+ search room at Manchester Central Library, and you can also read the full descriptions online at the British Library's Sound and Moving Image catalogue. The British Library collection reference is UAP001. The Manchester Voices project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.Thanks also to Dr Danielle Turton for her advice on our methodology for examining rhoticity.

Dr Scarlett Smash and Dr Craken MacCraic tell a disturbing tale about Dunwich, the city that fell into the sea. The Dunwich disaster happened at a time of major climate change - is this tale a warning of things to come? This episode is supported by an ad from Cetacean Research Technology - providers of affordable, top quality hydrophones to scientists, documentary makers, artists, educators, whale-watchers and all types of ocean enthusiast! https://www.cetaceanresearch.com/index.html Audio clips (via creative comments under fair use provisions) in the episode include by "Quinn's song - The dance begins " by Kevin MacLeod, "Mists of Ravenloft" by Travis Savoie and "For whom the bell tolls" by Metallica). If you liked this show please support us so we can keep providing more content,  $1 helps : www.patreon.com/marineconservation  Contact info@absolutelysmashingllc.com for more information about sponsoring MCHH episodes or having advertisments on the show. MCHH Twitter MCHH Fb Live Dr Scarlett Smash YouTube Dr Scarlett Smash Twitter  Dr Scarlett Smash Instagram Dr Scarlett Smash TikTok  Dr Craken MacCraic Twitter Dr Craken MacCraic Instagram MCHH Instagram

Women's Rights Network's Mary and Anna talk with Professor Sheila Pedersen about how we can translate the learning from the Suffragette Movement use of the press through to issues for women today.Professor Pedersen is author of the Scottish Suffragettes & the Press and The Politicization of Mumsnet.She's @SarahPedersen2 on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SarahPedersen2FILL IN THE SURVEY! As mentioned in the podcast, the survey is here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdaHhwbuohL_SgYj-_h2BiJgQ934GpGmaBwGVLnCNHWW5H7JQ/viewform?usp=send_form Professor Pedersen's research focuses on women's engagement with the media for political purposes, using both historical and contemporary source material.She is currently Visiting Professor at the Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University, London. In 2015 she was Visiting Fellow at the News and Media Research Centre, University of Canberra, Australia.Her book 'The Scottish Suffragettes and the Press' was published in 2017 by Palgrave Macmillan. The same year she was awarded funding by the Heritage Lottery Fund to produce an edition of the correspondence of Aberdeen suffragette and journalist Caroline Phillips. This work has led to a plaque to Caroline Phillips being unveiled on Union Street in Aberdeen.She has also collaborated with artist-activist Carrie Reichardt in her public work celebrating Aberdeen women for the NuArt Festival. Her work on the Scottish suffrage campaign has been praised in a motion to the Scottish Parliament and was highly commended by the judges of the British Records Association's annual Harley Prize.She was the Director of the Rise Up Quines! festival in Aberdeen in 2018.Pedersen also researches women's use of social media, including blogs, Twitter and online forums. Her book, 'The Politicization of Mumsnet', was published in November 2020 and she is currently working on a project investigating Scottish women's engagement in political discussion online. She is also Co-I on an AHRC project investigating women's writing during lockdown, with Professors Lucie Armitt (Lincoln) and Krista Cowman (Leicester).You can see her research here: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/person/72611/sarah-pedersen/outputs For Women's Rights Network information:Twitter: https://twitter.com/WomensRightsNetHomepage: https://www.womensrights.network/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WomensRightsNetwork/Insta: https://www.instagram.com/womensrightsnetworkuk/ Merch: https://www.produkts.co.uk/ #WomensRightsNework #RespectMySex #NoToSelfID #SexNotGende

Gender bias is everywhere, impacting how we view authority and power around the world. In fact, it's so pervasive—and potentially damaging to organizations—that our guest Mary Ann Sieghart wrote a book about it titled Authority Gap, which explores the critical issue of why women are often taken less seriously than men. This unconscious, double standard behavior affects the C Suite, boardrooms, and conference rooms alike—even the US Supreme Court and UK Parliament. We talk with Mary Ann – journalist, author, non-executive director, and television broadcaster – about why organizations and boards need to change gender bias culture and how to make the critical shift from the top down. It's a thought-provoking conversation well worth the listen for leaders of any gender.   If you want to hear more conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion, you might enjoy these other Redefiner episodes:  Power, Politics and Purpose: Leadership Lessons with Former PM of Australia Julia Gillard From Gillette to Jamba Juice: How to Lead Iconic Brands with Empathy, Purpose & Integrity with James D. White Break the Bias: Closing the Gender Wealth Gap with Sallie Krawcheck BIO: Mary Ann Sieghart  - Journalist, author, non-executive director, broadcaster Mary Ann Sieghart leads a portfolio life. She makes programmes for BBC Radio 4 and is a Visiting Professor at King's College London. She spent 2018-19 as a Visiting Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, where she researched her book, The Authority Gap, on why women are taken less seriously than men. She is Chair of the judges for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2022.  Mary Ann is a Non-Executive Director of the Guardian Media Group and Chair of the Investment Committee of The Scott Trust (owner of The Guardian and The Observer), Senior Independent Director of Pantheon International, Non-Executive Director of The Merchants Trust and Senior Independent Trustee of the Kennedy Memorial Trust. Until recently, she was Chair of the Social Market Foundation, a non-party-political think tank, Senior Independent Director of Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust and sat on the Content Board of Ofcom and the Council of Tate Modern.  She spent 19 years as Assistant Editor of The Times, including as Acting Editor of the Monday edition, Op-Ed Editor, Arts Editor, Chief Political Leader-Writer and political and social affairs columnist both on the Op-Ed page and in Times2. She has also written a weekly column in The Independent about politics, economics and social affairs, and presented Newshour, the BBC World Service's flagship news and current affairs programme.  Mary Ann has extensive TV and radio experience, including presenting Start the Week, Analysis, Profile, One to One, Fallout, The Inquiry, Beyond Westminster, Newshour, Powerhouse, The Brains Trust, The Week in Westminster, Taking Issue, The Big Picture, No Illusions and The World This Week. She has regularly appeared as a guest on Question Time, Any Questions, Today, Newsnight, The World Tonight, Channel 4 News, PM, The Andrew Marr Show, The World at One, Woman's Hour and The Daily Politics.  Before joining The Times, Mary Ann was political correspondent of The Economist, City Editor of Today newspaper and a Lex columnist and Eurobond correspondent at the Financial Times.  She has also sat on numerous boards, including the Heritage Lottery Fund, the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the North Fulham New Deal for Communities, New Europe, the No Campaign, the Radcliffe Trust, the Social Studies Faculty of Oxford University, Women in Journalism and the National Council for One-Parent Families.  She won the Laurence Stern Fellowship to work on The Washington Post. She also captained The Times's University Challenge: The Professionals team, which reached the semi-final.

What is creative ageing, and how can age friendly culture impact on our well being as we grow older? Our guest on this episode of the Manchester Museum podcast is Dr Virginia Tandy OBE, the Director of a new national agency for Age and Creativity hosted by Manchester Museum and funded by the Baring Foundation. CADA, the Creative Ageing Development Agency aims to reshape people's views of ageing and overcome barriers to creative activity and opportunity. The organisation works to investigate the profound shifts needed to tackle ageism and support systemic change, as well as championing the cultural contribution of older people and the value of creativity, curiosity and imagination. CADA connects with individuals and organisations in communities across England and beyond, who are developing and delivering arts and heritage programmes with, by and for older people, ensuring their views and voices are heard. Virginia is joined in conversation today by Emma Horridge, a freelancer in Creative Ageing and cultural engagement who has led on work for the expansion of the age-friendly Culture Champion programme across Greater Manchester. Season 3: Episode 3 Transcript ----- Dr Virginia Tandy OBE is the Director of a new national agency for Age and Creativity hosted by Manchester Museum and funded by the Baring Foundation. She is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Institute for Cultural Practices at the University of Manchester. An independent arts and heritage consultant and qualified coach, she was the first Director of Culture for Manchester City Council (2008-2011) and the first female Director of Manchester City Galleries (1998-2008). A trustee of the Heritage Lottery Fund (2009-2015) and a former President of the Museums Association (2006-2008), she is the co-founder of the Women Leaders in Museums network and the founding chair of SHIFT. A member of the board of National Museums Liverpool, she sits on the Fabric Committee for St Paul's Cathedral and is a trustee of the Granada Foundation. She is also the chair of Brighter Sound, a creative music charity, which is championing women in the industry. ----- Manchester Museum is on a mission to become the most imaginative, caring and inclusive museum in the world, and in this podcast we will share open and honest conversations with special guests, which will inform, entertain and inspire. Through these conversations we hope to reframe what it means for museums to care, and explore how we can build understanding, empathy and love for our world and each other. Find out more about the Manchester Museum: Website Twitter Instagram ----- Original music courtesy of Move 78: Instagram Spotify iTunes

Dr Matthew Bennett, leading expert in medieval military history, discusses the technology, economy, and ideology of warfare in the medieval age with Dr Sophie Ambler, Deputy Director of the Centre for War and Diplomacy at Lancaster University. Dr Bennett describes the connections between warfare, trade and finance in the medieval West, as well as military technology – from bows to armour, artillery and fortifications – and explores the concept of chivalry, the treatment of prisoners of war, and how knights and common soldiers fared differently on the battlefield. He also explains the role of mercenaries and sets out some of the eternal truths of warfare that can be identified in the medieval period. Dr Bennett is a leading expert on the history of warfare and military culture in the medieval West. He spent three decades teaching at The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (retiring in 2015) and has since been lecturing part-time at the University of Winchester, where he was recently made a Visiting Research Fellow. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and Society of Antiquaries (London). He has also been a Trustee of The Battlefields Trust, for whom he led the Magna Carta Wars project, supported by a Heritage Lottery Fund grant. He has been an editor of the ‘Boydell and Brewer Warfare in History Series' since its foundation in 1995. His own extensive publications include the Cambridge Atlas of Medieval Warfare, books on the Norman Conquest of England and the Battle of Agincourt for Osprey Books, and a host of articles, on topics ranging from the experience of civilian populations in the Hundred Years War, to masculinity, medieval hostageship, chivalry and the conduct of war, and most recently the Battle of Hastings as well as Norman battle tactics across the Mediterranean. Books, websites and sources mentioned in the podcast: Matthew Bennett and Katherine Weikert (eds.), Medieval Hostageship c.700-c.1500 Hostage, Captive, Prisoner of War, Guarantee, Peacemaker, (Routledge, 2019) Matthew Bennett and Nicholas Hooper, The Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of Warfare: The Middle Ages, 768–1487, (Cambridge University Press, 1996) ‘The Soldier in Later Medieval England' – a database containing the names of soldiers serving the English crown between 1369 and 1453, developed by Professors Anne Curry and Adrian Bell and their team, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council: https://www.medievalsoldier.org/ The Pipe Roll Society website provides an extensive introduction to these key records of the medieval English state. The Society is dedicated to publishing editions of the pipe rolls of the Exchequer and of other related medieval documents: https://piperollsociety.co.uk/ The History of William Marshal, trans. Nigel Bryant (Boydell and Brewer, 2016) Music credit: Kai Engel, 'Flames of Rome', Calls and Echoes (Southern's City Lab, 2014).

British Bandsman editor Mark Good hears from band manager and long-serving principal cornet player of Foden's Band, Mark Wilkinson, following the news that the Sandbach organisation is to receive another financial boost, this time from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Cornetist Mark discusses how the band plans to make use of the funding and looks ahead to the Whit Friday Online Brass Band Championship, which Foden's is busy organising. He also reflects on his own musical career, which saw him start playing cornet in a tin hut and rise to enjoy nearly three decades - and counting - in the top chair at Foden's. Mark also discusses how he nearly ended up joining one of Foden's close rivals! But first, what does he make of the past 14 months?

Hello and welcome to series three, episode seven of the podcast. I'm so happy to introduce to you today's guest, the incredibly talented land artist, Rosalind Lowry. Rosalind Lowry is an award winning artist born in Northern Ireland who attended Chelsea College of Art and Central St. Martins before returning to her native land to set up her studio. Her practice is based on environmental themes and concerns, and using art as an intervention. She works in sculpture, land art and installations. Rosalind has completed a number of residencies across the world, from Rathlin Island to a North Vietnam residency awarded by the Arts Council which focused on natural dyes, another in Quebec dedicated to derelict old buildings, and a recent residency in 2019 for the State Government of Alaska in the national parks. Rosalind lived and worked alone in a remote area of the Alaskan wilderness creating a land art trail to attract people into the state parks. In 2018 Rosalind was one of 100 female artists across the UK chosen to create an artwork for the Artichoke Trust UK to celebrate 100 years of women having the vote. In early 2020, just before lockdown, Rosalind installed a commission of a large environmental sculpture in Belfast Cathedral called The Ark created from fallen branches of local native trees. For the past 2 years Rosalind has been Artist in Residence on the boglands of County Tyrone in Ireland for the Heritage Lottery and Lough Neagh Landscape Partnership, creating a series of installations across the bogs with a view to encouraging preservation of the land and highlighting the endangered animal and plant life on the boglands. In this episode, we discuss: Rosalind's work and how she came to be a Land Artist Her and art work as funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund to raise the profile of and people engagement with the peat and bogland of Northern Ireland as well as at the Belfast Cathedral Her eventful time creating in the wilds of Alaska Her artistic process from commission to finished piece The ecological and health benefits of peat and bogland and why it needs to be protected Creating art through championing of the ‘under dog' The space in which she has felt most inspired The need for her to release attachment from her work How she stays creative, her hope for the future and what she would like to pass on Just one thing to note is that the reception was a bit touch-and-go at times but hopefully that doesn't come through too much - it's just a note for a couple of patches where Rosalind goes a bit fuzzy. You can find Rosalind stunning work over on her website: www.rosalindlowryartist.com and on Instagram @rosalindlowry As pretty much everything I put out is free, it would mean the world to me if you would rate, review, subscribe and share this episode and any others you have enjoyed so far. And if you would like to go a little deeper, my patreon community starts from £3 per month and I share extra prompts, zines, workbooks and recorded ‘write-with-me' sessions. That's over on www.patreon.com/promptedbynature Remember to come and say hello on Instagram @prompted.by.nature or pop over my my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk where you can find all of my workbooks and zines to purchase. I'm taking a bit of a break from most teaching for now but events will go up there when things start up again.

Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is  Kelly Molson, MD of Rubber Cheese.Download our free ebook The Ultimate Guide to Doubling Your Visitor NumbersIf you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website rubbercheese.com/podcastIf you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this episode.Competition ends August  27th 2021. The winner will be contacted via Twitter.Show references:www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehengewww.linkedin.com/in/james-rodliff-89224055 James RodliffJames is currently the Operations Manager at Stonehenge, Europe’s most famous prehistoric monument and one of the UK's busiest visitor attractions. He is responsible for overseeing the day to day running of the large site, leading the operations, admissions, volunteering and education teams in delivering a world class visitor experience. He is also involved with English Heritage's brand and training groups. At the end of 2020 James was one of eight individuals chosen as the UK’s ‘unsung heritage champions’, a Heritage Lottery Fund initiative honouring remarkable individuals who have worked tirelessly to keep the UK’s heritage accessible during the pandemic and beyond.Growing up in Cornwall James held a number of roles in tourism and heritage before going to Cardiff where he completed his post-graduate studies in Archaeology. He then spent two years at Lloyds Banking Group where he thrived in training and improving customer service. In 2012 James landed a dream role working for the Mary Rose Trust in Portsmouth; here he commenced a seven year journey through the installation, launch, relaunch, and rebranding of the multi-award winning Mary Rose Museum.  James loves the great outdoors and, when not at work, can often be found hiking, biking, or jogging the length and breadth of the country (Covid travel rules allowing), often visiting attractions and heritage sites en-route. Transcription:Kelly Molson: Welcome to Skip the Queue. A podcast for people working in, or working with visitor attractions. I'm your host, Kelly Molson. Each episode I speak with industry experts from the attractions world. These chats are fun, informative, and hopefully always interesting. In today's episode I speak with James Rodliff, Operations Manager at Stonehenge, part of English Heritage. We discuss the challenges and positives to come from a changing audience this year. From international to domestic, and how Stonehenge will maintain a blend of physical and virtual events for the future.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue.Kelly Molson: Right James, thank you so much for coming onto the podcast today. I'm super-excited to have you on. I feel like we've spoken a lot on social media, but we've never properly had a chat, so this is going to be fun.James Rodliff: I'm really excited. Thanks for inviting me on. I'm a big fan, so I've made it. I've made it onto Skip the Queue, this is amazing.Kelly Molson: I love this. This is like the highlight of my day that people are excited about coming on here. Thank you. Right, well as you know, if you are a big fan, we always start with our icebreaker question. So let's get going. I would like to know what is the greatest, either TV show or film from your childhood?James Rodliff: Ah, lots of options. I'm going to have to go to Goonies, straight up. The Goonies. It just ticks every box, it's amazing. For me, I was really interested in the history and the maps, I'm a nerd, but them finding this treasure. I was also really worried that the treasure got destroyed at the end, you know? I'm the same when I watch Indiana Jones, I love Indiana Jones, but at the same time I'm panicking when they're destroying the temples or this precious or archaeology's being lost. But yeah, no The Goonies is just fantastic.Kelly Molson: Great, great choice. I am a child of the '80s, and those films are a comfort to me. Whenever I'm a bit under the weather, and I have a little diva day, it's always an '80s film that goes on. Something that you've watched a billion times that's just really comforting. That is definitely one for me. Next question, would you rather give up social media, or eat the same dinner for the rest of your life?James Rodliff: That is mean. I love social media. A lot of my friends live all around the world, and it's part of the way how we all work nowadays, and stay in touch with each other. I don't know if you can tell from my physique, I love my food. I could not eat the same ... There are some things I could eat a lot, but I couldn't eat the same meal over and over again. I would ditch the social media, and probably be a healthier person, probably, for it, in the long run. But yes, I would have to go for that.Kelly Molson: What's your favourite meal? If you had to eat the same meal every night, what would it be?James Rodliff: That's so hard, maybe a glorious green Thai curry would probably be the absolute top for me. Yeah, absolutely adore Thai food. I was lucky enough to go out there a few years ago, and the place was amazing, the people were amazing, but the food, oh my god, the food.Kelly Molson: Yeah, lovely. That is a really good choice. It would get a bit boring if it was the same every day though, wouldn't it?James Rodliff: Mm-hmm (affirmative).Kelly Molson: You just, repetitive.James Rodliff: Lose the magic.Kelly Molson: Okay, I might have had a little bit of help with the next question.James Rodliff: Uh-oh.Kelly Molson: You'll probably know who when I ask you. What's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you at an airport?James Rodliff: Oh no. Yeah, I might know who would be behind this one. So calamity seems to follow me, Kelly, around my life. On one particular time ... So this was the young Paul Griffiths, no doubt, that's helped you here. Where were we going? We were coming back from Norway, I think. We got some funding to go out, we were putting together some work when we worked at the Mary Rose together. We were flying up to Norway, and for some reason when I went through the scanny machine thingy that scans ... They do like the heat temperature and the metal detector, for some reason, can't tell you why, but my lower regions glowed a glorious, radiant orange.James Rodliff: They pulled me in to get proper strip searched by these big Norwegian chaps. Yeah, it was quite the experience. Then, after it was all done and I put my clothes back on and was walking away, realized I'd left my iPad. I had to go back and speak to them again, and say, "I'm so sorry."Kelly Molson: Oh, the horror.James Rodliff: I know, I think they thought I was coming back to get their number, or something. Yeah, that was a moment.Kelly Molson: Wow, that is unexpected, isn't it? You're really not expecting that to happen.James Rodliff: Yeah, thanks Paul for that. Yeah.Kelly Molson: Thank you, Paul. I'm so glad that I asked you. Okay, thank you for answering all those. What's your unpopular opinion?James Rodliff: So this is going to lose me a lot of fans straight off the bat. I think people are going to turn off straight away, but I don't really like Abba. Like I really don't like Abba. I know. I know, right? So everyone's got a band or an artist that they just don't get on with, that's kind of just ... Yeah. For me, it's Abba, and this has landed me in all sorts of bother throughout my life. One time when we were, again, in Scandinavia, in Sweden, and we worked with the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. Beautiful museum with a ship. A little bit newer, but more intact than the Mary Rose, an absolutely gorgeous museum. We were being hosted out there whilst we worked, again, on some projects.James Rodliff: They said, "Ah, the Abba Museum's just opened down the road, we should take you." I had to explain that I didn't really like Abba. Honestly, explain to Swedish people you don't like Abba. Their faces. They just couldn't comprehend it. They just could not understand it. But we went anyway. It must have been ... Yes, it was the trip that we took some of our volunteers from the Mary Rose with us. We all went into the Abba Museum, and it's a fabulous museum, they've done an amazing job, but the subject matter was ... I just really, really don't like it. So that was interesting. But fabulous attraction if you're ever in Stockholm you should go and see it, whether you're an Abba fan or not.Kelly Molson: I feel like you're trying to dig yourself out of a big hole there, James. I would just like to state that the views of our guests do not reflect the views of our podcast. [inaudible 00:06:35] tune in. Thank you. I feel like we're going to get some tweets about that.James Rodliff: I'm going to get some hate mail about that.Kelly Molson: Maybe.James Rodliff: Yeah.Kelly Molson: Right, let's get into having a chat about you and Stonehenge because this is exciting. I just want to say that we are recording this, so it's the 5th of March today, which is a day that parents all around the country will be rejoicing, because it is the end of homeschooling, hopefully, for now. Let's keep our fingers crossed.James Rodliff: Hopefully.Kelly Molson: But it is also St Piran's Day.James Rodliff: It is St Piran's Day, yeah.Kelly Molson: It's the national day of Cornwall. We just had a lovely chat about this off air, but I think this is really special for you, isn't it, because this is where you're from?James Rodliff: Absolutely. Yeah, so I was born and raised in Cornwall, and kind of strong Cornish identity. Well, everyone, I think, who was born and grows up there, has it? It's a very special place, and it has very much its own character and history and legends and stories. Actually growing up there had a massive impact on me because it's a very, very touristy economic environment down there anyway. So that was always a big part of living down there, but also surrounded by these amazing standing stones, and ruins and hill forts on windswept moors. There's just this kind of sense of magic and mystery down there.James Rodliff: There's lots of these kinds of special high days and holidays, usually involving food, a fair few drinks, and a bit of dancing, and all sorts of good times. But yeah, that had a really big impact on me growing up. This huge sense of storytelling in Cornwall as well. My friend's laughing because I don't seem to be able to answer a question in a short way, there's always a story, a rambling story to my answers. But I think that's partly growing up in Cornwall, and just the way we explain things and weave things. I think that's had a really big impact on my later career as well.Kelly Molson: Yeah, well this segue ways really nicely into what your background is, and how you got to where you are now. Because you mentioned growing up in Cornwall you were really kind of part of that tourist economy, and experiences that were happening there. Was that the start of it? You always knew that you would kind of work within that industry?James Rodliff: I think so. I mean it's just what I did. It was a few jobs a few decades back now working in busy pub kitchens, or working in summer retail environments. That's what all of us, all my friends did the same. Working on the beaches in shops, or whatever. Or I was working in the caravan park during one summer. That's just what the economy was. Alongside this, like I said, being surrounded by kind of the history and the legends and the stories as well. They kind of fueled a bit of a dual passion in me, I suppose. Which was the facilitation of these stories, and the history and the heritage to people, to explain what these things are, and what they mean.James Rodliff: So that, yeah, I think did have a really big impact on me. Yeah, Cornwall is absolutely chocka with attractions. Lots of people go down there because the place is beautiful, and they want to get a sense of the food, the culture, the history. And lots and lots of different attractions have popped up, as well, to facilitate them, and help them part with their cash as well. Some of these attractions, amazing. A couple, slightly more questionable, but all, in their own ways, amazing, well worth a visit.Kelly Molson: You're now at Stonehenge, but I know that you worked at the Mary Rose previously, with Paul, who was very kind to help me out with some of those questions. Paul has been a previous guest on the podcast as well. But I think you started, was it banking that you actually started your career in?James Rodliff: Yeah.Kelly Molson: That's quite a big change.James Rodliff: It is a bit, yeah. So I decided to study archaeology through to the postgraduate level. I loved finding out more and more and more of these stories beneath our feet, and I just couldn't get enough of it. Graduated with my masters, I worked actually as an archaeologist in the field for a while on a few different digs, as well as balancing various other jobs, whatever came up. Then graduated with my masters, and kind of hoped to swan into a brilliant job in heritage or archaeology, and obviously, that's not necessarily the way the world worked. But an amazing opportunity came up and I went to work for Lloyds Bank. Which was right after the credit crunch, and right coming up to the PPI scandal. It was quite a time to work for banks.James Rodliff: I got involved with kind of customer complaint handling and how you should treat your customers, and how to retain business, and how to help put things right when things do go wrong. That was really, really useful for me. So having that kind of history heritage side, and then being thrown into quite a corporate environment, but one that was in a bit of a crisis, really, and having to find a way out of that was actually really useful. So I did that for a few years. Worked hard, got all the experience I possibly could, but I really ... My heart had to get back into heritage. I knew I had to make a step back.James Rodliff: So started looking around, and a job popped up down in Portsmouth on the south coast, at the Mary Rose, where they were just getting ready to set up the new museum, and it was to join the conservation team to help install the objects. So they were looking for people with experience who had handled objects, and could work on projects. So I applied, it was a pay cut. It was a short contract. It was a massive gamble. My dad was very unsure about it. I was like, "What do you think?" He was like, "I don't know." But we decided to go for it. Moved down to Portsmouth, and yeah, the project was amazing.James Rodliff: I spent a year being able to help install this incredible collection. There's 19,000 objects in the Mary Rose collection, and the museum itself, if anyone hasn't yet gone, must go. It is absolutely phenomenal. They've done such a good job there. 30 years in the planning and it really shows, it is beautiful. So that was amazing.James Rodliff: Then joined the operations team once the installation had done. Worked in different roles. Front of house manager, visitor operations manager. Then I worked as part of the marketing team for a little while. Kind of did everything. Was there for seven years. Which I think in your late 20s early 30s is a long time to be anywhere. Yeah, so I started thinking there are people that do work at the Mary Rose for their entire career, and you can understand why. It is a stunning project. But I knew it was probably getting time for me to move onto a new challenge.James Rodliff: I did really want a challenge as well, something to really sink my teeth into. So I was kind of keeping an eye out, and this job popped up at Stonehenge, where they were looking for an operations manager. You know, you hear of my history there, that just kind of ticked a lot of boxes for me. So again, up sticks, moved up to Salisbury, and joined Stonehenge June 1st, 2019. So straight into the summer, straight into my first Summer Solstice. The Solstice is also my birthday, so that was a nice treat to have 10,000 people celebrating on my birthday.Kelly Molson: How wonderful they all just turned up just for you.James Rodliff: I know, it's fabulous, but that was really lovely. The first summer was a whirlwind. You know, we had dealt with some really busy times at the Mary Rose, but Stonehenge and sites like that, they're a different scale. Everything is just scaled up massively. The visitors come from all around the world, it's just the most incredible place. It was a steep learning curve, but we had our busiest ever summer day during that first summer. The winter was fabulous and we had our busiest winter day as well that year. We were just starting to put in some quite ambitious plans around looking at the admissions process and kind of moving it from what it is, which is a stunning product into making sure that it's a world-class visitor attraction as well. Then of course COVID hit, didn't it?Kelly Molson: Gosh, I mean you had a really big start to your career there, didn't you?James Rodliff: Yeah.Kelly Molson: Straight in into a Summer Solstice-James Rodliff: Straight in.Kelly Molson: ... and then hey, smashed in the face with a pandemic.James Rodliff: Absolutely. I've spent now more time at Stonehenge under the kind of pandemic situation than I did beforehand, which is really strange. So yeah, I feel like a bit of a kind of wartime operations manager, in a way, you know? But it is fabulous, and it means that I've been able to part of this quite dynamic time, which is really interesting.Kelly Molson: In at the deep end with both feet.James Rodliff: Absolutely. Absolutely.Kelly Molson: Couldn't have planned that more perfectly, right? If you can get through last year, you can get through anything, James.James Rodliff: I hope so, yeah.Kelly Molson: So what worked well last year for Stonehenge? Because a huge change, I guess you were closed for a certain amount of time, but then outdoor attractions were allowed to then start to reopen and stuff. What went well, what didn't go well?James Rodliff: Yeah, so I mean it was ... What a year it was, right? I mean for everyone in the sector it was incredibly tough. What worked well? So we actually received some of the best feedback we have received in recent times during last year. Which is, I think, outstanding. That kind of came about because we really took, well not a step back, we took a lot of steps back to look at the entire visitor journey. It's cliché, visitor journey, but really, really did kind of think about every single touchpoint with our visitors, with our members, with our supporting staff, volunteers, how we could make it work. When were coming to reopen the site and not just our site, but there's ... Well, English Heritage looks after 400 sites, 130 sites with staff. How are we going to reopen the portfolio and make it work?James Rodliff: So we looked at what people expectations would be around COVID, and what their priorities would be once we could reopen, and what they would actually want to get from the site. So we took that, we took, like I said, every single step of the journey, every touchpoint, and we just worked our way through it. Everyone kind of honed in on this single mission to make this the best that it could be in the circumstances. Also to kind of mitigate against any times, if we did have to step back and say there's a bit of the experience there that you're not going to be able to access in the same way, what could we do otherwise then?James Rodliff: So that worked really, really well, and that process all the way through, pre-booking, booking, admissions, arrival, the whole day. We looked at what we had. We've got, as you said, we're an outdoor attraction, we've got outdoor space. What did people want after being locked in for so long? They wanted to get outdoors, and spread out, and breathe, and a bit of normality. So we started looking at what could we do a bit different. So let's tell people to come and bring a picnic, have a picnic in the monument field. What a lovely thing to do and Stonehenge right there.James Rodliff: Come and walk the landscape, instead of ... We have our shuttle buses. Now if people are in a bit more of a hurry, or they don't fancy the walk, or whatever, we have the buses, and we kept them going as well, especially for those who couldn't or didn't want to walk. But if you can walk, walk. Spread-out, enjoy yourselves. People came, they spent the day, and they really, really had a great time. Alongside that, we had lots of projects working on how we could better engage with people at home, different formats that we could use, tying in with education platforms, and all the other needs that people had as well.James Rodliff: It worked. It really worked. What was amazing is that all this planning, all this kind of forethought into the operations, people noticed. You look on TripAdvisor and people were noticing the operations and they're commenting on the ... People don't normally do that, you know? "They really thought about where to put the barriers, and how people stand." People just don't normally say that. So that was outstanding, and it really felt good.James Rodliff: The other thing that worked really well was our staff. They have just been outstanding. Absolutely outstanding, and I just can't thank them enough. All the way through this process they've been practical and intuitive and supportive, and they've just wanted to make it work. They love the place. They really, really love the place, and you can see that in how they approach everything. The feedback from visitors, alongside the operational stuff, has been about the staff. "I arrived, I was warmly greeted. I was made to feel safe and secure. Like they've really thought about everything." That was really, really magic as well.James Rodliff: Another thing is our VIP experience. We have stone circle experiences where we can host a smaller number of people outside of the normal opening times, where you can actually go inside, up close to the stones. Normally this is often quite heavily in demand from international audiences, and larger tour companies. But we were able to offer this out to a domestic market. So if you can't go on holiday, why not come inside the Stonehenge stone circle? That was amazing. The feedback from that from domestic audience was fantastic. Really, really impressive.James Rodliff: I also am a big fan of our hand sanitiser. I think it smells delightful, but it smells a bit like tequila. Was it you or Carly when-Kelly Molson: Oh.James Rodliff: Is it you? Okay.Kelly Molson: Carly loves tequila, but me, I can't even think about it.James Rodliff: Carly would have a lovely old time, but you'd have to bring your own. But no, slight tequila whiff at night, that I think is lovely as well. But not the entire ... That coming together, we were just chuffed to bits to see, in the face of all this adversity, that actually we delivered something that we were really proud of.Kelly Molson: Yeah, it's so interesting, isn't it? The more people that I speak to in the sector, the more this comes through, is that the things that were really important to visitors that were coming is that they were welcomed. It still felt like a really lovely, warm experience for them, aside from the fact that there were extra security processes in place, and barriers and things. It still felt like a great time for them to come. It's the team that makes that. It's the front-of-house team, it's the people that care about the place, that care about the people's experience that makes that happen.Kelly Molson: Did you find that, because you mentioned about people kind of like walking to the stones and people bringing picnics and things. Did you find that people stayed longer, and had a kind of a longer experience there then they normally would?James Rodliff: Definitely, yeah.Kelly Molson: So in a way, less people actually better experience for the people that did come.James Rodliff: Yeah, absolutely. We encouraged it really, because although we had our caps and we were trying to get that balance right of safety limits in terms of ... Because obviously we have got space, but there are ... Our facilities, they are big, but they still need to be very mindful in terms of the number of people coming through in the hour slots. So we were very, very cautious about that. But yeah, we encouraged it. Come, spend the day, bring a picnic. Really have a wonderful day. I think the domestic audiences if they're going out they're not necessarily doing like you do on holiday, you're quite happy to do two or three things in a day, quick, go, take your photos, off you go again.James Rodliff: If you're going somewhere domestically and you're going to be parting with your hard-earned cash, then you want to get the most out of it. So that was fabulous. Actually, some of the things we tweaked helped facilitate that. So as we said, the picnics in the monument field. The landscape walks. We have these beautiful replica neolithic houses on the site, which have been made by our volunteers, absolutely gorgeous. They're basically experimental archaeology, based on houses that were excavated nearby on the landscape. They're phenomenally interesting, and some of them actually have all kind of neolithic replica artefacts in, and a volunteer will sit in there, and they can light a fire, and you can come in and hear about it, and it's just incredible.James Rodliff: Couldn't do that in COVID. So what we did we brought that outside into the middle of the village. Actually made it kind of more approachable and accessible in some ways. That was a huge success, and people were sitting there, and really engaging. So that really helped. Actually some of these things we put in, we thought this is, in some ways, arguably better. So I think there's some real lessons there for us to take away as well.Kelly Molson: So that's interesting because this brings me to what this year looks like. So obviously you've got ... You mentioned you'd have quite a predominantly international audience, and 2021, let's face it, we have no idea when people are going to be flying in from anywhere. So your audience goes back to predominantly domestic. What challenges does that throw up for you? Do you carry on doing the things that you did last year? Or are there more things that you've got to adapt and change for this year?James Rodliff: Well you know, it's undeniably going to be a massive challenge. The last year has been a huge challenge for our sector, us as a charity we rely on ticket income, as so many other organisations do. Not having that international audience is undeniably going to have a big impact on that. We've had to delay things like some of our conservation projects and maintenance projects because we just don't have the ticket income coming in. That will be a further symptom of not having necessarily as many international guests coming in.James Rodliff: Yeah, the majority of our visitors each year are international. So what are we going to do about that? So we know what worked last year, and we took a lot of lessons from that. I think we are well prepared to do a comparable, if not better offer, from the things that we learnt last year for our domestic audiences, which is exciting. We have got infrastructure onsite that is dedicated to coach groups and international audiences that isn't going to be used by them, so how can we better use that to help spread people out, and make it a more comfortable and better experience for them as well.James Rodliff: But you're right, we have to think about car parks, and what happens if the car park starts to fill up because people aren't coming on coaches. The changes in dwell time, and what that will do. The other parts of our offer, our catering and retail, is that as relevant when you're looking after this big domestic audience, as it was in this international one?James Rodliff: But it does give us some real positives as well. The stay-cation market should be strong. In fact, some of the English Heritage sites had one of their best-ever years last year, because especially in the west, people were looking around, thinking okay, we can't go to Magaluf, we can't go to the jungles of Papua New Guinea, we've got this amazing castle three miles away, we've never been there. Let's go and have a day. What a lovely thing.James Rodliff: You know, some of our sites had an amazing year last year, and I think they will again, have a strong year as well. But other sites will have more challenges. Ones that are more indoors will struggle. Those who rely heavily on international tourism, like us, will have those issues. But it's going to push us to be more inventive in problem-solving. Come up with new ways of making sure the offer really is good. It's things like our special, our stone circle experience tours, things like that, again, I think we've got a great season with that lined up, and a whole new audience to really speak to there as well.Kelly Molson: It's amazing, isn't it? You're talking through about how there's so many things to think about when you're in an operation. You mentioned about the car park in there, if lots of people aren't coming on one coach, and then loads of people are coming in all individual cars, then that changes that completely. It blows my mind to think about how you even start to plan all of this out. You mentioned the catering, so does your catering offer then have to change to if people are going to come for the day, and they're going to stay for longer, is your catering offering hampers, so they can have the picnic?Kelly Molson: Then that shifts in that sense. Whereas, if they're coming on a tour bus, that might have been they're just going to grab a quick sandwich or a scone or something to eat while they're looking at stuff, and then they're off again. There's so much to think about. How do you even start to plan this? It's such an epic task.James Rodliff: It is, and you know, talking about catering, are people coming for two meals now? And what does that look like? Think about all those different things. Certain retail products, are they going to be right for the different audiences? Yeah, I mean luckily we've got just an amazing team. I've got some amazing, amazing colleagues, and so we've been putting a lot of thought into this. You know, finally, it's what a week it's been. We got our dates last week, which obviously kind of paves forward a bit of a roadmap for the coming weeks, months and hoping to get open asap in a safe way.James Rodliff: But it also means that right now there are some deadlines, we really need to get planning. But also we didn't necessarily know what we were opening into. So when we do open, I won't be able to open our exhibition at first, you know, indoor interpretation spaces. So that's going to be a challenge. So how do we offset that and make sure that is as good as it can be? What is quite exciting is that it has actually fast forwarded some other measures. So our new audio offer is going to be ready for when we reopen, which is brilliant. We've been able to crack on, our new café is going to be open for when we reopen. So there are lots of new and exciting things already in the bag, which is really good.Kelly Molson: That's great as well because I guess that kind of engages with people that have already been before, that live locally too. So there's something new for them to come and see. There's something new for them to experience. Which means you're kind of engaging with them and drawing them back. So it's not just kind of a one-time visit. I want to ask about the venue, and if you need to adapt it in any way for different audiences? Not just kind of international to domestic, but potentially less attentive audiences.Kelly Molson: So this was a question that Mark Ellis sent in from the National Memorial Arboretum. He's kind of asking around if your audience changes to maybe kind of like gen Zed, I don't really like these acronyms, they drive me mad. But a younger generation have maybe a slightly ... They're slightly less attentive. Are there new things that you're thinking about that you're going to need to implement to engage with them?James Rodliff: That's a very interesting question. Do you know what's funny? Thinking back 10 years or so, and this same question was to replace gen Zed with the word millennial and it was the same question then. As an older millennial, I was there thinking I love museums, I don't know why they're worried that I'm going to go, and I know lots of people like me that really like going to these places. You're right, segmentation is super useful, and super un-useful at the same time. So I think doing it by age groups is a slightly dangerous route to go down because lots of different age groups act in different ways.James Rodliff: I see it on site. We see people from one to 100, and some of them will be really attentive and interested, and some won't be. That doesn't necessarily depend on the age group. I think perhaps looking at are these people experience seekers? If that's what they want, if they want to come and make memories, then how do we best facilitate that? We have the benefit of having ... We've got Stonehenge. It's one of a kind, it's very authentic, it's very amazing. When you're there, you've stood in that field looking at it, you cannot help be mesmerised. That is brilliant. No amount of AR, VR, crazy different ways of technologically adding to that will be able to match the magnificence of the actual monument itself.James Rodliff: That being said, I think there are lots of different ways that we can tell stories, and that we should always be pushing ourselves to ... Just because we've done something a certain way for a long time, doesn't mean we should keep doing it that way. I think we should always be keeping an eye on whatever tools we can use in our arsenal to make that best possible experience it can be for our guests. Some of that I think is giving space to people to explore it in their own way, and not being overly prescriptive, and this is the way you should experience it. This is the only way you'll get the story is by listening to this guide, or standing at that point, or following that exact route.James Rodliff: Give people the space to do it. Now some people want to be led. They want to know, "I'm scared of missing something if I don't follow the exact route." Other people they want to just go and do it in their own way. They might want to stand in the field and catch Pokemon or something. I don't know. There are different ways that people want to enjoy that environment. I think the other thing is talking about younger generations is certainly that the young generation now, they are more into the outdoors and nature and fitness-Kelly Molson: Absolutely.James Rodliff: ... and healthy and wellbeing. I was sat on the couch in the Chelsea eating pork pies and cans of Coke as a young person. These young people they're out there, they run for fun. This is something I've discovered much later, but different things are important to them. So again, us, we have a lot of outdoor space, this is brilliant for us. But I think other places should think about that, what is important to these audiences. Not just kind of changing the offer to match them, but looking at what you already have, and matching that to the need. There are some stuff, talking about making memories, we are looking at is there some cool places we can suggest that are the ultimate selfie spots, you know?Kelly Molson: Yeah.James Rodliff: Silly things like the shot that everyone wants, that great bit that people want to share on social media with their friends. Yeah, so bits like that.Kelly Molson: But that's great. So that engages with them in something that they love to do, but also it's beneficial for the experience. They share that content, it's user-generated content, it gets shared across their social media channels, it all helps to promote. I am a big fan of museums introducing kind of Instagram-able areas because I think it's just an incredible way to be able to promote and engage with that different audience. That's what they want to do. They want to capture that perfect moment as well.Kelly Molson: I want to talk about kind of virtual stuff as well. So I know that obviously Summer Solstice you did some virtual elements around that last year. What have you got planned for this year? So what events have you got planned that might be virtual? And what might always stay virtual, or go back to physical? Is there plans to kind of keep some of those things hand-in-hand with the real-life experience?James Rodliff: It's a good point. We've been dabbling with how do we share the Solstice with not just the people that can make it to the site, but how can we do that. Like you said, the Solstice last year where we weren't able to ... Sadly weren't able to host our managed open access to the stones, we had an empty field, which is a very unusual thing on a Solstice, it's probably been a very long time since that happened. But we were able then to share that experience with the world. People from all around the world tuned in to see it. Huge audience of people. Both the Summer and the Winter Solstice.James Rodliff: People found it really quite something. Actually, the winter one I was working in the evening, so we still have a few people onsite just checking and making sure everything's okay. I worked the evening slot, but not the morning. So I woke up quite early at home thinking I hope everything's okay, and I kind of tuned into the livestream, and I was actually just lying in bed, watching the sunrise over the stones. It was so beautiful, so lovely. That has been a real success. Definitely we'd love to do some more of that to share that for people that can't get here. Especially this year, even if domestic audiences might be able to travel, international audiences might not, and so you know, we know it's a really important thing to people. So more of that, yes. More of that, absolutely.James Rodliff: We've got our skyscape camera as well. I don't know if you've seen that. Which is there's a camera up at the stones basically. Which, whenever you want to, at any time of day, you can go onto the site, and you can see what the sky is doing at Stonehenge. You can click on different filters, so you can see where the stars are moving, where the sun's moving, everything. Which is really lovely. That's here to stay, that's really lovely.James Rodliff: We've got some new projects that are kind of launching this year, which may well fuel future adventures as well. But we've got Songs of England, which is just coming out, which is an English Heritage wide project, working with amazing folk singers to bring English folk songs to the sites. The amazing sites that we have that tell England's history, which is just fabulous. That's really, really lovely. We do have other stuff, but I'm not allowed to talk about them, to come. So keep an eye on the website and our social media channels. But there are other things that we blended, right?James Rodliff: So when we talked earlier, Kelly, about if there's things on site that you are unable to experience firsthand, is there any other way of getting some of that experience? So we had our agile interpretation. I love this phrase, agile interpretation, which is kind of the brainchild of some of our very brilliant visceral experience and learning and interpretation colleagues who start producing things. Okay, so for us, our houses, I said you couldn't go inside the houses and have that experience. Okay, the volunteers are outside, and they're showing you things and engaging in that way, but how can you just close that gap between what we did have, pre-COVID, and what we've got now?James Rodliff: So we've got QR codes. It's pretty much a simple post that says, "Want to see what it's like? Scan this QR code." Then it pops up on your phone and you're in the house, and you can see the fire's going, and you're inside. Just closing that gap. That agile interpretation, it's quick, it's relatively cheap, and it just works. It doesn't have to be perfect. I think there are lots of places that could look at that and say, "It's such a shame we can't do this part of our experience." What can you do then to close that gap in? That blend of kind of digital and physical I think is going to be really important as we go forward.Kelly Molson: Yeah, I love that. I love the way that you've described it as a blend, because I think that's exactly what it should be. It's exactly what people are expecting things to be now. It's really weird that even me that works in a kind of digital world, it's never been my first ... You know, I'll go and look at a website of an attraction that I want to go and visit. But I wouldn't engage with the website as much, because I knew that I was going to go to the physical place. But now, I'll go to the website and I'll look at everything that I possibly can, just to try and get that kind of sense of experience of what it's going to be like.Kelly Molson: I can remember a month or so ago you've got like a ... You can click on the stones, and it tells you what each of the stones are called, and where they came from, and information about them. I spent a good hour kind of clicking through and looking at it. You could kind of change things around. It felt quite immersive. It was quite a simple thing, but it kind of gave me a sense of yeah, I really need to be there now. It sort of built that excitement. I think that's what's important about having these virtual experiences is it builds the excitement about going. Actually that kind of anticipation, that's what you want in people. You want them to be super excited when they come.Kelly Molson: I think that the only way to really do that is to continue doing these things that are digital, that you can share with anyone and everyone around the world.James Rodliff: Yeah, you're absolutely right. We were talking earlier on about that kind of sense of welcome when you arrive. People should be excited about coming to our site still, even reopening into social distancing, or opening in social distancing, we still need to make sure that people are excited. These are magic days that we work in these environments where we're bringing people to have amazing experiences, and they should be excited to have those.Kelly Molson: I guess this question is probably something that you've probably done already, because you were able to open last year, to a certain extent. But what more can you put in place so that your front of line staff feel really safe and secure about what's happening? Because they're the first people that interact with the guests that are coming, so essentially they're kind of frontline, there's an element of risk there for them, right? How do you make them feel comfortable? Is there any more that you're going to have to think about this year, potentially, with a new kind of COVID strands?James Rodliff: Yeah, it's a great point. Yeah, you said staff are that first point of contact, so if staff do feel nervous, they do feel unsafe, or they do feel worried, that's going to come across. So that's got to be the top priority. For us, that was always at the top of our priority list was making sure the staff are safe, that they feel safe, and that they understand everything that's happening so that they are an active part of the whole process. That has been a thread that we've pulled all the way through. So what we did, for example, when we opened after the first lockdown, we've been opened and closed a few times now.James Rodliff: After the first lockdown what we did was we put all our plans into place. The few of us that weren't furloughed we'd spent a long, long time coming up with these very clever plans, we thought. When we got all the team back about a week before we opened up, and we talked them through it. I led the team around, socially distanced, led the team around the site and said, "This is what I'm planning, or this is what we're planning, and these are the elements of the site we want to tweak. This is what we're thinking. You guys are the experts, you're on the ground, you deal with this every day. You tell me, what have I forgotten? What could we do better?" There was brilliant feedback.James Rodliff: They came and they shared, and they were very happy to come up with solutions to other problems, or just highlight things that, "I don't know what the solution is here, but this is something we're going to have to watch." Then what we did, when we did go round, we tweaked and we made things better for them. Made them an active part of that process. When we did open then the first thing, as soon as we closed on that first day we all gathered around, socially distanced, and said what went really well today? What worked? What parts of these very clever plans that have taken us ages to draw up actually worked? And what didn't work? What could we do better? What could we tweak?James Rodliff: We did that every day for the first week or so. We tweaked and changed, and they really felt part of that process. They felt listened to, and they felt a lot better. It doesn't take away all the nerves. All of us working in a pandemic, just living through a pandemic, it's exhausting and it's terrifying. So you can't take away everything. But what we have done is work very hard to make sure it's the absolute best it can be.James Rodliff: We're lucky we've got some amazing people that work for English Heritage. I have to shout out to Alex Page who's our Head of Safety. The man deserves a knighthood after this year. He has been an absolute national treasure. We had to interpret a lot very quickly, and turn it into plans on the ground. Alex and his team have just been phenomenal in supporting all the site staff in being able to make that happen. Then being infinitely calm and patient with us while we asked lots and lots of questions as well. So we've been lucky there. But you know, everything from making sure that the staff rooms are safe. So we weren't able to do in-classroom learning, so we had that resource. So we took that classroom, the classroom's now a welfare room. Everyone's spread out.James Rodliff: But the priority there was the staff need, above the education, if the staff aren't safe, aren't happy, aren't okay then we can't open. But it also throws up other challenges. Your face-to-face briefings that we would like to do a lot of and get that feedback, the more you have, the more you incrementally slowly creep up that risk factor. What about all the lovely appreciations and the hand clapping, and the hugging, and the well done? Leaving parties, Kelly. We've had people that have retired during this year that have been at Stonehenge for years, and we'd normally party, we'd at least gather around and celebrate, and share. Not having that has been really tough.James Rodliff: So there's some things you can offset. So our briefings we've moved them onto the radios where we can, and try and get, again, that balance, that blend of the physical and the digital, or other means. But yeah, it has been difficult. A lot of communication, in terms of explaining why we're doing stuff as we're doing it, all the way through every week, more internal information comes out explaining, not just what's happening, but why it's happening. If you need anything, if you need any support, where to find it. If you have any questions, where to ask those as well.James Rodliff: There's been a lot of other, because everyone in our sector's been in this same position. So there's been a lot of good sector collaboration around this. I have to give Rachel a shout-out. Rachel Mackay with the Recovery Room website. She's been a good friend throughout this, and she's produced a lot of resources if people haven't found it yet, go onto the Recovery Room because there's a lot of information about supporting front of house teams there as well.Kelly Molson: Rachel has been absolutely fabulous. So Rachel was a previous guest on the podcast actually. What we will do is we'll pop the link to her website in the show notes for this show as well, because it is something, if you are planning your reopening processes now, the resource that is on that blog is pretty phenomenal, isn't it? I know she's been doing some consulting with other organisations as well. So yeah, that's really lovely to see.Kelly Molson: I think, again, that's a huge positive that's come out of this, is that sector collaboration. But also how adaptable everybody's been. The flexibility that people have had to have shown in the roles that they have. And how quickly things have changed, in terms of what you can and can't do, but also being given a week's notice that you can reopen again, and how that impacts people. It's been phenomenal. What's been really lovely to hear is how you've engaged with your team, and you've made them part of that process. It hasn't been we've made the decision, and this is how we're doing things. It's how is this going to work? This is what we think, but like you said, you're the experts, help us.Kelly Molson: I guess that is part of your culture now already, but if it isn't, how do you embed that for the rest of the year, and for future?James Rodliff: Yeah, it's really important that all of us make sure we don't lose some of this. Some of the positive legacy of COVID, if I can phrase it like that. Some of the things that have changed maybe for the better. Or ways of working that have improved, that we don't lose that, if and when they do start sliding back into the normality of some description, we don't lose some of that really positive stuff. That we make sure we do keep collaborating with our colleagues, and use our teams who are the experts on the ground, in how to look after guests, and where pinch points are, and what's the same question that they get asked 732 times a week. How we use that feedback and make things better, and quickly. Not just collate it and put it into a chart, and then sometime in a year's time we might get around to it. But be agile, and like you said, get on with things and make it happen.James Rodliff: So there are some things, like Zoom, love it or hate it, what a way it's transformed the way we work. You can now gather all your experts together at short notice onto a Zoom, be sharing slides. Everyone's kind of tech-savvy, not that people necessarily weren't tech, and to be comfortable and confident to be able to do it, and just make it happen. That's become part of the way we work now. So that will speed things up, and hopefully lower travel costs, and have all sorts of positive environmental things as well.James Rodliff: I do get a bit Zoomed out sometimes, I don't know about you, but especially if you're using it for professional, and then for socialising as well, it can get a bit much. But yeah, it's hugely facilitated this quick-acting, these quick discussions. You can go away, do work, come back, discuss it. That flexibility has been really useful. You said about the creativity from the teams in solving these problems, that's a positive thing that we need to keep moving, and keep that discussion alive as we go forward. And the agility. You said that a week's notice, well sometimes you think back, we'd have Boris on the telly on a Sunday night with things that need to be actioned Monday morning.Kelly Molson: Yes, crazy.James Rodliff: Yeah, I mean it is crazy.Kelly Molson: It's crazy.James Rodliff: Absolutely crazy. So we at Stonehenge, Stonehenge being very outdoors and very open to everything, we have really good kind of cascades and emergency comms protocols anyway. Perhaps not everyone had that, and this has highlighted actually sometimes you do need that. You know, make sure that you can be as agile, and don't lose that again. Just don't get into a position where you think, "Oh, it's okay, the pandemic's over, nothing worse could happen now, could it?" There's some lessons I've taken away as well, Kelly, around the planning elements for it, that even with our best business continuity plans, I don't think we included things as ... We didn't appreciate things such as the emotional impact of a pandemic.James Rodliff: So we had a plan for a pandemic. We had one. What would happen if we had a ... Well, we'd keep going, when people feel off sick then the managers would come ... You know, it's like picking up the rifles at the Battle of Stalingrad, someone else would pick up the mantle and you keep charging forward, and you make it the best it can be. But actually what's the emotional impact there? How would people feel about coming to work? That wasn't in our business continuity planning. So things like that are important.James Rodliff: Things around contracts that you sign based on the assumption or presumption that you'll always have X many thousand visitors coming. Why would you close for six months, or a year, or whatever? So thinking about supply chains and contracts, and that flexibility as well, I think is really important.Kelly Molson: Yeah, absolutely. It's been utterly phenomenal, hasn't it? I think what you were saying about that emotional aspect, I don't think any of us realized quite how significant this would be on our own mental health. I think that when the pandemic started I can remember sitting back and thinking, "Whoa, okay, so I need to work out ... Okay, so what projects have I got on that I think might not be happening now?" You know, what have I got that was coming up next month that is now not going to happen? So how do I work out that? What projects are still going to continue? How do the team feel? How do I get them set up working from home? How does this all happen?Kelly Molson: It was more of kind of the logistical operation side of the physical stuff that I thought about. Then you started to sit back and go, actually people are really scared, and I'm a bit scared. I don't want to leave my house. I don't want to do these things. All right, we weren't allowed to leave our house, but you know, the emotional side was a secondary thought, and a secondary response. I guess that's something that I want to take forward, and not be that. I want to think about the emotional side before the logistics next time. I think that's really, really important. It's definitely still happening now.Kelly Molson: I really sympathise with the people that you said, you know, we had leaving parties for people, and then we never got to hug them, and we never got to say goodbye. We've had team members leave and their last kind of thing that they do is click the Zoom button to leave the meeting. It's like-James Rodliff: Yeah, it's just not the same.Kelly Molson: ... that's not how it's supposed to end.James Rodliff: No.Kelly Molson: It's sad.James Rodliff: We are planning, when we can, to have a gathering. So everyone who's not had that benefit of a proper thank you and a send-off, to get everyone back together. Which it'll be a glorious sunny day, and it's going to be marvellous, and I will have a cider or two.Kelly Molson: Definitely, and maybe a pasty as well.James Rodliff: Maybe.Kelly Molson: I need to talk to you, we're coming to the end of the podcast, and I've got two more quick questions for you. I really need to ask you about the fact that your face was superimposed onto the stones at some point last year. Tell us about that.James Rodliff: It was, yeah.Kelly Molson: What an experience.James Rodliff: It was an experience, yeah. So going back a couple of years, it's not the first time my face has been projected large onto something, and it happened at the Mary Rose because I accidentally became the face of the advertising campaign for the reopening of the museum, dressed as Henry VIII. This time I wasn't dressed in Tudor outfit, and I didn't have to wear a codpiece, so that was a relief, first of all.Kelly Molson: Can I just say that I can remember seeing those posters on the tubes before I even knew you. Then when I saw them on your Twitter I was like, "Oh yeah, those were everywhere."James Rodliff: Yeah, that was a strange time. Yeah, this was different, like I said, less costume. But this was really touching actually. It was all about saying thank you to some of the people who had managed to continue the amazing work of different charities supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. That actually people still playing the lottery, still having a massive effect because the support that they are giving to the Lottery Fund was able to keep these places going. Like our heritage sites, like our amazing charities, and like lots of cultural institutions that were looking after people who were quite marginalised, and during the pandemic, even more so.James Rodliff: It was lovely, I was in mighty company, projected onto those stones. They've never been dedicated like that before to individuals. Really I was kind of representing all the good work that the team had done, that everyone was doing on our side. Really, I feel probably I was the face of our operational teams around the whole country that were working to keep the sites going. Who have been turning up every day through the pandemic, and still traveling, still working, to look after our important places that needed looking after. So yeah, no it was unbelievable to see it. Really did bring a tear to the eye to see, it looked amazing. It was very special.Kelly Molson: Yeah, incredible thing to be part of for last year. Really incredible. One quick question, and then the final question, so Mark Ellis wants to know have you visited the National Memorial Arboretum? It's brilliant.James Rodliff: You know, it's on my list. It's on my very long list that has grown throughout the pandemic, all these wonderful places I want to go to. You know, when you scroll through places, and you're like, I must go there, I must go there. So the list is long now. So as soon as we're out of this, I'm up there Mark, I promise.Kelly Molson: Mark, it's on my list as well. We'll be there. Maybe we'll do a group outing. We could organise a Skip the Queue outing.James Rodliff: It's been lovely. That would be nice.Kelly Molson: Oh gosh, you've just given me so many ideas for ... All right, Mark, thank you for your questions, they've sparked good ideas today. We're at the end of the podcast, I always ask our guests to recommend a book. So either a book that you just really love, or a book that's kind of helped shape your career in some way. What have you got to share with us?James Rodliff: So I really had to think about this. So I don't do a lot of reading of technical books that I probably should do. One of the few that I've read that really amazing history experience was, as Paul mentioned in his actually, was about the Disney Making Magic book, which is absolutely fantastic. Heartily recommend that. My favourite book is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which of course-Kelly Molson: Great book, yes.James Rodliff: Superb, and has the words "don't panic" of course blazoned, which for this year is brilliant. But in thinking about what I'd go for this time, I've gone for something a little bit different. We did talk about how tricky this year has been, and we talked about mental health, and I myself have found periods of this year incredibly difficult. Very, very, very tough, and I have had to really slow down and think about how my ... You've put so much effort into being the superhero and trying to do the best you can in whatever ... You know, you throw your energy into something. You don't have the ability to recharge your batteries in the same way. Pandemic's taken away so much. Everything that makes us human. You're scared to go near people in the street, how awful is that?James Rodliff: So thinking about other ways you can try and recharge those batteries. So for me, I've been reading, I've been walking the dog, I've been drinking too much beer. I've been running, I've been learning to play guitar. I've been doing all sorts, and some of that's around mindfulness and meditation, and thinking about the things that I'm grateful for, and the things that do make me happy. So long answer told you, I can't give a short answer, Kelly, ever.Kelly Molson: I love this, it makes for a great guest.James Rodliff: I told you. So I'm going for Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to Happiness, as my book. Which has been-Kelly Molson: Fabulous.James Rodliff: ... an amazing read. So he wrote it in the early part of the pandemic, actually, when he was at home, locked in. He was kind of recounting stories, in his amazing way that he tells stories, about times and places and things that he ... You know, reflecting on happiness, what makes him happy. A lot of it is actually amazing stuff that we should be thinking about in terms of our attractions as we reopen and run our attractions. What people love. Nature, art, laughing, a sense of belonging, the unexpected and surprises. These lovely things that should be part of our attractions because they are places that are meant to make people happy. All of our places.James Rodliff: So yeah, Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to Happiness is my pick.Kelly Molson: That is such a perfect book. I haven't read this book, but it sounds like one for me. So as ever, if you'd like to win a copy of this book, if you head over to our Twitter account, Skip the Queue, and if you retweet this episode announcement with the words, "I want James's book." Then you will be in with a chance of winning your own copy of it. James, it's been such a pleasure to have you on today. Thank you so much.James Rodliff: Thank you, Kelly, I'm off for a pasty. I'll see you again.Kelly Molson: Enjoy.James Rodliff: Take care.Kelly Molson: Thanks for listening to Skip the Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five-star review. It really helps others find us. Remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned. Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes and transcriptions from this episode and more over on our website rubbercheese.com/podcast.

Step behind the scenes of High Street Tales as the eight writers talk about the ideas, people and places that inspired their stories. You can download the ebook of all the stories at https://historicengland.org.uk/highstreettales Made in conjunction with New Writing North, and the series was produced by Sonderbug Productions with thanks to Darren Hayman for use of his song Pram Town.  High Street Tales is part of Historic England's high street cultural programme; four years of nationwide cultural activity helping to make high streets more attractive, engaging and vibrant places for people to live, work and spend time. The programme is run by Historic England, in partnership with Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. Follow us on social @HistoricEngland, using the hashtag #HighStreetTales.

In 'Flying', Maria wanted to capture the Black Country dialect. Growing up in Wednesbury, her character Lily May can only dream of having the confidence her friends all seem to have. On a special day when spirits stir, it's Lily May who discovers a new side to Wednesbury, and herself. You can download the ebook of all the stories at https://historicengland.org.uk/highstreettales Made in conjunction with New Writing North and Writing West Midlands, and the series was produced by Sonderbug Productions with thanks to Darren Hayman for use of his song Pram Town.  High Street Tales is part of Historic England's high street cultural programme; four years of nationwide cultural activity helping to make high streets more attractive, engaging and vibrant places for people to live, work and spend time. The programme is run by Historic England, in partnership with Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. Follow us on social @HistoricEngland, using the hashtag #HighStreetTales.

In 'Under the watchful eyes of seagulls', writing duo Ellie McKinlay-Khojinian and Ligia Macedo explore the seaside town of Great Yarmouth. Here we dip behind the flamboyant arcades and candy-floss colours of the seafront on a visit to King Street, through the eyes of a kindly Portuguese migrant who befriends an elderly resident. You can download the ebook of all the stories at https://historicengland.org.uk/highstreettales  Made in conjunction with New Writing North and National Centre for Writing and the series was produced by Sonderbug Productions with thanks to Darren Hayman for use of his song Pram Town.  High Street Tales is part of Historic England's high street cultural programme; four years of nationwide cultural activity helping to make high streets more attractive, engaging and vibrant places for people to live, work and spend time. The programme is run by Historic England, in partnership with Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. Follow us on social @HistoricEngland, using the hashtag #HighStreetTales.

In Borrowed Ground, writer Robin Pridy has combined Hastings' familiar sites, sounds and smells with the stories and memories of local people, to turn the town's Trinity Triangle into the backdrop for the fascinating life of her character, Jackie Brigham. You can download the ebook of all the stories at https://historicengland.org.uk/highstreettales  Made in conjunction with New Writing North and New Writing South, and the series was produced by Sonderbug Productions with thanks to Darren Hayman for use of his song Pram Town.  High Street Tales is part of Historic England's High Street Cultural Programme; four years of nationwide cultural activity helping to make high streets more attractive, engaging and vibrant places for people to live, work and spend time. The programme is run by Historic England, in partnership with Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. Follow us on social @HistoricEngland, using the hashtag #HighStreetTales.

In All the Secret Postcards, writer and photographer Rod Duncan describes a father reminiscing during a visit from his concerned daughter. Whether remembered or imagined, the past and present of his hometown, Leicester, are brought to life in his memories. You can download the ebook of all the stories at https://historicengland.org.uk/highstreettales  Made in conjunction with New Writing North and Writing East Midlands, and the series was produced by Sonderbug Productions with thanks to Darren Hayman for use of his song Pram Town.  High Street Tales is part of Historic England's High Street Cultural Programme; four years of nationwide cultural activity helping to make high streets more attractive, engaging and vibrant places for people to live, work and spend time. The programme is run by Historic England, in partnership with Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. Follow us on social @HistoricEngland, using the hashtag #HighStreetTales.

In her short story In Between Days, poet and novelist Merrie Joy Williams was inspired by the local community, who she spoke to discover this vibrant corner of London. Her story explores the rich history of Woolwich through the eyes of its teenage resident, Karim. You can download the ebook of all the stories at https://historicengland.org.uk/highstreettales  Made in conjunction with New Writing North and Spread the Word, and the series was produced by Sonderbug Productions with thanks to Darren Hayman for use of his song Pram Town.  High Street Tales is part of Historic England's high street cultural programme; four years of nationwide cultural activity helping to make high streets more attractive, engaging and vibrant places for people to live, work and spend time. The programme is run by Historic England, in partnership with Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. Follow us on social @HistoricEngland, using the hashtag #HighStreetTales.

In The Women of Number 11, writer and poet Rebecca Tantony used online conversations, socially-distanced conversations as well as the sights and sounds of Weston-super-Mare to conjure the lives of the women across the ages. You can download the ebook of all the stories at https://historicengland.org.uk/highstreettales Made in conjunction with New Writing North and Literature Works, and the series was produced by Sonderbug Productions with thanks to Darren Hayman for use of his song Pram Town.  High Street Tales is part of Historic England's high street cultural programme; four years of nationwide cultural activity helping to make high streets more attractive, engaging and vibrant places for people to live, work and spend time. The programme is run by Historic England, in partnership with Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. Follow us on social media @HistoricEngland and using the hashtag #HighStreetTales.

In this episode, the musician and writer Celia Bryce explores North Shields high street in an otherworldly tale which follows a mysterious character on his journey through streets of the past to return a lost shoe to its home. You can download the ebook of all the stories at https://historicengland.org.uk/highstreettales Made in conjunction with New Writing North and the series was produced by Sonderbug Productions with thanks to Darren Hayman for use of his song Pram Town.  High Street Tales is part of Historic England's high street cultural programme; four years of nationwide cultural activity helping to make high streets more attractive, engaging and vibrant places for people to live, work and spend time. The programme is run by Historic England, in partnership with Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. Follow us on social using @HistoricEngland and using the hashtag #HighStreetTales to stay up to date with the latest High Street news.

Welcome to High Street Tales. A brand new Historic England podcast. Starting in Autumn 2020, specially commissioned writers on seven high streets across England began work on High Street Tales: a new storytelling initiative by Historic England to uncover the hidden histories and celebrate the everyday magic of the high street. Working both online and offline where they could, they spoke with local people to uncover memories, reflections, personal histories and local legends on and around the high street. What emerged was a set of modern High Street Tales which explore the connection between history, memory and place and paint a vivid portrait of the high street. High Street Tales is part of Historic England's high street cultural programme; four years of nationwide cultural activity helping to make high streets more attractive, engaging and vibrant places for people to live, work and spend time. The programme is run by Historic England, in partnership with Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. 

Welcome to a special #CovidCatchUp series of the Inside Silverstone™ podcast!  In episode #97 your host, Chris Broome interviews Sally Reynolds, CEO of The Silverstone Experience & Silverstone Heritage. Listen as Sally first introduces us to the mission she and the Silverstone Heritage (a registered charity) has undertaken to promote and encourage motorsport and engineering to the next generation, in part supported with a financial award from the Heritage Lottery Fund. We're then introduced to the 'Silverstone Experience', an interactive family destination located on the famous F1 circuit. From being part of the F1 grid, to tech labs, racing eras, WW2 and RAF, to concluding with you being virtually driven on the ultimate lap! The show concludes with a story of the Experiences grand opening, and insight into when Sally met Harry (and Lewis).   Links: The Silverstone Experience Leave a review!   Don't forget to check out the Longhurst website for more great content. Would you like to appear on the podcast? Own a business or work in/around the Silverstone business or motor-sport region? Have a story or/and knowledge to share? Get in contact with Chris on insidesilverstone@longhurst.co.uk, or reach out on Twitter @SilverstonePod.   ABOUT THE HOST Chris Broome is first and foremost a big tech, motor-sport, and gaming fan. So the opportunity to host a podcast focusing on these topics was too good to turn down. In his day-to-day life Chris is a Chartered Financial Planner and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Insurers. His business, Longhurst, has a niche providing financial advice to clients and businesses who work in the tech, innovation, and engineering sectors. Their head office is located on Silverstone Park, Northamptonshire. 'A business plan without a personal plan is pointless.' 

A special round-table discussion where New Writing North’s Chief Executive, Claire Malcolm talks to writers Lisette Auton, Carmen Marcus and Mim Skinner about the approaches that they took to creating their pieces of work. All three writers chose to collaborate with other creatives and communities to make their work. The podcast explores how they did this and what writing collaboratively with others enables. New Narratives for the North East is a New Writing North commission with the North East Cultural Partnership supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. This series is produced for Durham Book Festival, a Durham County Council festival supported by Durham University and Arts Council England. The series was made in York by Sonderbug Productions with music specially composed and recorded in Newcastle by Jayne Dent.

"They tell us that we live on a tiny crowded island. They try to tell us that we are tiny within ourselves. Tell them to come up here with the skylark, to forget what they think they know, and to look down upon the vastness of the North." David Almond, from Sing the North. Welcome to our audio series which explores the work created for the New Narratives for the North East project through a series of four podcast episodes. Hear from many of the writers involved in the project about the ideas that inspired their work and also their relationship with the region and regional identity. Through interview and extracts of their work as well as the varied sounds of the North East, many of the themes of the work come to the fore. Here we discuss what makes this part of England distinct and what its future might look like. The characters that emerge are not just those of the writers, but also that of the sea, or the Wall, or indeed the multi-faceted region itself. New Narratives for the North East is a New Writing North commission with the North East Cultural Partnership supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. This series is produced for Durham Book Festival, a Durham County Council festival supported by Durham University and Arts Council England. The series was made in York by Sonderbug Productions with music specially composed and recorded in Newcastle by Jayne Dent.

Welcome to our audio series which explores the work created for the New Narratives for the North East project through a series of four podcast episodes. Here in this episode we explore the North-East's relationship with its borders, of land and sea, and how being on this edge informs its character, communities and perspectives. Hear from many of the writers involved in the project about the ideas that inspired their work and also their relationship with the region and regional identity. Through interview and extracts of their work as well as the varied sounds of the North East, many of the themes of the work come to the fore. Here we discuss what makes this part of England distinct and what its future might look like. The characters that emerge are not just those of the writers, but also that of the sea, or the Wall, or indeed the multi-faceted region itself. New Narratives for the North East is a New Writing North commission with the North East Cultural Partnership supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. This series is produced for Durham Book Festival, a Durham County Council festival supported by Durham University and Arts Council England. The series was made in York by Sonderbug Productions with music specially composed and recorded in Newcastle by Jayne Dent.

"They tell us that we live on a tiny crowded island. They try to tell us that we are tiny within ourselves. Tell them to come up here with the skylark, to forget what they think they know, and to look down upon the vastness of the North." David Almond, from Sing the North. Welcome to our audio series which explores the work created for the New Narratives for the North East project through a series of four podcast episodes. Join us in this episode to explore the North-East's distinctive urban spaces and explore how those on the inside read and think about our cities and towns Hear from many of the writers involved in the project about the ideas that inspired their work and also their relationship with the region and regional identity. Through interview and extracts of their work as well as the varied sounds of the North East, many of the themes of the work come to the fore. Here we discuss what makes this part of England distinct and what its future might look like. The characters that emerge are not just those of the writers, but also that of the sea, or the Wall, or indeed the multi-faceted region itself. New Narratives for the North East is a New Writing North commission with the North East Cultural Partnership supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. This series is produced for Durham Book Festival, a Durham County Council festival supported by Durham University and Arts Council England. The series was made in York by Sonderbug Productions with music specially composed and recorded in Newcastle by Jayne Dent.

Welcome to our audio series which explores the work created for the New Narratives for the North East project through a series of four podcast episodes. This episode looks forwards, refiguring the North-East's heritage, opening new ideas and exploring potential future narratives for the region as we look to the future. Hear from many of the writers involved in the project about the ideas that inspired their work and also their relationship with the region and regional identity. Through interview and extracts of their work as well as the varied sounds of the North East, many of the themes of the work come to the fore. Here we discuss what makes this part of England distinct and what its future might look like. The characters that emerge are not just those of the writers, but also that of the sea, or the Wall, or indeed the multi-faceted region itself. New Narratives for the North East is a New Writing North commission with the North East Cultural Partnership supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. This series is produced for Durham Book Festival, a Durham County Council festival supported by Durham University and Arts Council England. The series was made in York by Sonderbug Productions with music specially composed and recorded in Newcastle by Jayne Dent.

Just how many pollinators can you find on one wild carrot flower? And what exactly is a pollinator? Listen to find out! In this podcast episode, Kaska and Johanna Willi, Fife Council's Biodiversity Officier, marvel at the flowers, bugs and beasties which can be found in Tayport’s wildflower meadows established by Fife’s Buzzing project. PLANT volunteers turned out in force to do the sowing and planting in the Spring of 2016. We hear about the extraordinary benefits of this project for protection of these rapidly vanishing natural spaces locally and how it’s already helped our precious pollinator dwellers. Tips on how to make home for pollinators in your own backyard are also included. Project team was careful to involve Tayport community in selecting the meadow sites, they held consultation 'drop-in' event with the Community Council, and also consulted park users in the Common. Fife’s Buzzing was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Fife Environment Trust. Partners in the project included Fife Council and Buglife Scotland. Land owners involved ac included The Woodland Trust Scotland, Fife Golf Trust, St Andrews Botanic Garden, CommScope, Dalbeath farm, Fife Council. Resources: Fife’s buzzing project: https://www.buglife.org.uk/projects/fifes-buzzing/ Buglife’s B-Lines project providing wildlife corridors for insects to connect fragmented habitats (Tayport is on a B-Line!): https://www.buglife.org.uk/our-work/b-lines/ All things bumblebee at Bumblebee Conservation Trust website: https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/ Exploring pollinators – backyard science: Count pollinators visiting your flowers https://www.ceh.ac.uk/our-science/projects/pollinator-monitoring. Flower-Insect-Timed Counts which involve monitoring a flowering plant in a 50x50cm square for 10-15 minutes and counting the different pollinators that visit the flowers. Record bee-flies for Bee Fly watch (April – June): https://www.brc.ac.uk/soldierflies-and-allies/bee-fly-watch Spotting bumblebees on a BeeWalk: https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/beewalk/ Ideas on how to support pollinators in your garden: - Buglife Make a Mini Meadow: https://www.buglife.org.uk/get-involved/gardening-for-bugs/make-a-mini-meadow/ - Buglife How to make a community meadow: https://www.buglife.org.uk/how-to-make-a-community-meadow/ - RHS plants for pollinators (many ornamental plants included): https://www.rhs.org.uk/science/conservation-biodiversity/wildlife/plants-for-pollinators - Wildlife gardening tips from Wildlife Trusts: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/gardening - Garden for life leaflets (Scotland): https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/local-environmental-quality/community-projects/garden-for-life/resources/

Sharing Passions: discovery, documentation and the destruction of cultural heritage in the Middle East and North Africa.  A tribute to Dr Andrea Zerbini (1984-2019)    Slides of this lecture to accompany the audio recording can be found here: https://cbrl.ac.uk/event/discovery-documentation-and-the-destruction-of-cultural-heritage-in-the-mena-region Archaeologists thrive on discovering places, objects or stories about the past, especially when they give us a sense of identity and meaning in our modern lives. Archaeologists also love to travel but also want to understand their roots and where they came from too. This talk will explore these aspects in terms of what it means to be an archaeologist working in the twenty-first century as well the challenges of working in the Middle East and North Africa. These include harnessing the latest technology, to help preserve the ever-threatened cultural heritage. The talk will be a tribute to the life and work of Dr Andrea Zerbini. About the speaker: Robert Bewley has been Director of the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa project, University of Oxford since 2015. He has been Co-Director of the Aerial Archaeology in Jordan project since 1998, and very recently was able to set up the Aerial Archaeology in Oman project. At English Heritage (now Historic England) he was Inspector of Ancient Monuments, Head of Aerial Survey, and Head of Survey; Regional Director for the South-West from 2004-2007, and Director of Operations for the Heritage Lottery Fund until 2014. Author of six books including Prehistoric Settlements (1994 and 2003), Aerial Archaeology – Developing Future Practice (2002 with W. Raçzkowski) and Ancient Jordan from the Air (2004 with David Kennedy). He studied at the Universities of Manchester and Cambridge, where he received his doctorate of Philosophy in Archaeology.

Forgotten Women is a history and performance project dedicated to remembering female activists of 20th century Britain. This podcast is a creative collaboration between Peer Productions and Bishopsgate Institute. This episode celebrates the feminist magazine Spare Rib using the original articles and features, where possible we have cited the original contributor(s). Spare Rib was collated and edited by Rebecca Alloway, Joshua Moore and Ellie Shortt. Spare Rib was recorded live in July 2019 at South Hill Park Arts Centre. This episode was directed and produced by Rebecca Alloway, sound design was composed and performed by Anna Clock. The technician was Mike Taylor. The cast were: Liam Beard, Nancy Hannigan, Kate Mylum, Joshua Moore, Susan Salmon, Ellie Shortt, Casey Smith, Eleanor Stock, Rosanna Weber and Abby Wilkinson. For more information please visit our website: www.forgottenwomen.co.uk. Please follow us on twitter @_forgottenwomen and on instagram @forgottenwomenpodcast. Thank you to the brilliant Dr Michelle Johansen for her guidance and support. This podcast is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England.

Forgotten Women is a history and performance project dedicated to remembering female activists of 20th century Britain. This podcast is a creative collaboration between Peer Productions and Bishopsgate Institute. This episode explores the life of Emma Humphreys. Dear Diary was written by Felix Berendse, with additional material by Casey Smith and uses the real diary entries of Emma Humphreys. Dear Diary was recorded live in July 2019 at South Hill Park Arts Centre. This episode was directed and produced by Rebecca Alloway, music was composed and performed by Anna Clock. The technician was Mike Taylor. Emma was played by Abby Wilkinson, Trevor was played by Joshua Moore with additional parts by Felix Berendse and Nancy Hannigan. For more information on the project please visit our website: www.forgottenwomen.co.uk. There you can also find exclusive content from our writers and creatives. Please follow us on twitter at @_forgottenwomen and on instagram at @forgottenwomenpodcast. Thank you to the wonderful historian Dr Michelle Johansen for her guidance and support. This podcast is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. We would really love it if you could rate, review and subscribe to help other people find the podcast.

Forgotten Women is a history and performance project dedicated to remembering female activists of 20th century Britain. This podcast is a creative collaboration between Peer Productions and Bishopsgate Institute. This episode explored the women involved in the miners’ strike. Kitchen Sink was written by Kate Milam and recorded live in July 2019 at South Hill Park Arts Centre. This episode was directed and produced by Rebecca Alloway and Kate Milam. The technician was Mike Taylor. The cast were: Felix Berendse, Nancy Hannigan, Kate Milam, Joshua Moore, Ellie Shortt and Eleanor Stock. For more information on the project please visit our website: www.forgottenwomen.co.uk. There you can also find exclusive content from our writers and creatives. Please follow us on twitter at @_forgottenwomen and on instagram at @forgottenwomenpodcast. Thank you to the wonderful historian Dr Michelle Johansen for her guidance and support. This podcast is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. We would really love it if you could rate, review and subscribe to help other people find the podcast.

Forgotten Women is a history and performance project dedicated to remembering female activists of 20th century Britain. This podcast is a creative collaboration between Peer Productions and Bishopsgate Institute. This episode examines the history of abortion in the UK. Her Choice was written, devised and performed by Stefy Barton, Nikki Fisher, Becky Kerly and Bethany Monk-Lane and recorded live in July 2018 at South Hill Park Arts Centre. The technician was Mike Taylor. For more information on the project please visit our website: www.forgottenwomen.co.uk. There you can also find exclusive content from our writers and creatives. Please follow us on twitter at @_forgottenwomen and on instagram at @forgottenwomenpodcast. Thank you to the wonderful historian Dr Michelle Johansen for her guidance and support. This podcast is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. We would really love it if you could rate, review and subscribe to help other people find the podcast.

Forgotten Women is a history and performance project dedicated to remembering female activists of 20th century Britain. This episode explores some of the LGBTQ+ protests against Section 28 becoming law. Stop the Clause! was written by Rebecca Alloway and recorded live in July 2019 at South Hill Park Arts Centre. During the live recording a couple of errors were made, Margaret Roff was the first ‘out’ lesbian Mayor of Manchester and the BBC did not press charges against the protesters. For more information on the project please visit our website: www.forgottenwomen.co.uk. There you can also find exclusive content from our writers and creatives. Please follow us on twitter at @_forgottenwomen and on instagram at @forgottenwomenpodcast. Thank you to the wonderful historian Dr Michelle Johansen for her guidance and support. This podcast is a creative collaboration between Peer Productions and Bishopsgate Institute and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. We would really love it if you could rate, review and subscribe to help other people find the podcast.

Cultural Peeps Podcast Episode 10: Elanor Johnson & Pearl Saddington For further information about Elanor, please visit: Elanor Johnson (Twitter): https://twitter.com/ElanorMJohnson For further information about Pearl, please visit: Pearl Saddington on Twitter: https://twitter.com/pearlsaddington?lang=en Follow Hylton Castle on Twitter at: @_hyltoncastle Links to the Podcast content: Hylton Castle: https://hyltoncastle.org.uk https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/hylton-castle/ Bowes Museum: https://www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk/ Northumbria University: https://www.northumbria.ac.uk Discovery Museum: https://discoverymuseum.org.uk/ Whitby Abbey: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/whitby-abbey/ Whitby Abbey Excavations: https://historicengland.org.uk/research/support-and-collaboration/research-and-english-heritage-trust/whitby-abbey/ English Heritage: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/ Heritage Lottery Fund: https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/ Heritage Studies at Newcastle University: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate/courses/degrees/heritage-studies-ma-pgdip/#profile Tynemouth Priory: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/tynemouth-priory-and-castle/ Helen Berry: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/hca/staff/profile/helenberry.html#background Nottingham University: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/ Creswell Crags: https://www.creswell-crags.org.uk/ Derby Museums: https://www.derbymuseums.org/ Old Low Light Heritage Centre: http://oldlowlight.co.uk/ Arts Council National Portfolio 2018-22: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/how-we-invest-public-money/national-portfolio-2018-22 North of England Civic Trust: https://www.nect.org.uk/ Bede’s World (Now Jarrow Hall): https://www.jarrowhall.org.uk/ Newcastle University Archaeology Department: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/hca/archaeology/ Durham University Department of History: https://www.dur.ac.uk/history/ Tynemouth Priory & Castle: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/tynemouth-priory-and-castle/ North Tyneside Wagonways: https://my.northtyneside.gov.uk/category/144/walking Ourprice/Virgin Records: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21040026 Don’t forget you can follow the Podcast at: Twitter: Https://twitter.com/culturalpeeps Instagram: www.instagram.com/culturalpeeps/ SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/culturalpeeps Facebook: www.facebook.com/culturalpeeps/ Blog: www.culturalpeeps.wordpress.com/

This time on Alfred, the podcast for Shaftesbury, The Vale and Chase areas of North Dorset and West Wiltshire: A plastic-free town initiative launches in Shaftesbury. Alfred talks with Planet Shaftesbury’s Maude Chappell about the goals the environmental action group must meet to gain accreditation from assessing body, Surfers Against Sewage. And you’ll hear what businesses will be encouraged to do. (00:20) The miracle-working nuns of Minsk are planning a Shaftesbury choral concert at St James Church. Alfred talks with Rev Mary Ridgewell, who visited the sisters in their convent. She says that the women undertake social service duties in Belarus. And we meet one of the visiting nuns ahead of their performance of Gregorian chants on 31st May. (05:08) Loudspeakers could address declining bird numbers in Fontmell Magna. Alfred visits Dick Stainer, who has wired his house to play the sounds of swifts to encourage them to nest there. (13:31) Abbey School reaches new heights with their fundraising. Parents, children and staff have been scaling three Dorset ‘peaks’ to pay for a sensory garden. Headteacher Michael Salisbury is impressed with his pupils’ efforts. (21:08) The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded £1.7m to the Cranborne Chase AONB to create cycleway routes to link Shaftesbury with Salisbury. And a new virtual reality tourism app will bring our heritage to life. Roger Goulding from the AONB shares their plans. (24:17) Shaftesbury estate agent Matt Boatwright is preparing to get his boots on to support service personnel. Matt talks with Alfred about the marathon fundraising walk he’s undertaking for the SSAFA. And you can help! (31:14)

Forgotten Women is a history and performance project dedicated to remembering female activists of 20th century Britain. This podcast is a creative collaboration between Peer Productions and Bishopsgate Institute. This episode celebrates the founder of Mencap Judy Fryd alongside some contemporary struggles of special needs mums. Green Class was written by Nina Lemon and recorded live in March 2019 at South Hill Park Arts Centre. This episode was directed and produced by Rebecca Alloway, music was composed and performed by Liam Beard and Ellie Shortt. The technician was Mike Taylor. The cast were: Liam Beard, Felix Berendse, Saoirse Doyle, Nancy Hannigan, William Meek, Joshua Moore, Charlotte Rowley, Emma Selwyn, Ellie Shortt, Casey Smith, Eleanor Stock, Rosanna Weber and Abby Wilkinson. For more information on the project please visit our website: www.forgottenwomen.co.uk. There you can also find exclusive content from our writers and creatives. Please follow us on twitter at @_forgottenwomen and on instagram at @forgottenwomenpodcast. Thank you to the wonderful historian Dr Michelle Johansen for her guidance and support. This podcast is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. We would really love it if you could rate, review and subscribe to help other people find the podcast.

Forgotten Women is a history and performance project dedicated to remembering female activists of 20th century Britain. This podcast is a creative collaboration between Peer Productions and Bishopsgate Institute. This episode examines the Women of Greenham and 2017 Women's March protest. Make Noise was written by Guleraana Mir and recorded live in July 2018 at South Hill Park Arts Centre. This episode was directed and produced by Rebecca Alloway, music was composed and performed by Anna Clock. The technician was Mike Taylor. The cast were: Leah Hoskin, Phoebe Jones, Simran Kular, Victoria Mcfarlane, Susan Salmon, James Short and Georgina Stone. Chorus were: Eleanor Bailey, Rosalyn Jackson, Christina Parelle and Holly-Anne White. For more information on the project please visit our website: www.forgottenwomen.co.uk. There you can also find exclusive content from our writers and creatives. Please follow us on twitter at @_forgottenwomen and on instagram at @forgottenwomenpodcast. Thank you to the wonderful historian Dr Michelle Johansen for her guidance and support. This podcast is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. We would really love it if you could rate, review and subscribe to help other people find the podcast.

Forgotten Women is a history and performance project dedicated to remembering female activists of 20th century Britain. This podcast is a creative collaboration between Peer Productions and Bishopsgate Institute. This episode examines the 1970 Miss World London protest. Miss World 1970 was written by Paula B Stanic and recorded live in July 2018 at South Hill Park Arts Centre. This episode was directed and produced by Rebecca Alloway, music was composed and performed by Anna Clock. The technician was Mike Taylor. The cast were: Eleanor Bailey, Rosie Cunnew, Rosalyn Jackson, Christina Parelle, Robert Twaddle and Holly-Anne Catherine White. For more information on the project please visit our website: www.forgottenwomen.co.uk. There you can also find exclusive content from our writers and creatives. Please follow us on twitter at @_forgottenwomen and on instagram at @forgottenwomenpodcast. Thank you to the wonderful historian Dr Michelle Johansen for her guidance and support. This podcast is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. We would really love it if you could rate, review and subscribe to help other people find the podcast.

Forgotten Women is a history and performance project dedicated to remembering female activists of 20th century Britain. This podcast is a creative collaboration between Peer Productions and Bishopsgate Institute. This episode examines three moments in the Suffrage struggle. A Brief History of Suffrage was written by Rebecca Alloway and the cast and recorded live in June 2018 at South Hill Park Arts Centre. This episode was directed and produced by Rebecca Alloway. The cast were: Eleanor Bailey, Rosie Cunnew, Phoebe Jones, Bethany Monk-Lane and Georgina Stone For more information on the project please visit our website: www.forgottenwomen.co.uk. There you can also find exclusive content from our writers and creatives. Please follow us on twitter at @_forgottenwomen and on instagram at @forgottenwomenpodcast. Thank you to the wonderful historian Dr Michelle Johansen for her guidance and support. This podcast is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. We would really love it if you could rate, review and subscribe to help other people find the podcast.

Forgotten Women is a history and performance project dedicated to remembering female activists of 20th century Britain. This podcast is a creative collaboration between Peer Productions and Bishopsgate Institute. This episode explores the life of Sophia Duleep Singh. Sophia was written by Beverley Andrews and recorded live in June 2018 at South Hill Park Arts Centre. This episode was directed and produced by Rebecca Alloway. The Composer and Musician was Anna Clock. Sophia Duleep Singh was played by Theresa Godly. Annie was played by Rosie Cunnew. Irene was played by Eleanor Bailey. Sally was played by Georgina Stone. Maharaja Duleep Singh was played by Zaki Sadiki. Rani Jindan and Bamba Duleep Singh was played by Simran Kular. Queen Victoria was played by Stefy Barton. Lady in Waiting and Emmeline Pankhurst was played by Bethany Monk-Lane. Lord Curzon was played by Robert Twaddle. Lady Colley and Una was played by Becky Kerly. Mrs Cupellers was played by Phoebe Jones. Winston Churchill and policeman was played by James Short. The writer would like to acknowledge the following source: Sophia - Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary by Anita Anand. For more information on the project please visit our website: www.forgottenwomen.co.uk. There you can also find exclusive content from our writers and creatives. Please follow us on twitter at @_forgottenwomen and on instagram at @forgottenwomenpodcast. Thank you to the wonderful historian Dr Michelle Johansen for her guidance and support. This podcast is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. We would really love it if you could rate, review and subscribe to help other people find the podcast.

Forgotten Women is a history and performance project dedicated to remembering female activists of 20th century Britain. This podcast is a creative collaboration between Peer Productions and Bishopsgate Institute. This episode examines the protest of some Suffragettes and Suffragists on the night of the 1911 Census. Out for the Count was written by Judy Upton and recorded live in June 2018 at South Hill Park Arts Centre. This episode was directed and produced by Rebecca Alloway. The Composer and Musician was Anna Clock. Ursula was played by Bethany Monk-Lane, Emily Wilding Davison was played by Becky Kerly, Marie Lawson was played by Rosalyn Jackson, David was played by James Short, Mrs Smedley and Decima Moore were played by Eleanor Bailey, Helen was played by Phoebe Jones, Florrie was played by Rosie Cunnew, Hester was played by Georgina Stone, Charlotte was played by Nikki Fisher and Joe was played by Robert Twaddle. For more information on the project please visit our website: www.forgottenwomen.co.uk. There you can also find exclusive content from our writers and creatives. Please follow us on twitter at @_forgottenwomen and on instagram at @forgottenwomenpodcast. Thank you to the wonderful historian Dr Michelle Johansen for her guidance and support. This podcast is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. We would really love it if you could rate, review and subscribe to help other people find the podcast.

Welcome to a special edition of NG Meets featuring a special live recording of the Heritage Lottery Players from Cafe Sobar.  Created in association with Double Impact and the Heritage Lottery Fund, Access to Heritage is focused on helping people in recovery from substance abuse and addiction to learn more about local heritage. Over the course of 11 weeks of workshops the participants visited local heritage sites learning about criminality, poverty and justice and the social consequences and social reforms of these and learned more about popular local outlaws of literature and pop culture. Hosted by local author, and host of NG Digital's Hood Free History series, Adam Nightingale, this event, which took place at Cafe Sobar, was the culmination of their work and features a number of performance pieces produced by the participants. For more on Double Impact check out their website here

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this presentation are solely those of the interviewer/interviewee and do not in any way represent the views of the Holywell Trust, its partners or their funders. Roisin McLaughlin and Gerard Deane return with a new addition of the Holywell Podcast, providing news on the work of the Holywell Trust Diverse City Community Partnership and its partners. In our previous episode back in March, Roisin had just assumed her new role with the North West Community Network. She updates us on her first 7 months in post and discusses the upcoming events the Network will be hosting in the coming week and months. Events such as a Big Lottery Fund's Empowering Young People Funding Information Session", a Funding Presentation for Diversity Groups hosted by the Heritage Lottery Fund and marking International Making Bread for Peace Day (in partnership with Towards Understanding & Healing). Gerard updates the listeners on the launch of the Holywell Trust's New Future Leaders Programme and the application details, news on the future of the Holywell Stew and the Theatre Peace Building Academy, building on the legacy of the Theatre of Witness. Earlier in the month, plans had been unveiled for a £60 million project aimed at transforming Derry's River Foyle into a global visitor attraction. Known as the Foyle River Gardens Project, our guest Eamonn Deane (chairman of the project) explains that it would involve regenerating the entire River Foyle bank north of Derry as far as Culmore Point offering play, relaxation, entertainment and learning. Never miss an episode of the Holywell Trust Podcast, the Holywell Trust Testimony series or Brexit Focus Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/holywell-podcast/id1229484179?mt=2 Follow us on Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/user-743120821 And you can now listen to the Holywell Trust Podcast and Testimony series on Stitcher Radio http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/dee-curran/holywell-podcast Please feel free to comment on our Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Soundcloud pages and don’t forget to rate the programme. Thanks for listening and sharing the links.

Hidden away and forgotten by most of the people of Birmingham is the world's first great Shakespeare library. It is one of the city’s best kept secrets, known only to a few academics, here and overseas. But when it first opened its doors to the people of Birmingham in 1868, the Shakespeare Memorial Library was the envy of the world, which looked to Birmingham as the home of a comprehensive ‘Civic Gospel’. This was the concrete expression of the vision of George Dawson (1821-1876) – Birmingham’s forgotten philosopher-prophet.  And the Birmingham Shakespeare Memorial Library is one of its most important surviving legacies. Dawson conceived of a library where the Bard and his works would belong to every citizen, not just a cultured elite or academia. Paid for by public subscription, this world-class collection includes more than 40,000 volumes – among them the only Shakespeare First Folio in the world bought as part of a vision of comprehensive (including working-class) education.  And it still belongs to the people of Birmingham. Hear more about this wonderful fruit of George Dawson’s vision for Birmingham as a world-leading modern city in this second of two podcasts by Shakespeare scholar, Professor Ewan Fernie of the University of Birmingham, in discussion with Mike Gibbs, publisher of History West Midlands.  In partnership with Tom Epps of Birmingham City Council and institutions across and beyond Birmingham, Fernie is now developing a Heritage Lottery Fund project to revive Birmingham's forgotten Shakespeare Library with people and communities across the city. To learn more about the 'Everything to Everybody' Project please click below: Keywords: Shakespeare, George Dawson, Library, Civic Gospel, The Bard, Birmingham, Professor Ewan Fernie

Alreeeet! Welcome to Speak Up Sunderland! Join Betty Ball & Stevie B for this weekly podcast, proudly made both in and about Sunderland! Last week, for the first time ever in its history, the Roker Pier and Lighthouse opened to the public. Originally built between 1885 and 1903, the lighthouse had fallen into disrepair, until restoration work began just six years ago, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Sunderland City Council. Eager to find out more, we spoke to volunteers & visitors alike - including the grandson of one of the lighthouse keepers! Phil Tweddle - Chair of Roker Heritage Group Claire Purvis - Pier Project Coordinator Anne Hoik & Peter Connor - Tour Guides Follow our journey on Twitter - @SpeakUpSun. Featuring music by Timecrawler 82. Edited by Jay Sykes.  A Jammy Audio production.

Tom Holland is joined by Dr Matthew Green for a programme that's all at sea. Helen Castor is in Great Yarmouth where local people voted overwhelmingly for Brexit. One of their major gripes with Brussels was the detrimental impact they thought EU quotas had on the town's fishing industry. Dr James Barrett is an archaeologist who researches the medieval fishing communities of Britain and he reveals that, 800 years ago, the fishermen of Gt Yarmouth worked closely with their counterparts across the North Sea to bring in unimaginable quantities of herring - along with Britain's main supply of wine. Earlier this year and just a few miles north of Great Yarmouth, villagers living in chalets on the cliffs at Hemsby were evacuated as the so-called "Beast from the East" tore into the unstable, sandy cliffs. Several of these properties have since been demolished, while others have been the focus of a frantic attempt to protect them from the unforgiving sea. Such destruction is commonplace in the history of the East Coast. Geographer Sally Brown from the University of Southampton heads to East Yorkshire to meet Marcus Jecock from Historic England and find out how the North Sea has shaped the lives of people living nearby for centuries. The British seaside resort has been an unloved place ever since package holidays took its clientele to sunnier climes overseas. Now funding bodies such as the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Arts Council have been investing in projects that seek to restore some of these places to their former glory. But how effective is this and does one seaside history fit every coastal resort? Guardian writer Tim Burrows goes home to Southend to ponder the death of the seaside. A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Anne Langran is a lifelong knitter having learned the skill from her grandmother. Anne lives in Lode and charts her experience of knitting in the context of social and cultural change illuminating how its use and perception has changed over the years. For instance, Anne talks about families of knitters in which men would knit their own fishing jumpers or how jumpers mights be picked apart for the wool to be reused in the creation of something new. Anne Langran was interviewed by This oral history was recorded as part of the Crafty Sew and Sows Project in Cambridgeshire. Led by the charity Red2Green, funded by the HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND and delivered in partnership with Swaffham Primary School and Bottisham Village College. Michael Snodgrass from Red2Green managed the Crafty Sew & Sows project. Kulwant Dhaliwal of Hi8us Midlands collaborated with project participants to produce this oral history with support from Michael Snodgrass and staff at Bottisham Village College.

Colin Marshall is Mill Trustee of Burwell Museum & Mill, a role Colin took on after becoming involved in the restoration of the Mill. Colin shares the journey of restoring the Windmill and why he became involved. Colin also illuminates how Windmills work and their evolution, their uses across the ages and their decline in the UK. Colin Marshall was interviewed by Charlie Compton, Hayden Batts and Cosmo Collison at Swaffham Primary School. This oral history was recorded as part of the Crafty Sew and Sows Project in Cambridgeshire. Led by the charity Red2Green, funded by the HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND and delivered in partnership with Swaffham Primary School and Bottisham Village College. Michael Snodgrass from Red2Green managed the Crafty Sew & Sows project. Kulwant Dhaliwal of Hi8us Midlands collaborated with project participants to produce this oral history with support from Michael Snodgrass and staff at Swaffham Primary School, Swaffham Bulbeck.

Cliff Bagent grew up in and around the village of Bottisham, Cambridgeshire. As a child during world war two, alongside his brother, Cliff learned to grow his own food. In this oral history Cliff reflects on what they grew and how and the necessity for it due to the war and rationing. Cliff also talks about how he and his fellow school friends were enlisted to help with harvesting during this time, an opportunity to get time off school while earning some pennies. Cliff was interviewed by Jessica Wright, Dion James Martin and Teagan Courtenay-Moore at Bottisham Village College. This oral history was recorded as part of the Crafty Sew and Sows Project in Cambridgeshire. Led by the charity Red2Green, funded by the HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND and delivered in partnership with Swaffham Primary School and Bottisham Village College. Michael Snodgrass from Red2Green managed the Crafty Sew & Sows project. Kulwant Dhaliwal of Hi8us Midlands collaborated with project participants to produce this oral history with support from Michael Snodgrass and staff at Bottisham Village College.

Jane Starnes is a prolific crafter, a passion that grew after receiving her first Sear’s Children’s Loom before the age of 10. Jane has tried and excelled at many crafts including weaving, jewellery making, basket weaving, lace making, dying fabrics and crochet. In this interview, Jane focuses largely on her weaving practice, talking about her inspirations and how her skills have developed over the years. Jane also illustrates the process of weaving and the many benefits of crafting. Jane’s insights about the history of the cloth trade illuminate the events and industrial practices that led to important changes regarding child labour and education policies in the UK. Jane Starnes was interviewed by Ruby Wallace, Jack Sugg and Grace Wordsworth-Clarke at Swaffham Primary School. This oral history was recorded as part of the Crafty Sew and Sows Project in Cambridgeshire. Led by the charity Red2Green, funded by the HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND and delivered in partnership with Swaffham Primary School and Bottisham Village College. Michael Snodgrass from Red2Green managed the Crafty Sew & Sows project. Kulwant Dhaliwal of Hi8us Midlands collaborated with project participants to produce this oral history with support from Michael Snodgrass and staff at Swaffham Primary School, Swaffham Bulbeck.

Now retired, Stewart Bye began working on his family farm when he was just 15 years old. Stewart paints a portrait of his life on Foxy Farm in Ely Cambridgeshire, growing and harvesting everything from chicory, beets, wheat, barley and onions. Stewart recounts his memories of the tractors and combines used on the farm and how they differ to what’s available today. Stewart developed a love of being outdoors from growing up and working on the farm but which came to an end when the farm had to be sold. Stewart then spent nearly 30 years working in a cardboard box making factory, a world away from being outdoors and farming life. To counteract the indoor stuffiness of the factory, Stewart eventually took on his own allotment. He and his wife, Teresa, have spent years using the skills learned from their earlier lives to grow award winning vegetables and helping others to grow their own. Stewart illustrates the joys of allotmenteering and how he and Teresa have evolved their knowledge and skills over the years. Stewart Bye was interviewed by Ruby Wallace, Jack Sugg and Grace Wordsworth-Clarke at Swaffham Primary School. This oral history was recorded as part of the Crafty Sew and Sows Project in Cambridgeshire. Led by the charity Red2Green, funded by the HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND and delivered in partnership with Swaffham Primary School and Bottisham Village College. Michael Snodgrass from Red2Green managed the Crafty Sew & Sows project. Kulwant Dhaliwal of Hi8us Midlands collaborated with project participants to produce this oral history with support from Michael Snodgrass and staff at Swaffham Primary School, Swaffham Bulbeck.

Martyn Ware joins me on the second of three special podcast episodes in collaboration with the National Festival of Making. We're waking the ghosts of Tony's Empress Ballroom, home of the Northern Soul all nighter for the wonderful 'Church of Rare Souls' soundscape. As part of Art in Manufacturing season 2, an electronic music pioneer takes us on a journey, explaining why retaining creative integrity saw him transition from selling over 50 million records as a musician and producer with the likes of Tina Turner, Erasure and his own Human League and Heaven 17 to limitless artistry of his own design, why taking the easy cash can be fatal for our happiness. Creating sonic murals and exhibitions worldwide with Illustrious Company, he explains why staying true to yourself if critical to progression in the arts and how today, he works with purity. Join us as Martyn explains why he's been inspired by the work ethic in Blackburn at WEC, Silent Night, Cherrytree Bakery, Graham and Brown and Darwen Terrecotta and how that led him to the weekend, Northern Soul dancing and the haunting Tony's Empress Ballroom. Kind thanks to Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England for the crucial support for this series. https://festivalofmaking.co.uk/ http://www.illustriouscompany.co.uk/ https://www.instagram.com/thefestivalofmaking/ https://twitter.com/festofmaking https://www.facebook.com/festofmaking/ https://www.hlf.org.uk/ https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/

In an exciting collaboration with the fantastic National Festival of Making, celebrating the UK making industry, comes the first of three special episodes covering Art in Manufacturing season 2. Crossing seven of the UK's most adventurous artists with the machinery of Lancashire's premier industrialists, Im first heading to Darwen's Ritherdon, where artist and sculpture maker Nicola Ellis is collaborating with the staff, inspired by the rich heritage and responding to the workplace environment to create a bespoke artwork in a company with a truly unique history approaching 125 years. I'll never look at a place of industry in the same way and I hope you won't too! Special thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England for supporting the series Please pass on your thoughts @arrestallmimics on social media https://festivalofmaking.co.uk/ https://festivalofmaking.co.uk/projects/art-in-manufacturing/ http://www.nicolaellis.com/ https://www.hlf.org.uk/ https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/

Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, his final work and published in the year of his death in 1768, has been somewhat neglected of late in favour of his earlier The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Narrated by Yorick, one of the dramatis personae of the earlier book and a barely disguised self-portrait of Sterne himself, A Sentimental Journey is marked by the author’s trademark sharp wit, good humour and sense of irony. 250 years after its first publication, this landmark in the history of travel writing was discussed by the writer and traveller Iain Sinclair and the cartoonist Martin Rowson, author of a graphic novel adaptation of Tristram Shandy and illustrator of a new edition of A Sentimental Journey produced by Uniformbooks for the Laurence Sterne Trust, with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. This event took place in partnership with the Laurence Sterne Trust. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Yasmin Stonebanks was born in Jamaica and moved to the UK when she was ten years old. She now lives in East Lothian, Scotland. In this episode, Yasmin shares the fond memories of the food of her childhood. This episode was produced by Emma-Jane Harrington and Ciarán Earls. Interview was carried out by and transcribed by Grace Murray-Cavanagh. Food for Thought is brought to you by MECOPP and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. To read a transcript of this podcast go to http://www.mecopp.org.uk/resources-food_for_thought_.php?section_id=410 Intro / outro music: Bensound.com Transition music: Aj Na Ex - Zlevnen Zbo, Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars - Kali (live @ KEXP), Led To Sea - This Moment (live @ KEXP), Tommy Tornado - Mascarade, Kore Ionz - Blue (live @ KEXP), Colin Ska Johnson - Come When You Can Photo: By …trialsanderrors [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Bimal Giri was born in Bhutan and grew up in Nepal. In this episode he talks to us about celebrations, festivals and the traditional foods of his homeland. This episode was produced by Emma-Jane Harrington and Ciarán Earls. Interview was carried out by and transcribed by Thomas Stewart. Food for Thought is brought to you by MECOPP and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. To read a transcript of this podcast go to http://www.mecopp.org.uk/resources-food_for_thought_.php?section_id=410 Intro / outro music: Bensound.com Transition music: Les Cartes Postales Sonores - Hindu Rathaytra, Bruce Miller Field Recordings - Flute and Tabla Photo: By Ksssshl (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Jessica Eaton is from Botswana in Southern Africa and lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. In this episode she talks to us about her personal heritage and the impact that family foods has had in her life. This episode was produced by Emma-Jane Harrington and Ciarán Earls. Interview was carried out by and transcribed by Emma-Jane Harrington. To read a transcript of this podcast go to http://www.mecopp.org.uk/resources-food_for_thought_.php?section_id=410 Food for Thought is brought to you by MECOPP and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Intro / outro music: Bensound.com Transition music: Big Mean Sound Machiv - Contraband, Salam – Laare, Pamelo Mounka - L'Argent Apelle L'argent, Big Mean Sound Machiv - Burning Van, Tchakare Kanyembe - Track 05 Photo: Braai fire: By CoralBrowne (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The following is brought to you by MECOPP’s ‘Food for Thought’ project. In this clip, children from Parsons Green Primary School, Edinburgh tell us about the foods that make them happy, and why. Food for Thought, a life in Four Courses is delivered by MECOPP and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Project Development Worker is Emma-Jane Harrington and audio was produced by Ciarán Earls. Interviewer was Food For Thought volunteer and class teacher, Grace Murrary-Cavanagh. Huge thanks to the P6b class at Parsons Green Primary School for sharing their stories with us so wonderfully! Music: Aislinn - Toss The Feathers

Deng Pei Fang, known as Fangyi grew up in China and now lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. In this episode she talks to us about the role that food has played as medicine in her life. This episode was produced by Emma-Jane Harrington and Ciarán Earls. Interviewer was Lan Xiao Transcriber and Translator was Grace Hiu-Yan Wong Food for Thought is brought to you by MECOPP and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. To read a transcript of this podcast go to http://www.mecopp.org.uk/resources-food_for_thought_.php?section_id=410 Intro / outro music: Bensound.com Transition music: Oriental Skies (http://www.purple-planet.com) Photo: By Ellin Beltz (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Martha Bruce was born here in Scotland and lives in Fife. In this episode she talks to us about the role of food during war time and shares her personal memories with us. This episode was produced by Emma-Jane Harrington and Ciarán Earls. Interviewer was Michelle Coup. Transcriber was: Emma-Jane Harrington Food for Thought is brought to you by MECOPP and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. To read a transcript of this podcast go to http://www.mecopp.org.uk/resources-food_for_thought_.php?section_id=410 Intro / outro music: Bensound.com Transition music: Frédéric Chopin - Etude, Op.25 in F major - 'The Horseman' Photo: Auxillary Training Service by Press Agency photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The stuff of life. But what else do we feel about food? Produced by Emma-Jane Harrington and Ciarán Earls. Project is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Big thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts with us. Music: Eddie Lang - Eddie's Twister Photo: By Matt Riggott from Reykjavik, Iceland (Clootie dumpling Uploaded by Diádoco) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The past, the future and everything in between! In this clip we asked a diverse group of people to answer the question ‘What does heritage mean to you?’ Produced by Emma-Jane Harrington and Ciarán Earls. Project is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Big thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts with us. Photo: By John Cassell (Internet Archive) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Music: 'Shadowlands' (www.purple-planet.com)

Here, some of our MECOPP team members share their personal memories of food. We hope you enjoy them! Produced by Emma-Jane Harrington and Ciarán Earls. Project is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Photograph: The original recipe of the featured 'Good Lunch Loaf' by Grandma Ostle, kindly given to us by Michelle Lloyd. Music: Ted Lewis and His Band - Allah’s Holiday (feat. Don Murray on baritone and clarinet), Podington Bear - Across The River, Blue Dot Sessions - Drone Thistle

A new project from Carnegie Heritage Centre in #Hull celebrates the city's 'firsts'. Volunteer Andy Richardson tells me more about this new walking trail for 2017. Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Oxford has just become England’s first Swift City – a two year project, with money from the Heritage Lottery Fund, to give a home to these remarkable summer migrants who spend nearly all their lives on the wing. Since 1995 the number of swifts returning to the UK has fallen by 47 per cent and the project aims to recruit Oxford locals and city visitors to record bird sightings and encourage people to put up nest boxes. On this month’s Nature’s Voice Jane Markham visits Oxford to meet Lucy Hyde who is the Oxford Swift City Project Officer for the RSPB, and volunteers Chris Mason and Jocelyne Hughes.

“The Roman Credenhill: A Community Investigation project" was established by Principal Jonathan Godfrey and Teacher of Archaeology and History Jason Williams of   Hereford Sixth Form College and was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Young Roots Programme in 2016.

Winter 1914: Stalemate on the Western Front. In the blasted trenches of France, an Indian soldier betrays his own race out of loyalty to his British colonial masters. Written by Avin Shah www.trenchindians.com Produced by Avin Shah for Tara Arts, Heritage Lottery Fund & the National Theatre. Directed by Jane Morgan (30 years @ Radio 4) “…I was fascinated by the insights that it gave into the lives of the Indian soldiers […] and the fundamental concept of loyalty….” David Hunter – BBC RADIO DRAMA, Producer (Tommies) “…This was fantastic, congratulations to everyone involved. Wonderful stuff…” Marina Calderone – BBC RADIO, Director (The Archers) “…a really compelling drama with a great range in style from comedy to the shocking final tragedy.” Ian Briggs, Screen-Writer (Doctor Who) – See more at: http://trenchindians.com/#sthash.m82T8V2g.dpuf Cast: Richard Sumitro, Huw Parmenter, Ronak Patani, Neet Mohan, Deven Modha and Avin Shah Sound Design & Editor – David Chilton; Recordist – Lucinda Mason Brown; Spot Effects – Alison Carter; Production Support – Philippa Geering and Matt Willis (Unique) #indiansolider #sepoys#audiodrama#radiodrama

In 2015 the Bishop of Manchester told this programme of his concerns about homelessness in Manchester. After the broadcast the city council contacted the Bishop to discuss what needed to be done better. Bob Walker reports on how this lead to a radical change of approach. The Catholic Church has paid out more than $276 million in compensation to thousands of victims of child sexual abuse in Australia. Andrew West from ABC Radio reports on the hearings at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The Heritage Lottery Fund has approved the development stage for the "Bats in Churches" project, bringing together wildlife and heritage conservation and church organisations to save bats and protect churches. Trevor Barnes reports. Nick Bundock Team Rector for St James and Emmanuel, Didsbury talks to Edward about the painful journey his church has been on since a coroners report into the suicide of a teenager pointed to her struggle to reconcile her sexuality with her faith. The conflict-driven food crisis in Yemen could become a full-blown famine this year warns the UN. Imran Madden the director of Islamic relief talks to Edward about what is needed. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have written to members of the General Synod setting out the next steps following the vote on General Synod not to take note of the report on Marriage and Same Sex Relationships. Synod members Susie Leafe, Director of Reform and Jayne Ozanne, LGBT+ campaigner, give their reaction whilst the Bishop of Willsden, Pete Broadbent, tells Edward how the Bishops will respond. Photo Credit (c) Hugh Clark/www.bats.org.uk Producers Carmel Lonergan Louise Clarke-Rowbotham Editor Amanda Hancox.

BRITISH expat delegation is taking its Brexit battle to the heart of Westminster. The five-strong group will give evidence before the Exiting EU Committee, chaired by Labour MP Hilary Benn, on January 18. A couple accused of fraud after raising almost a million euros for medical treatment for their daughter Nadia and spending the money on themselves are now being investigated for suspected child pornography offences.......... Catholic marriages in Spain hit an all-time low of 22% of the total in the first six months of 2016, new statistics show... The owner of an animal refuge in the Costa del Sol resort town of Torremolinos has been handed down a three-year, nine-month jail term for “indiscriminately” putting down more than 2,000 cats and dogs between 2008 and 2010...... Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed he had to overcome media "campaigns" against him to win FIFA's inaugural "The Best" prize for the world's best player in 2016........ Madrid’s City Hall received complaints that some children failed to receive toys from the Three Kings, who traditionally deliver gifts on Epiphany....... Jeremy Hunt was told to get a grip on the NHS crisis this week as the country's top medical bodies warned that it could be ignored no longer. Judge Stephen Holt jailed Lithuanian Algirdas Barteska, 60, for six years after he was found guilty of trying to smuggle three Albanians into the UK from Germany at an airfield in Norfolk. Darul Hadis Latifiah, an all boys school in east London, was branded inadequate across all areas, as the school watchdog concluded pupils were 'not prepared for life in modern Britain'. The Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund announced a £33million grant to restore and revitalise 13 public parks across the UK, from Great Yarmouth to Brighton. Scientists found those who have a ‘local’ where they meet regularly to drink and socialise tend to be happier and more engaged with other members of their community.

BRITISH expat delegation is taking its Brexit battle to the heart of Westminster. The five-strong group will give evidence before the Exiting EU Committee, chaired by Labour MP Hilary Benn, on January 18. A couple accused of fraud after raising almost a million euros for medical treatment for their daughter Nadia and spending the money on themselves are now being investigated for suspected child pornography offences.......... Catholic marriages in Spain hit an all-time low of 22% of the total in the first six months of 2016, new statistics show... The owner of an animal refuge in the Costa del Sol resort town of Torremolinos has been handed down a three-year, nine-month jail term for “indiscriminately” putting down more than 2,000 cats and dogs between 2008 and 2010...... Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed he had to overcome media "campaigns" against him to win FIFA's inaugural "The Best" prize for the world's best player in 2016........ Madrid’s City Hall received complaints that some children failed to receive toys from the Three Kings, who traditionally deliver gifts on Epiphany....... Jeremy Hunt was told to get a grip on the NHS crisis this week as the country's top medical bodies warned that it could be ignored no longer. Judge Stephen Holt jailed Lithuanian Algirdas Barteska, 60, for six years after he was found guilty of trying to smuggle three Albanians into the UK from Germany at an airfield in Norfolk. Darul Hadis Latifiah, an all boys school in east London, was branded inadequate across all areas, as the school watchdog concluded pupils were 'not prepared for life in modern Britain'. The Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund announced a £33million grant to restore and revitalise 13 public parks across the UK, from Great Yarmouth to Brighton. Scientists found those who have a ‘local’ where they meet regularly to drink and socialise tend to be happier and more engaged with other members of their community.

#Ripon Museum Trust has secured more than £400,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to take over the city's workhouse site from the county council. Stray FM has been finding out more from chairman Richard Taylor.

Carol works with Scotland's Urban Past - a five-year nationwide community engagement project about the history of Scotland's towns and cities. It is a part of Historic Environment Scotland, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Scotland's Urban Past's project ideas stem from local communities, and the organization helps grow these ideas into full community-led projects by offering training, access to essential resources and project support. Carol is their Audience Development Officer, with an interest in storytelling, folklore, and cultural history. In this episode we discuss Carol's trip to Newfoundland, her work with Scotland's Urban Past, community engagement and development, community mapping, oral history, and archiving.

September 2014 This month we bring you a special episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, from the Annual Veterans' Reunion. 2014 is a landmark year for Bletchley Park, marking not only 75th anniversary of the Government Code and Cypher School getting its vital war work underway, but also the completion of £8 million worth of much-needed restoration, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. At this year’s reunion many of the Veterans saw those renovations for the first time. Bletchley Park's CEO, Iain Standen, brings the Veterans up to date on the work that's been carried out in phase one of the restoration of Bletchley Park and answers their questions about the future of the place that's so precious to them. We also talk to the official Bletchley Park photographer, Shaun Armstrong, about capturing history in the making. He's documented the entire restoration, Project Neptune, over the last two years and photographed one or two members of the Royal family along the way. Podcast Producer Mark Cotton and Roving Reporters Kerry Howard and Astrid Specht were also at large at this year's Reunion, talking to visitors as well as the most important guests, the Veterans themselves. Picture: ©shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com See more about Shaun's experience of photographing the Duchess of Cambridge and work at Bletchley Park at https://mubstablog.com/2014/06/24/hrh-the-duchess-of-cambridge-bletchley-park/ #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #ww2veteran, #enigma, #Turing

In GBA 176 we get better acquainted with Eithne. She talks about movement between cultures, both her own global travel experiences and the experiences and issues facing groups of migrants within London . She also talks about working on equality and diversity within museums, telling her own stories in memoir and on stage and introduces me to the concept of Intangible Heritage. Content note: Some complex or upsetting issues are touched on briefly at times during this conversation: e.g FGM, abortion, bereavement, racism Eithne plugs: Her website: http://www.ethnienightingale.com Her Spark London story The Milkman's Round: http://www.mixcloud.com/sparklondon/the-milkmans-round-eithne-nightingale/ If any agents are interested in representing her memoir get in touch! We mention: Spark London: http://wwwsparklondon.com/ V and A: http://www.vam.ac.uk/ Museum of Childhood: http://www.museumofchildhood.org.uk/ Heritage Lottery Fund: http://www.hlf.org.uk/Pages/Home.aspx Nyerere: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Nyerere Hutons: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/beijing/hutong/ Al Jazeera http://www.aljazeera.com/ Equality and Social Justice: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Museums-Equality-Social-Justice-Meanings/dp/0415504694 Dad Episodes: https://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/sets/the-dad-episodes Unesco Convention on Intangible Heritage: http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/en/convention Simone de Beauvoir: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_de_Beauvoir http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre You can hear Getting Better Acquainted on Stitcher SmartRadio, Stitcher allows you to listen to your favourite shows directly from your iPhone, Android Phone, Kindle Fire and beyond. On-demand and on the go! Don’t have Stitcher? Download it for free today at www.stitcher.com or in the app stores. Help more people get better acquainted. If you like what you hear why not write an iTunes review? Follow @GBApodcast on Twitter. Like Getting Better Acquainted on facebook. Tell your friends. Spread the word!

June 2014 On Wednesday 18 June, Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge visited Bletchley Park to mark completion of the eight million pound, Heritage Lottery Fund supported restoration project. This uniquely historic site has been restored to its wartime glory, enabling visitors to experience what it was like for the Codebreakers who worked here and creating a permanent and fitting tribute to those extraordinary men and women. Among the honoured guests was Nick Coffer from BBC Three Counties Radio, who broadcast his entire afternoon show from a great vantage point next to the Oval. Thanks to Nick, Gareth, Nia and Mark from BBC Three Counties for allowing us to bring you highlights of their show. Picture: ©shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com #BPark, #Bletchleypark,#AudioMo, #ww2veteran, #enigma, #BritishMonarchy, #BBC3CR

In this second podcast, presented by the Bristol Festival of Ideas, George Miller looks back at some of the highlights of the 2008 Festival of Ideas. Historian, Adrian Tinniswood, presents the second Museum of Bristol Lecture: 'The Historian and the City'. As regional chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund, Adrian has been involved in many Bristol heritage projects, and now, in the lead-up to the opening of the Museum of Bristol in 2010, he reflects on his own work as a historian, looks at ways in which historians have defined the city in the past, and outlines the vital role that history has in shaping Bristol's future. Jean Moorcroft Wilson talks about the life and work of Bristol-born war poet, Isaac Rosenberg. Author of the first biography of Rosenberg for 30 years, she looks back at his childhood in Bristol and the Jewish East End of London, his time at the Slade School of Art where he met David Bomberg, Mark Gertler and Stanley Spencer, and his harrowing life as a private in the British Army. Sebastian Peake, son of Mervyn Peake, speaks about his father's life and work with reference to drawings, paintings and designs presented in his new book: 'Mervyn Peake: The Man and His Art'. This podcast is 30 minutes long (26MB), and is the second in a series that will be issued each month from now until autumn. If you would like to hear more interviews with selected speakers from this year's Festival, please visit our website at: www.ideasfestival.co.uk/audio.html. Presented by George Miller for the Bristol Festival of Ideas (www.ideasfestival.co.uk).