D 6 · Lifelong learning
For the majority of properties, lifelong learning is not yet a priority, on the evidence of our site visits. Overwhelmingly, learning opportunities are aimed at schools, particularly primary schools. For adults, what is offered is generally limited to traditional guiding, and on rare occasions to amended versions of the programmes offered to schools. This is ironic, since it is generally acknowledged that across the field – of course with many exceptions, notably industrial and archaeological sites – the main ‘voluntary’ audience for historic sites tends to be people who are over fifty. Another irony is the very large number of heritage courses (estimated at around 1,000 per annum) organised by continuing education departments around the UK.
It was suggested by some sites that since children are the audience of the future, the main educational efforts of historic sites should be directed at the young while older people should be left to look after themselves. This ignores the fact that adults, older and younger, represent a huge and complex audience, into which too little research has been done. It also neglects the opportunities for family learning: encouraging children to learn with their parents, who for young children at least will be the people who help them to visit and enjoy sites. It also appears that most visitors do want to learn when they visit historic sites, and that their interests are not limited to the anecdotal.
There are two main types of adult audience: parents with families travelling as a group, and adults visiting as individuals or as a group but without children.
In the first category, we found some interesting initiatives. At Alnwick Castle, walks around the park have been organised with the estate’s gamekeeper and forester: these were organised firstly for children and then for adults. This kind of approach aims to extend an understanding of how an estate functions, and what it means in terms of nature conservation. At Carisbrooke Castle, English Heritage has organised a venture involving both parents and their children in an extended series of visits.
In the secondary category, there is a larger range of activities available, as this report suggests, but there is scope for more. For example, at Boughton House in Northamptonshire, a programme has recently been introduced by which people from the local villages are invited to a series of visits to the house when it is not open to the public. Specialist sessions given by members of staff are organised in which not more than five items are discussed in detail, and the guests are invited to engage in discussion. One of the advantages of this approach is that it allows concentration on individual works of art, something hardly possible on the standard visit.
Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire has the resources to organise an extremely active programme including academic conferences, talks on the gardens and on wine and food, concerts, recollections of people who worked at the house in the past, tulips, study days on silver, interior decoration and clocks, as well as special events for children.
In terms of formal education at adult level, a great deal is on offer. The University of the Third Age organises a wide range of activities, sometimes in conjunction with historic sites.
Numerous short courses are available: in 2004, for example, the University of Bath offers a week long course on Bath: The Georgian City, in conjunction with the Building of Bath Museum, while Cannington College, Somerset combines with Hestercombe House & Gardens to run a weekend school in historic garden styles.
One point surfaces from discussions with a number of teachers at various levels: the question of academic knowledge reaching a broad audience. At Swaffham Church in Norfolk, Professor Sandy Heslop of the University of East Anglia has given a number of talks on the history of the church for local audiences, based on original research, examining the building not only in architectural terms but as an illustration of the social history of the town. Such lectures –which have been well attended – illustrate a relatively unusual interest in resolving the lack of connection between academic research and popular dissemination.
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