Why do those responsible for our heritage seem to hate it (and us)
I'm feeling a bit 'punchy' which usually gets me into trouble - but here goes...
Today alone I have three distinct things annoying the hell out of me when it comes to being interested in local (or national) history, all very different, all involving different groups and all showing a distinct lack of giving a s**t about historic sites, data or the people who choose to come and see them.
First off, well over a month ago I complained here about the less than glorious Heritage Gateway and the failure of Worcestershire HER (Historical Environmental Records). 6 weeks later, and I (and anyone else interested in academic references, planning permission, amateur history etc) can't get records from Worcester and Worcestershire HER. I've emailed Heritage Gateway and they wash their hands of it. Worcestershire HER do at least reply, but claim IT haven't yet found the problem. Now I've been involved in building and running servers in my day job for 20+ years. I've NEVER had an issue take a month. At that point you give up, restore from a backup and move on. I've (recently, its why I'm stressed) restored terabytes of data from disaster recovery in a few days. Absolutely hopeless, and has basically stopped me doing any further research into especially WWII sites in the county.
Second is English Heritage. Following on from my blog on St Kenelem, saint and boy king I mention how Halesowen Abbey had acted as a site for pilgrims heading to St Kenelms holy well in Romsley and probably earning a few quid as they did. Halesowen Abbey although little remains, is an important site of a Premonstratensian house and contains some interesting features, not least some fairly intact and very visible former fishponds. I may do a large blog on Halesowen Abbey at some point as its very close to my childhood home and I've done a lot of walking around there and some interesting finding of possible marker stones. In the many many years I've been interested in that site (theres a picture of me somewhere aged about 4 taken not that far away, and I'm now well... a lot older) English Heritage have done the sum total of F'all with the site. As I ranted in a previous blog I sometimes find it hard to be sympathetic with farmers and the remains of the Abbey are essentially on a farm yard, but surely English Heritage have some sway on a site they claim to represent!? Their own site says the remains are visible from a footpath, they sort of are in the sense you can see the two major features at a distance, but there’s a half a field then a fence then more land between the path and the ruins. You can't get up close, can't see the remaining smaller parts of the buildings. Ironically or not, you CAN access the fish-ponds really easily, but there is no protection so horses and cattle get to trample all over them and slowly erode these features. Thanks English Heritage!
Finally my wrath is turned north of the border, way way north. I've been lucky enough to visit Orkney now on several occasions and see the stone circles, neolithic village of Skara Brae and other sites, but never managed to see Maes How. Normally I'm on a boat and don't know when I'll get a day off and so every time I do, I wander up to the visitor centre and explain politely this is the only day and time I have, could I please have a ticket for the next tour. Its only me I'm very nice and just want to see it. No chance. So this time I've picked a day I might be able to make it (months from now) booked one of the 2 remaining tickets for a specific time (I might be able to make) and am crossing my fingers that come the summer at the designated date and time I can go on the tour...oh, and I've paid a non refundable amount for the privilege. Thanks Historic Scotland! I know from a local it used to be possible to just go and visit, but you stopped that and then apparently made it as hard as possible to actually make a booking. Now I realise that the money and the tours help preserve this important site, but surely some flexibility can be allowed? Let me cancel a booking I can't make and have some small allowance for people who aren't pensioners planning everything a year in advance. Anyway, fingers crossed this year is my year.
Anyway, now thats off my chest I'll calm down and go do something more useful than ranting here. Anyone actually reading for the obscure snippets of Worcestershire history will have to wait a bit before the next post. Possibly something Medieval if I can get some more information. I might really go mad and start posting about an entirely different obscure interest for a while as well, so apologies for that history fan (singular, doubt theres more than 1 at best).