Discover Medieval Chester: place, heritage and identity

The city of Chester has a rich medieval heritage. The legacies of this are present today in the city's surviving townscape, in its museum collections, and in the remarkable body of medieval multi-lingual literature which reflects the experiences of diverse cultural and ethnic communities within this dynamic borderland city. Yet in comparison with the city's Roman past, Chester's medieval past is currently an under-used cultural and economic asset, and is given relatively little visibility in local museums, in resources for visitors, in tourism marketing, and in the urban environment itself. 'Discover Medieval Chester' aims to promote the vibrant cultural heritage of medieval Chester as a multi-cultural, multi-lingual city, drawing together material, textual and visual culture and forging connections between the medieval past and the modern urban environment today.

In particular, 'Discover Medieval Chester' will share the innovative recent research produced by the AHRC-funded 'Mapping Medieval Chester' project (www.medievalchester.ac.uk). This project brought together a new digital atlas of the city c.1500, interlinked with newly-edited editions of medieval textual 'mappings' of the city in English, Latin and Welsh, showing how different cultural and ethnic communities interacted and configured the urban space around them in different ways. Together with relevant research produced by other scholars, this new work enables us to better understand place and identity in the medieval city, and to recover the experiences of individuals and communities in medieval Chester.

'Discover Medieval Chester' is founded on a partnership between the Knowledge Transfer Fellow, the wider academic team and the Grosvenor Museum, Chester - a productive relationship which was piloted during the 'Mapping Medieval Chester' project, when c.1200 people attended events coordinated by the Museum to celebrate the launch of the project research. Together with the Grosvenor Museum and other cultural and arts stakeholders in Cheshire and North Wales, we have defined ways in which our research can make a significant and lasting contribution to the wider community, achieving quantifiable social, cultural and economic benefits. We have also identified opportunities to intersect with other ongoing projects in the region in order to secure matched funding, local government support, and the chance to contribute to heritage policy and decision-making.

The 'Discover Medieval Chester' partnership will produce new resources and experiences for diverse user constituencies including local communities, tourists and remote 'virtual visitors'. Our aim is to re-vitalise interest in Chester's medieval heritage, promote education and tourism potentials, and enable audiences to explore issues of place, identity and community.

The academic research on Chester's multi-cultural medieval heritage will be disseminated via six key outputs:

1. A new interactive website centred on an interactive map of medieval Chester, overlaid onto the modern city. A set of audio-visual resources (including short guides, excerpts of medieval texts, and sample medieval artefacts with descriptions) will be attached to each key location or feature, allowing users to explore the medieval city and the different cultural perspectives within it, and to download customisable, 'bespoke' tours in MP3 format
2. Traditional paper tour brochures in a range of languages, including Welsh
3. A major exhibition at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, which will transfer to Wrexham Museum and later become a smaller, permanent exhibition in Chester
4. A piece of public art commissioned to represent and 'signpost' the medieval heritage of Chester in a prominent, engaging way
5. Events and educational activities in Chester and Wrexham
6. A workshop on knowledge transfer and partnerships between HEIs and the heritage sector, to be held at Swansea University.

This project is designed to share innovative, high-quality research on place and identity in the medieval city with diverse user constituencies in order to achieve a significant, lasting impact beyond the academic community. It will concentrate on three key areas of impact, achieving a range of social, cultural and economic benefits.

Cultural and Social

* Research shared by the academic team will enable the Grosvenor Museum to better understand, contextualise, manage and display its medieval collections, and communicate the implications of new scholarship to the wider community
* The exhibition at the Grosvenor Museum and Wrexham Museum will enable local communities and visitors to learn more about the medieval heritage of the area, as well as the historical background to interactions between north-west England and North Wales
* The interactive website will enable users (both locals, tourists and remote 'virtual visitors') to explore the medieval heritage of Chester
* The interactive online materials will provide virtual access to many locations in Chester, either for international users, or for those who have restricted mobility
* With the help of the in-house educational specialist at the Grosvenor Museum, all our resources will be developed to include child-friendly formats, and to target the requirements of particular National Curriculum Key Stages
* Informed by our recent research on different communities within the medieval city, the project materials will encourage users to engage with the long history of multi-culturalism and diversity in the urban environment
* The innovative research on medieval Chester disseminated by the project will enable audiences to explore issues of place, identity and community which are relevant to every individual

Economic and Regeneration

* Working with the Grosvenor Museum and other stakeholders (e.g. Visit Chester, Cheshire West and Chester Council) the project will develop new tourism potential by promoting the medieval heritage of the city
* The exhibition will be hosted in both Chester and Wrexham, bringing benefits to both of these locations
* We expect the initial exhibition in Chester to attract 31,700 visitors, with a further 5000 visiting the exhibition in Wrexham
* Financial estimates project a significant benefit to the local economies from tourism generated by our project
* The public art commissioned by the project will be located in an area designated as a target for regeneration. The AHRC contribution towards this art will be extended with matched funding pledged by other organisations (£12,000 secured; £40,000 applications pending)
* 'Discover Medieval Chester' will build upon and realise the full potential of wider regeneration initiatives in Chester and North Wales, including the recent Renaissance North-West funding for a Grosvenor Museum collections review (£5700) and the EU 'Portico' grant to restore the fabric of the medieval city walls (1,000,000 Euros), as well as the £950,000 National Lottery-funded refurbishment of Wrexham Museum
* The sale of our tour brochures will provide ongoing revenue and ensure sustainability for this element of the project

Policy

* We have already established a productive conversation with Cheshire West and Chester Council. 'Discover Medieval Chester' has been written into their new 'Public Realm Strategy', and this project will help to influence ongoing decisions about heritage and interpretation in the city
* The project will help to shape future priorities at the Grosvenor Museum, encouraging the increased display and promotion of its medieval collections
* Cheshire West and Chester Council has selected the public art element of this project to be a case study in good practice in the management and production of public art