IMPORTANT!!!!!
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 A new smart phone app with augmented reality is planned for the parish of Stoulton and the Church of St. Edmund, King & Martyr.  It will be launched when the parish celebrates 900 years of St. Edmunds with a community pageant on June 6th 2020. Click here to find out more about Stoulton.

Heritage Open Days in Pershore  

Launch of unique mobile phone game for families and tourists exploring history and heritage in the ancient Hundred of Pershore.

 The Pershore Big Heritage Quest comes to a remarkable climax on Saturday September 13th with the launch of an interactive mobile app enabling families and tourists to uncover the historic story of Pershore. The launch, which will take place in the St Andrew’s Centre at 10.30am, is part of the Pershore’s Heritage Open Day’s programme.

The app created by Oliver John, a sixth former from Pershore High School, is a heritage game which uses information collected by young heritage detectives from schools in and around Pershore.  It offers an exciting and interactive way to explore Pershore and the villages round about and will result in greater awareness of the history of the market town of Pershore and its formidable medieval story.  A Time Traveller’s Guide to the Pershore area is being developed to accompany the game. It will be published online at  heritagedetectives.org. 

It was back in 2013, in Pershore Abbey, that nearly 200 young heritage detectives, some as young as seven or eight, accepted the challenge to lead the Pershore’s Big Heritage Quest in their schools and communities.  For a whole school year they quested, looking for things a time traveller from the early 13th century might still recognise today. It was no easy task. Busy teachers managed to integrate the detective actives into already full timetables with some remarkable results.  There is to be an exhibition of the children’s contribution to Pershore’s Big Heritage Quest in the St. Andrew’s Centre on September 13th. The exhibition which will chart the development of a project that has been supported by and involved volunteers from many different organisations and walks of life over a three year period has been masterminded by the Sandy Marchant honorary project director of the Go West Heritage Knights. The exhibition will be open from 10am to 5 pm.

Schools taking part in the Pershore Big Heritage Quest:

Pershore High School

St Barnabas First and Middle School Drakes Broughton

Holy Redeemer RC Primary School Pershore

Cherry Orchard First School

Defford First School 

Eckington First School 

Elmley Castle First School

Norton-juxta Kempsey First School

For more information:

Contact Sandy Marchant, Honorary Project Director of the Go West Heritage Knights. 

Tel: 07715 555972 or email sandymarchant@uwclub.net    Visit www.heritageknights.co.uk

And then he was off, it was all over - was it all a dream?

Then it was time for our time travelling troubadour to travel back to the 13th century to tell Arthur all he had seen and heard but first he asked for our prayers for his journey.

Escorted by their pupils the teachers were made Heritage Knights and everyone joined the Fellowship of Arthur's Heritage Knights

The troubadour explained how he had discovered the strange hut standing in a field near Pershore Abbey.  It was in August 1204 when King John was to visit the Abbey that he first saw the strange blue hut.  Curiosity got the better of him he said, he had ventured over, looked inside the hut and fiddled with the knobs and it had started to fly!  

 That troubadour enthralled everyone as he talked about his adventures time travelling over the Pershore area. He spoke about what he had seen; the strange things, the sad things, the scary things and the wonderful things. He asked the children about life today.  He was curious about many things but he particularly wanted to know why we talk with our hands over our months and faces - well why?

And then out from the Tardis came King John!

Almost a year to the day of their commissioning the children, ambassadors from first and middle schools in the Pershore area, were returning to Pershore Abbey to celebrate their part in the Pershore Big Heritage Quest. After such hard work it was only right that there should be celebrations and the drummers were ready and waiting to welcome the heritage detectives into Pershore Abbey for a ceremony that would make their teachers Heritage Knights.

Everyone had assembled, the abbey was full of children, teachers and supporters, there was a general air of expectancy…….and then it happened…… a time traveller, a medieval troubadour, arrived in the abbey in a tardis! (only he called it a blue hut)

Bang on time it came!

From 10.30am and there was an air of expectancy inside Pershore Abbey, the arrival of a coach outside at the Octagon was the signal that something was about to begin! 

Complete with their instruments, in came the musicians from St Barnabas School Drakes Broughton.  Moira was ready for them of course and she soon had the children in their allotted places practising their rhythmic drumming routine in anticipation of the arrival of over one hundred and fifty young heritage detectives.  

First thing in the morning of June 30th 2104 ambassadors from schools across the Pershore area gathered in the Council Chamber of Wychavon District Council for the Schools Symposium.  

For a whole year they had been heritage detectives on a quest, discovering more about the story of their local parish over the centuries, and searching to see if there was anything a time traveller from 1204 might still recognise today.  Now in front of local Councillors, the headmaster of Pershore High School and some of the Heritage Knights the young ambassadors presented their findings.  

As they listened to each other the detectives started to see the bigger picture, the story of the Pershore area over the centuries!   Their information will go into a new online Time Traveller’s Guide to the Pershore Area.  The Guide will be featured on a new website for everyone interested in the story of Worcestershire.

REPORT: THE PERSHORE BIG HERITAGE QUEST  - Local history, does it matter?

Over the past few months a small group of people with an interest in discovering more about the story of the villages and hamlets in which they live has been meeting to share their memories.  A topic on everyone’s lips has been just how much change there has been in what seems to be such a very short space of time.  We are all familiar with the school building that is now the village hall, the old post office or shop now a private residence or the forge, once the workplace of the village blacksmith, now skilfully conserved as a private house. The old order has changed and often times there is little but a few house or street names to hint at it.  Soon it will all be as distant a memory as the enclosures that created the field system we still see around us or the vast communal fields that preceded them.  

What was it like around here when the Beauchamps - they rose to become the Earls of Warwick - lived in Elmley Castle and the Bishop or the Abbots of Pershore, Evesham and Westminster were local overlords? What can we see around us today that even hints of their time in the places we know as our home and does it matter?

The Heritage Knights set up the Pershore Big Heritage Quest because they think it does.  They believe that land ownership and patronage have contributed to the distinctiveness of much loved places in and around Pershore.  They hope that their heritage quest will at least introduce a new generation to the story of their place through what they can still see around them.  This is a project that welcomes everyone: the aim is to pull together, join up and record in new ways information that will be of interest to anyone seeking the story of place now and in the future.

Six months into the Pershore Big Heritage Quest and the end is in sight!  

On June 30th representatives from each of the participating schools in and around Pershore will come together in the Council Chamber of Wychavon District Council to present their finding to the Heritage Knights. In the afternoon, at a special ceremony in Pershore Abbey the children's teachers will be knighted and join the Fellowship of Arthur’s Heritage Knights in recognition of all their hard work.

 Elmley Castle sent us a series of photos recording their introduction to the exciting story of Elmley and its Castle.

More Tea and Cakes with the Heritage Knights .

Olly from Pershore High School agrees to make the phone app.

The Heritage Knights held a Detectives’ Workshop in Defford. Young heritage detectives from Defford First School made a surprise and wonder-full discovery, they found the word ‘Westminster’ on a wooden cross and asked why it was there!  The Heritage Knights are now in contact with the Keeper of the Muniments at Westminster Abbey.

We were delighted when Kevin Crossley-Holland received an honorary degree from the University of Worcester for his services to literature.  The world of castles and knights; bishops, priests and churches; abbots, monks and monasteries; lords of the manor and their estates are so beautifully brought to life in the ‘Arthur’ trilogy by this distinguished writer and poet we call our friend.

More Tea and Cakes with the Heritage Knights. 

In October there was some welcome news: young heritage detectives were starting to quest! 

Older contributors were sharing their stories over “Tea and Cakes with the Heritage Knights” in Stoulton Village Hall.

In September for the Heritage Open Days the Heritage Knights prepared 

"The Quest for the Story of Pershore Abbey." 

In August, for the Pershore Plum Festival, the Heritage Knights prepared 

The Quest for the Pershore Plum and put it online.  At the Plum Fayre on August Bank they created the first The Pershore PlumLine.

The school ambassadors were invited to return to Pershore one year later to report their findings and to hand over the information collected ready to be included  in the new Time Traveller's Guide for Arthur and any other visitors to Pershore.

By the end of all these activities everyone knew about timelines and wonder cards and they were ready to be commissioned to lead the quest in their local area.

Everyone made a 'Wonder Card' and put it on the timeline to see if Arthur might recognise their "Wonder Point".

They learned the skills of the heritage detective.

THE PERSHORE BIG HERITAGE QUEST.

The  first part of the Quest is to discover if the detectives can find anything in their area that Arthur might recognise if he were to time travel to Pershore today.  The second part of the Quest is to explain why Arthur saw two Abbots in Pershore when he visited in 1204.

Children from the following schools will be taking part in the Pershore Big Heritage Quest and will receive an invitation to attend the meeting of the Heritage Knights in Pershore Abbey on July 3rd 2014 after from half-term.

 Abbey Park First School, Pershore

Cherry Orchard First School Pershore

Defford-cum-Besford C E First School

Drakes Broughton C E First and Middle School

Eckington C E First School

Elmley Castle C of E First School

Holy Redeemer R C Primary School

Norton-juxta-Kempsey C E First School

MAY 2013

January - June 2013 was a time of preparation 

Volunteers were busy with research, creation of materials for the Treasures Box, creation of bunting and other material for the launch of the Big Quest.