It's a great big hunt for information to discover what a time traveller from 1204 might recognise in the market town of Pershore and its surrounding villages today. Discover why we need to know. 

 

The quest will involve interested adults and be led by children.  At the launch on July 3rd 2013 in Pershore Abbey one hundred and seventy ambassadors from ten schools around the Pershore area were made heritage detectives. Then, in front of the Chairman of Wychavon District Council, the Deputy Mayor of Pershore, the Vicar of Pershore Abbey and the Minister of Pershore Baptist Church, they were commissioned to lead the big quest for information in their local area.  Read more about what happened at the launch 

 

It's all about discovering, learning about, valuing and using the rich heritage that is all around us, for our own and our children's benefit and for the benefit of future generations.  

 

South Worcestershire is an area where ancient land ownership and patronage have contributed to local distinctiveness. This heritage quest will uncover ancient historical connections between the market town of Pershore, and the parishes round and about. There are 2500 listed buildings in District of Wychavon, 80 of them are historic church buildings, many date from Norman times, they carry within their walls the story of their parishes for up to 1000 years!

The project will

1. Introduce a generation of local children to the heritage of their local area
2. Develop a database of historic information for schools and parishes and 
3. Create a new attraction for visitors to the area.

 

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The project will be run by Go West Heritage Knights, a band of volunteers who share their love of history and heritage with children, their families and friends.  Administration will take place online. 

While in the Abbey the detectives learned about Arthur and his world, they were introduced to the tools of the heritage detective and each school was given a small hessian bag containing the documents about their parish from the old chest. Now for a whole school year they will be encouraging everyone - their teachers, family and friends - to help them explore their local parish and discover its story.  They will make wonder cards of things they think Arthur might recognise and put them on their parish timeline to discover whether Arthur will recognise them. 

 

At the end of the quest the heritage detectives will bring their wonder cards and timelines to the Pershore Heritage Symposium where they will make a short presentation of their findings to the Heritage Knights.  As everyone listens to each other they will find out what has made their place distinct over the centuries and perhaps they will start to think about the how they might help to shape the future. 

 

The reports and timelines will be amalgamated and from them a Time Travellers Guide to the area will be compiled. The local story is complex, like a multilayered jigsaw it is made up of many, many pieces. The Heritage Knights are not attempting to write a local history, they are out to foster a curiosity in what we can actually see in the world around us.

 

If you would like to take part in the Pershore Big Heritage Quest and contribute to the compilation of the Time Travellers Guide to the Pershore Area please make some wonder cards or a timeline for a topic of local interest. 

 

A few ideas to consider, or choose your own

Develop a timeline to tell the story of 

Your church or chapel

Your parish

Pershore Bridge

Markets and and fairs in Pershore 

The lost hamlet of Woollas

The lost hamlet of Allesborough

What happened in Netherton?

Solve the mystery of the two abbots and Pershore market

 

To avoid too much repetition please contact us and let us know what you are planning to do. 

The Heritage Knights are on a quest and need help. They hope to persuade your school take part in the Pershore BIG Heritage Quest and help create a Time Travellers Guide to the market town of Pershore and the area round about?

 

The guide is needed to help Arthur de Caldicot, a thirteenth century time traveller on a quest to discover what, if anything, he would recognise if he were to time travel into the area today.  He particularly wants to know if there are still Benedictines in the area and do people still go to market in Pershore?

 

This is a task for heritage detectives! The heritage knights have a plan to ask children from local schools to use the clues in the Treasures Box to explore their local catchment area to see if they can find anything they think Arthur might recognise and then to plot their suggestions onto a local timeline. They will need to present what they find to the Heritage Knights so that it can be collated into a guide that a time traveller like Arthur would find useful. Students from Pershore High School will be invited to use the information to create an app for mobile phones so that 21st century visitors can also enjoy exploring the area too.

 

To start things off ambassadors from participating school in and around Pershore will be invited to Pershore Abbey on July 3rd 2013 to discover more about the Pershore BIG HERITAGE QUEST. They will find out about the life and times of Arthur de Caldicot and practise the skills of a heritage detective. One year later in July 2014 the Heritage Knights will again be in Pershore Abbey this time to receive the material for Arthur’s Guide and to celebrate the completion of the Pershore BIG Quest.

 

INFORMATION FOR TEACHERS

Special Guest at the launch

The children will have the opportunity to meet and talk with an award winning author.  Kevin Crossley-Holland President of the Schools Library Association and creator of Arthur de Caldicot, hero of the ‘Arthur’ trilogy, will be in Pershore Abbey on July 3rd to introduce Arthur and his world.

 

What the children will do on the quest.

Young heritage detectives will learn the skills of the heritage detective as they go on a quest in their parish church and local community.  They will investigate local wonder points, find out more about them, and then make wonder cards to put on a parish timeline. This will tell them whether Arthur might have seen it.

There will be support from adults and the local community.

Adults in the community will be readty to help children discover the answers to heir questions so that they can make their wonder cards.  Some very interested adults will also be making timelines of aspects of life in and around Pershore to feed into the story of the area.

There will be support and help from the Heritage Knights

There will be occasional workshops. Additional resources for teachers and an Information Library will be available online for teachers from September 2013. 

Why Pershore?

The Pershore area is rich in history and heritage, it is a place where patronage and land ownership have contributed much to local distinctiveness. Within Wychavon there are 2500 listed buildings of which 80 are ancient parish churches. The BIG Quest will put the spotlight on these buildings and introduce a generation of local school children to their local heritage in a new and exciting way.

More about the project

The Pershore BIG Quest is a community cohesion project involving community and church volunteers who enjoy sharing a love of history and heritage with children, their teachers, parents and friends. The Quest will be supported with online resources and occasional workshops. Administration will take place online.

Project Management

The Pershore BIG Quest is managed by the Go West Heritage Knights under the direction of Sandy Marchant, Go West Projects Director. The methodology employed was developed during the Stories from the Stones pilot funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund in 2005. It was developed further, in readiness for the Pershore BIG Quest, with the help of Norton-juxta-Kempsey First School in July 2012.

 

Go West is an association of volunteers who use the history and heritage of church and countryside for the benefit of the local community. They have their roots in the Chaplaincy for Agriculture and Rural Life in the Diocese of Worcester. For this project Go West Heritage Knights are working in partnership and have received funding from the Worcester Diocesan Board of Education. Go West received a grant from the Wychavon Community Fund in 2012.

 

Everyone who takes part in the Pershore BIG Quest will discover more about the distinctiveness of the place where they are growing up and going to school. Every participating school and parish will be constructing a new Parish Chest, a CD of local history information which they can keep and use in the future and the Pershore area will have a new attraction to offer visitors.

 

Sandy Marchant

Go West Projects Director.