The Mortimer’s Heritage Project steering group held their second workshop at the Pocklington Arts Centre on April 12th, led by heritage consultant, Sarah Oswald of The Authentic Spark as part of their successful bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Moving on from their last workshop in March, the members looked at other similar projects around the country, watching a highly inspiring film, called Waterways in Progress, from the Inland Waterways Association. It highlighted what can be achieved when communities and organisations work together and the social, environmental and economic benefits that waterway regeneration projects can deliver.
Much discussion took place at the workshop as to the possible uses for Mortimer’s Warehouse, with members feeding back their findings of recent research and discussing a myriad of ideas by which to celebrate the canal and the history of the town. Some of the proposals were discarded and others, after consideration, will be investigated further. As a result of our discussions, more information will be collated and those with knowledge and expertise in these fields will be consulted.
Our consultant also invited Neil Redfern, Principal Inspector of Ancient Monuments and Development Advice Team Leader for Historic England in the North West and Yorkshire to speak to the group. Neil talked about what Historic England is doing to develop a new heritage research strategy for the Yorkshire Wolds, which naturally picked up on the significance of J R Mortimer. Mortimer ran his business from the warehouse in the 19th century. Historic England in partnership with the York Archaeological Trust is extremely interested in our project and the links it has to J R Mortimer, who is generally regarded as the founding father of modern archaeology;
The group will meet again at the end of May to discuss further and expand on the excellent foundations already laid. With the help of our consultant, Sarah, we hope to form the basis of a business plan, discuss the finding of a recent skills audit and forge ahead on the next steps of this exciting and worthwhile project.