YOUR STORIES

3

2

1 YOUR STORIES

Bringing a castle to life

Lead volunteer at Chester Castle Gary Ashby celebrates a season of events.

Ihave been involved in historical interpretation and living history portrayal for over 40 years and through my roles as an employed visitor assistant at Beeston Castle, and as a volunteer at Chester Castle. It seemed a logical next step to recruit re-enactor volunteers to enhance the visitor experience at Chester through a unique set of themed open days.

Events unfold Chester Castle, a free-to-enter site, is unique in the portfolio of English Heritage sites. It had previously been under the control of the Crown States and Ministry of Defence and was, until June 2021, rarely open to the public. However, that changed as the west free sites team set to work planning a series of dynamic open events to showcase the history of the site and its unique combination of medieval and classical Georgian architecture. The castle has also recently been recognised for the award-winning conservation programme carried out by English Heritage, Historic England and other local stakeholders in the newly worked upon 12th-century Agricola Tower. This year we introduced the addition of a second-hand bookshop run by volunteers.

Themed open days In my role as lead volunteer, I have been working closely with Ginny Slade, free sites west territory volunteer manager.

We formulated the idea of recruiting small numbers of people whose hobby focuses on re-enactment and living history to take on the role of re-enactor volunteers at Chester. To date, we have presented five historical events spanning three eras: the medieval era between 1220–1460; the English Civil War between 1642– 1645; and the mid-18thcentury Georgian period, featuring King George’s Redcoats in garrison (1776). These key periods represent the different layers of the site’s history and we are proud to say that our themed open weekends have been a huge success, much enjoyed by both those taking part and the 5,000 visitors we welcomed during our five open weekends.

It really has given us the opportunity to showcase small scale quality interpretation and appreciate the 940 years of history the site has to offer, all of which was so enjoyed by all the re-enactment volunteers, local people and those visiting from further afield.

Collaborative working It was a superb opportunity to work collaboratively with the team at Beeston Castle, Cheshire West and Chester Council, and the Military and Grosvenor museums who gave us so much support during the events and enabled us to demonstrate the links between the sites throughout their Re-enactment collective histories. It also highlighted that working together can increase membership and enhance adds so visitor experiences. Working in this way at Chester much more Castle has made us aware that whether it be telling the story of civilian, church or material culture or to the visitor life in the military, re-enactment adds so much experience more to the visitor experience and provides an opportunity for volunteers to share their passion and knowledge about history in a more interactive way. Next year promises to be just as exciting as a number of themed open days are planned, ranging from the Saxons through to the Victorians. ■

FIND OUT MORE To learn more about the history of Chester Castle visit www.english-heritage.org.uk/chestercastle

Images Clockwise from bottom left 1. Chester Castle 2. Volunteer Malcolm Howard dressed as a Georgian Redcoat 3. (from left to right) Volunteers Chris Holmes, Phillipe Le Pinnet, Freddie Le Pinnet and John Callow at a Civil War event 4. (from top to bottom) Volunteers James Graves, James Baugh, Ricky Williams, Thomas Powell and Malcolm Howard dressed as Georgian Redcoats