Impact case study database

Our research has co-produced, with Cadw, Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and Ribchester Museum, new narratives about the regional past. Working with government agencies, environmental organisations and museums we have used these new narratives to develop and drive community engagement and to affect policy. Following on from this we have used these co-produced narratives to have a significant impact on education and pedagogy. We have reached and inspired excluded communities using these new narratives and knowledge. These impacts are driven by a deliberate strategy that ensures our field research has been visible and accessible to these populations.

The major pathways to impact on this project are collaboration with heritage bodies and other agencies, public engagement and participation by students and volunteers within the communities we work with.

Number of individuals recorded as engaging with each impact pathway over the project [4, 5, 6].

Building capacity for institutions and enabling collaborations

Our expertise has been an essential driver in co-producing new narratives about the regional past with different agencies. These have allowed us to successfully support these organisations to develop further collaborative initiatives.

Research published by Peterson [4] and Cummings [1] led to us being consulted in 2015 by the Forest of Bowland AONB as they sought to develop a Pendle Hill Landscape Partnership (PHLP) with the specific aim of using heritage, landscape and environment to bring the socio-economically diverse communities who live around the hill together. The PHLP mission statement is aimed at: “ Bringing town and country people together to understand, restore and celebrate the distinctive landscape and heritage of this much loved and inspiring place.” They were able to develop the community archaeology strand of this project, via two funded student internships in 2016 and 2017, funded by the University of Central Lancashire through the Undergraduate Research Internship Scheme.

This research contributed to the award of a GBP1,800,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund enabling the successful establishment of the Pendle Hill Landscape Partnership (PHLP) in early 2018. We collaborated with the PHLP in the summer of 2018 to support joint excavations at Malkin Tower Farm and in 2019 with a community archaeology internship. We have an agreement with PHLP to provide three more internships. The 2020 internship was cancelled due to COVID-19. We will be providing three more internships to support the community archaeology strand of the partnership [A]. Another impact arising from this collaborative work was two artists’ residencies inspired by the archaeology and funded by the PHLP [F]. In 2018 Rebecca Lee and Natasha Simensky developed an experimental musical piece, SHERDS, based on the excavations at Malkin Tower Farm. Lunchtime Practice, a visual arts duo, collaborated with the 2019 intern to develop new forms of artistic expressions complimenting the community archaeology activities.

The Bryn Celli Ddu project was set up by Griffiths [2], building on a history of research in the region by Cummings [3], in partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University and Cadw, the historic environment service of the Welsh Government. One of Cadw’s aims was to increase community involvement and awareness of the monument. This important site can only be managed and protected if the local community understands its importance and become involved in its protection. In order to reach a larger and more diverse audience, Cadw developed an ‘Archaeology Festival’ around the excavations. In 2018 this included a temporary exhibition at the local museum and gallery, Oriel Ynys Mȏn. The festival also featured a wide array of art, archaeology and environmental events, including four artists residencies and public lectures by senior academic figures from outside the project team. One of the artists concerned, John Abel, subsequently exhibited work inspired by the project as part of the National Eisteddfod in Cardiff Bay in 2018 [D]. In 2019 the ‘Archaeology Festival’ was expanded to include a six-month exhibition at Oriel Ynys Mȏn.

The result of these partnership has led to an increased awareness of the meaning and importance of archaeological remains and heritage in both North-West England and North Wales. This transformation in awareness builds on previous research by Sayer [6]. This change creates space for local and national government agencies to address problems of monument conservation and also to adopt these approaches as official policy. Ribchester was on Historic England’s ‘Monuments at Risk’ register. The research project [5] at this site has been designed by Morris and Sayer in collaboration with Ribchester Roman Museum [I] and Historic England to develop a robust protection plan. This has now led to Historic England removing the site from the at-risk register [B, J]. Our research will directly contribute to the revised scheduling of the monument, ensuring its long-term survival. The Bryn Celli Ddu project [2] has fed into a review of Cadw and wider Welsh Government policy on public archaeology and its use to address widening participation issues. Dafydd Elis-Thomas,Minister for Culture, Media and Sport in the Welsh Government and Member of the House of Lords, has mentioned the project three times in the Senedd as an example of best practice in public heritage and education [C].

Working with schools and communities to influence the delivery of curriculum in schools and higher education institutions

The collaborative work has developed and facilitated schools and youth group activities and learning on site, leading to a significant impact on learning and teaching. Patrick Tostevin from Ribchester Roman Museum states: “Staff and students on the project have made the excavation accessible to the visiting schools by providing guided tours of the excavation. Allowing the school children to see the excavation in action and engage with the archaeological process as an added element to their visit to the museum.” [I] As well as primary and secondary schools we have worked with the Young Archaeologists Club [D, E], young carers support networks [F], and the Scout Association [5]. One teacher stated : “This is important as the National Curriculum includes prehistory and the visits gave the opportunity to set this in an inspirational local context…these promoted youth and wider social engagement with archaeology.” [F] At Ribchester [5], between 2017 and 2019, 2398 children from schools in fourteen different local authorities visited the excavations. Forty-six percent of these children came from local authority areas with the highest proportion of neighbourhoods in the most deprived 10% of the index of multiple deprivation [E]. Semi-structured interviews carried out at Ribchester stressed how our schools’ work there was visibly having an impact in areas of high deprivation: “it's in a region where there's cultural diversity and it's been interesting to see the kids coming from places like Blackburn and Rochdale. It's interesting that the kids are always fascinated by the same kind of things, like it helps that there are universal things that encourage kids to do science.” [E] At Bryn Celli Ddu [2], in 2018 and 2019, 13 out of the 15 school events were conducted through the medium of Welsh, the Welsh-speaking populations of this area being disproportionately affected by issues of social exclusion. One teacher commented: “It was great to get the children out discovering a place on their doorstep that they knew nothing about.” [D], whilst the Unloved Heritage Officer 2019 stated: **“ Fantastic to see children so captivated with having the chance to excavate on a real archaeological excavation.” [D] Since 2016, Ribchester has been featured in the ‘Dig It with YAC!’ competitions. The first winner of this competition, Cassie Bradshaw (Liverpool), went on to win Young Archaeologist of the Year in 2017 because of her contribution at Ribchester. Her engagement with the project has been life changing as she has gone on to study archaeology at the University of Central Lancashire and intends to make a career in the discipline. Outside of formal youth groups, a University of Central Lancashire undergraduate worked with PHLP as the community archaeology intern for 2019. This internship included three ‘family friendly’ learning events designed to engage wider audiences. These all took place in areas of East Lancashire with high indices of multiple deprivation. Feedback for these events demonstrated a clear impact, one mother stated: “ My crew of children had a brilliant time! Learning lots about history and archaeology, learning new skills and discovering somewhere we have never been before!” [F]. There was a clear demand for more outreach activities: “can these workshops be booked for small organisations?” [H]. Comments from attendees at other community archaeology events with the PHLP show how effective this collaborative approach has been: “Having a sense of our shared heritage might help us to take more collective responsibility for our shared future”; “…inspiration to future generations and giving life to the area’s history”; “It has really cheered me up and woken up my brain. I’ve been cooped up for months raising babies. It was great to get out and learn again”; “It’s making me more aware of the local history on archaeology in my area and more likely to investigate further”; “A relaxed break from my caring role, I can look out for more events like this.” [F] At university level our field schools have provided 234 places for non-University of Central Lancashire UK students and 86 for overseas students. As a result, Australian National University (ANU) have adopted our pedagogic perspective for the delivery of fieldwork in Tasmania and Germany. “The methods of skills teaching, assessments, community liaison, public outreach and media engagement developed at Oakington and Ribchester were adapted and extrapolated to the ANU’s international programme in 2016.” [G] This programme won the ANU Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2018 and subsequently formed the basis for the Australian Archaeological Association’s Archaeology Skills Passport in 2019 [G].

Building capacity for individuals through access to archaeological fieldwork

All our fieldwork projects have used fieldwork participation as a way of engaging people and building their understanding both of archaeology and of how they can be involved in wider research. This has included open volunteering opportunities on site but also delivery of specific tailored sessions for potentially excluded groups such as adults with mental health challenges [D, F] and carers [F]. Of the 292 adults who took up the open volunteering opportunities we have 21 survey responses [8]. We have reached people from marginalised communities and provided them with positive opportunities that they would not normally have access to. The surveyed volunteers ranged from 18 to 80 in age, 33% were under the age of 50, and 42% were men and 58% were women. There were two overseas volunteers, six who lived in the nearest community to where one of the projects took place and the remaining 13 came from the wider North-West and North Wales area. Of these 13 respondents, 85% came from communities which included areas mapped as in the worst 10% for indices of multiple deprivation.

The increased uptake of these opportunities to participate in research over all three projects indicates how successful we have been in engaging the local communities.

Engaging with our research has had a significant impact on lives : “I was able to come out and feel I was doing something useful” said Judith, a Ribchester 2018 volunteer [E], “I don't think I could ever have imagined to come here and find so much” said Rachel another Ribchester 2018 volunteer [E]. ** “(It’s) provided a different format of health and wellbeing” said a 2018 leader who brought a group to a PHLP community archaeology event [H].” ‘It’s a brilliant effort to give knowledge to people who want to explore” said a* participant at a 2019 PHLP community archaeology event [H]. Results from the wider engagement survey show that 82% of the 184 respondents described their knowledge of archaeology as ‘significantly’ or ‘somewhat’ increased following their work with us. When asked whether our work had removed barriers to them taking part in archaeology or heritage activities, 39% said we had made them aware of opportunities they didn’t know about, 40% said that we had given them access to knowledge and resources they wouldn’t otherwise have had and 12% said we had given an affordable way for them to take part.