Impact case study database

Through its combination of academic research, ‘citizen science’, educational activities, and planting programmes, Orchards East has had multiple and far-reaching impacts, sustainable for decades to come. With partners including the National Trust, the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, and several wildlife trusts ( 5.9) , we brought together the too often dislocated needs and ambitions of professional historians, scientists, cultivators, officials and public bodies, ecologists, local businesses, and the wider community. The outcome was a truly interdisciplinary venture, permanently enhancing both natural and cultural heritage, beautifying the locations in which we worked, protecting and, so far as possible, arresting decline of an endangered environment, and spreading best practice and historical understanding to the widest possible constituency.

Planting: With volunteers and partners, we planted 55 new orchards, each designed (following our research) to feature varieties associated with the localities in question (see list on file 5.9). These are grafted onto the kinds of vigorous and long-lived rootstocks which we now know serve to maximise biodiversity. All told, 735 new trees were planted directly by the project and our volunteers, with at least a further 300 planted in partnership with 26 local organisations. Each new orchard has been provided with an authoritative, but accessible, information board, combining historical, scientific, and local community knowledge. Sixteen of the orchards were in the grounds of schools and 25 were new community ventures, situated in both urban and rural locations (including two in Luton). A further three were showcase collections, presenting a full range of local varieties, including that at Stowmarket Museum of East Anglian Life intended as a complete ‘East Anglian collection’ (50 trees). There (according to the Museum Director), the project ‘turned semi-derelict ground into something of which we are extremely proud … educat(ing) the community about the connections between food production, heritage and health for many years to come’, all of this as ‘a major first step’ on their road to becoming a Food Museum ( 5.1).

The remainder were planted at institutions or for community organisations, including, with the active participation of inmates, five prisons (HMP Wayland, HMP Highpoint, HMP Warren Hill, HMP Hollesley Bay, HMP Whitemoor). The groups and communities involved have been universally appreciative. At Chatteris, for instance, ‘the number of people visiting … has been beyond our dreams and we have had praise and thanks on social media for providing such a welcome addition to the open space in the town’, especially during the long and difficult months of COVID-19 lockdown ( 5.2a). At Middleton, children of the local nursery school now tend the trees as ‘a focal point to the village’ ( 5.2b), and at Ipswich ( 5.2c) the orchard is considered ‘absolutely wonderful’. At Swavesey, 100 residents gathered to plant 40 new trees and have since gone on to form their own association to tend the orchard for the future and to care for the 44 species of plant so far identified within it ( 5.2d). At Langford, not only is the new orchard seen as an important link to the village’s past but as a resource fostering both social cohesion and natural beauty ( 5.2e). At Harpenden, ‘ nearly all’ of the 60 children who planted the trees described this as ‘the most interesting thing’ they had done in science that year, with the new trees now ‘a little symbol of hope for the community during this difficult time’ ( 5.2f). At Luton, amidst one of the most deprived communities in eastern England, the 20 new trees ‘have been a major contributing factor’ in establishing a local conservation group ( 5.2g).

Skills Training: Pruning, Grafting, and Cooking: A total of 45 fully booked orchard management workshops/training sessions were held, mainly attended by members of the public but with some targeted specifically at professional arborists (‘training the trainers’) and staff from the National Trust, county wildlife trusts, and similar bodies. These served to disseminate what our research has revealed as the practices shaping ‘traditional’ orchards and maximising their importance as habitats. The various sessions were attended by a total of 599 people, ranging in age from 16 to 83. Volunteers, working together with nine professional arborists and 28 orchard experts, were trained in pruning, grafting, and other traditional skills required for the long-term sustainability of the project’s plantings. Benefits here include continued knowledge transfer through the establishment of new community associations. As reported by the Lead Advisor of Natural England ( 5.3), the training sessions were particularly productive both for beginners and professionals, with the project’s initiative overall of ‘major and lasting impact’. The character of Orchard East’s input is neatly summarised by the Director of the Museum of East Anglian Life: ‘The support helped us on so many different levels … with the expertise to be able to choose what to plant, how to plant it and how to protect it. The project team also helped us produce interpretation for visitors’ ( 5.1).

Ten workshops, run by food historian Monica Askey, were organised to demonstrate how fruit in general – and traditional varieties in particular – can be used to create cheap and nutritious meals with a low carbon footprint. These were targeted at organisations dealing with the disadvantaged and marginalised, including the Grow Organisation in Norwich, a social enterprise offering interaction and support to Forces veterans and people recovering from mental illness; Darwin Nurseries, Cambridge, a centre for adults with learning difficulties and mental health challenges; St Elizabeth’s Centre for young epileptics, Much Hadham, Hertfordshire; and The Feed, Norwich, a social hub and café providing services and support for people who face barriers to employment. Wider dissemination of the key concept – that culinary practises, health, orchard conservation and heritage are inextricably linked – was achieved through the publication of a 100-page book by Askey and Williamson, Orchard Recipes from Eastern England: Landscape, Fruit and Heritage (Lowestoft 2020), described by the British Association of Local History reviewer as ‘engagingly written and beautifully illustrated’ ( 5.10). The project also prepared lesson plans and other educational resources, available for download from the project website, now shared internationally via the Countryside Classroom platform countrysideclassroom.org.uk, connecting schools and teachers around the English-speaking world with food, farming, and the natural environment.

Surveys and Conservation: Supported by professional arborists and orchard managers, just over 150 volunteer surveyors (equipped with maps prepared by the county Biological Records Centres) examined 10,134 orchard sites in the eastern counties, recording what kinds of land use have replaced those which have been destroyed and the principal features of those that remain. The results have been digitised and, together with our biodiversity reports, form the basis of our ‘State of the Orchards’ survey for submission to County Councils and conservation bodies (together with the digitised data in GIS format) for use as a conservation management tool by County Biodiversity Centres. The overall results make uncomfortable reading. Nearly 90 per cent of the orchards present in 1960 have been grubbed up. A key finding here was that orchards were already in significant decline long before the UK’s 1973 accession to the European Economic Community: a point of no little political significance, given the rhetoric deployed by those inclined to blame ‘Europe’ for such decline.

Sample orchards were subject to detailed biodiversity surveys, mainly carried out by professional consultants, with some volunteer participation. These have revealed the critical importance of orchard habitat for a range of species but, above all, for saproxylic invertebrates, bryophytes, and lichens. The survey results, according to Norfolk County Council’s Biodiversity Officer ( 5.4), have ‘transformed our understanding of orchard heritage’, mapping and recording ‘a habitat of principal importance under section 41 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act (2006)’, likely to prove crucial to all future ‘evidence-based planning and wildlife conservation decisions’; with additional ‘untold social and community benefits’. The scientific benefits extend beyond local to truly international significance. As reported by the Orchards Biodiversity Officer of the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, this ‘the most comprehensive investigation of traditional orchards yet to be undertaken … will feed into many other projects across the UK and Europe … significantly improv(ing) our ability to conserve and preserve (wildlife) habitat in the future’ ( 5.5). Orchards East has also been credited with ‘Rais[ing] the profile of orchards as biodervsity habitats’ and ‘galvanis(ing) local interest’ ( 5.6) in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. By channelling funds into the DNA finger-printing of ancient fruit varieties, according a leading specialist in this field (and developer of the FruitID website, whose work was directly supported by the project, 5.7), Williamson’s work has been instrumental in improving DNA genotyping, enhancing a resource now used worldwide, and, via the Institut National de la recherche agronomique (the principal French ecological research institute), enabling such findings to be shared across 19 European countries.

Legacy: Progress on the project was adversely affected by COVID-19 but our substantial monograph on the history and ecology of orchards in eastern England is now in press. Meanwhile, our ‘State of the Orchards’ report and associated digital datasets will, for many years, provide a valuable conservation tool for a wide range of partners, conservationists, and relevant government agencies. A newly designed website, Orchards East- https://orchardseast.theportman.co/ supports a ‘legacy body’, Orchards East Forum, established with partners to sustain the project’s activities into the future. It also hosts ‘Advice Notes’, educational material for schools, and a range of other information, replacing the project’s original website. The project will thus continue to provide a platform for knowledge transfer, contributing to social cohesion, improved public health and wellbeing. Our academic research will thus continue to equip communities with the skills and enthusiasm required to resist the decline of a resource of enormous natural and cultural significance, largely neglected until now. As reported by the Senior Ecology Officer of Hertfordshire County Council, our project has ‘brought together a powerful, new appreciation of orchards, their role in society and their potential value into the future’, its ‘academic rigour’ allowing ‘a justified, expert, and powerful expression of our understanding of orchards … Its work and that of its legacy body will continue to be of considerable importance in helping to justify, support, inform and encourage orchard protection and management’ ( 5.8).

Our 1000 trees should still be flowering and bearing fruit into the next century. Meanwhile, a project emerging from landscape history has evolved into an interdisciplinary venture in citizen science, involving a wide range of stakeholders, young and old, prosperous and disadvantaged. Our planting and cultivation of green spaces now reaches out to influence the future of ecology and heritage not only nationally but beyond.

The Exhibition : Spellbound was opened by Philip Pullman on 31 August 2018 and ran for four months to 6 January 2019. Created with Professor Marina Wallace, from the Artakt consultancy, and [*redacted text*] from architects Stanton Williams ( 5.6), it displayed 194 objects, images, manuscripts, and books from 48 institutional and private lenders: more than for any previous Ashmolean exhibition. It drew 45,585 visitors (including 1,372 on educational visits), exceeding a target of 30,000 and doubling attendance at the Ashmolean’s 2017 Imagining the Divine exhibition (21,249). Exit survey data from 1,583 visitors ( 5.1) revealed that Spellbound was attended by more first-time visitors than any previous Ashmolean exhibition (37%), with a marked increase in the 25–34 age bracket (accounting for 35% of survey respondents), roughly double the Ashmolean’s norm. Its reach was extended by a programme of workshops and public lectures (including a sell-out ‘Live Friday’: 2,600 visitors); catalogue sales of over 1,000; an outdoor advertising campaign (shortlisted as ‘Marketing Campaign of the Year’ at the 2019 Museums + Heritage Awards) with an estimated reach of 24,576,000; 131,995 unique visits to the website (more than for any previous Ashmolean show), and features on BBC South Today, BBC Radio Oxford, BBC Radio 3, and the BBC World Service. Total ticket sales grossed GBP395,965.50 ( 5.1) .

Media Reviews and Survey: According to the survey ( 5.1), visitors found Spellbound a deeply affecting, even transformative experience. 80% of survey respondents rated their experience as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’. The show was enthusiastically reviewed ( 5.2) in nearly 100 print and online publications (from flagship broadsheets, via specialist art and archaeological outlets, to personal blogs), and extensively praised on social media. It was declared to be ‘mesmerising’ ( The Times), ‘literally and metaphorically enchanting’, ‘truly magical’, ‘spellbinding’, ‘bewitching’ ( The Economist), ‘beguiling’, ‘beautiful and haunting’, ‘entrancing’, ‘captivating’, and ‘a dream come true for me’. The darker themes explored by the show in conjunction with its innovative and atmospheric architectural design meant that it was also ‘genuinely spooky’, ‘irresistibly creepy’ ( The Telegraph), ‘visceral’, ‘scary’, ‘eerie’, ‘unsettling’, ‘unusual’, ‘disturbing’, ‘unnerving’, ‘grim and compelling’, ‘exciting’, ‘chilling’, ‘macabre’, and a ‘wicked delight’, possessed of a ‘powerful energy’, and responsible for ‘many chills’ and a ‘shiver down the spine’ ( 5.2). For many commentators, Spellbound represented a profound exploration of what it means to be human. It was ‘enthralling and emotive’, ‘heartrending’, ‘surprisingly moving’, ‘powerful’, and ‘deeply though-provoking’. Writing in the Daily Mail, Bel Mooney concluded that ‘despite the advance of science and technology, people are pretty much the same under the skin as we always were […] That’s what Spellbound makes you realise’ ( 5.2). 70% of survey respondents reported that the show stimulated an awareness of the role of magical thinking in their own daily lives ( 5.1).

Many visitors ( 5.1, 5.2) found the gallery curated by Gaskill to be especially ‘shocking’, ‘stomach churning’, ‘painful’, and ‘heart-breaking’ - ‘the most potent [gallery] of all’ , according to The Lancet. Prints and drawings conveyed how men ‘really had a horror of older women’, while diagnostic devices such as the weighing chair drove home the ‘realities of witchcraft’. This gallery also communicated the complexity of accusations and the ‘intense emotional forces’ at work ( TLS). Writing in the Guardian ( 5.2), Maev Kennedy drew particular attention to Gaskill’s material discoveries, not least the length of ectoplasm from the Spiritualist medium, Helen Duncan (convicted under the Witchcraft Act and imprisoned in 1944, and previously the subject of a best-selling biography by Gaskill), found by Gaskill by pure chance in Cambridge University Library. Simon Ings ( Financial Times) observed that Gaskill’s gallery contained much of the ‘connective tissue’ of Spellbound’s argument, reporting that Gaskill ‘pulled off something remarkable: a series of cases that comprehensively pricks our assumptions, humanising not only those accused of witchcraft, but also their accusers’, and demonstrating that accusations ‘had far more to do with personal relationships and intense emotions than hysterical superstition’. Ings concluded that Spellbound ‘will make you want to be a kinder person’.

Inspiring a new Museum in Denmark: As proof of international impact, besides overseas visitors to the exhibition and the consequent boost to the visitor economy both national and international, Gaskill’s work helped inspire the design of Denmark’s first witchcraft museum in Ribe, opened in June 2020 and attracting over 10,000 visitors in its first month ( 5.3, 5.4). Having first met them informally, in December 2018, Gaskill invited the museum’s curators to a tour of Spellbound. The Danish team found the ‘design choices, art style, and atmosphere’ of Spellbound’s marketing campaign ‘stunning […] setting the mood in a wonderful way’ ( 5.4). In particular, but for Gaskill’s drawing their attention to the use of apotropaic charms scratched on doors and other surfaces, they would not have identified an important category of exhibits for their own museum, duly hunted down and now far better known as a result of their visit to Oxford ( 5.3). As reported by [* redacted text * redacted] ( 5.3), ‘None of this might have happened had I not met Professor Gaskill and visited his wonderful exhibition’.

Inspiring Artistic Expression and Impact on Creative Practices: Attracting further external media notice, Gaskill helped to produce two multimedia installations which contributed to his gallery’s emotional impact ( 5.7, 5.8). The first was an audio dramatization of the testimonies against two accused women from the East Anglian witchfinding campaign, 1645–47. With Gaskill’s guidance, an immersive booth displaying the original manuscripts from Cambridge University Library was created by radio producer Andy Jordan and sound designer Andy Cox, featuring the voice of Anton Lesser ( Game of Thrones etc.) as magistrate Thomas Castell. This was described by Museums Journal as ‘delivering the strongest emotional punch of the show’ (a verdict echoed across multiple reviews 5.2). As one blogger put it: ‘To read the confession of one accused witch – tormented by the death of her husband and children, and living in abject poverty – would be moving, but hearing it proved, appropriately, haunting’ ( 5.2).

The second such installation was Voracity I and II, a video and sculptural interpretation of early modern witch-trials by contemporary artist [* redacted *] ( 5.7, 5.8). One of three original highly praised artworks, and the result of a two-year collaboration with Gaskill, Voracity I is a filmic representation of the containment and explosion of emotion in witch-plagued communities (expressed the metaphor of fire and smoke), while Voracity II comprised domestic implements violently inscribed with the gendered language of witchcraft accusations. Informed by a relationship with Gaskill characterised by [*redacted*] as one of ‘creative dialogue’, ‘mutual understanding’, and ‘trust’, and inspired by visits arranged and guided by Gaskill to trial documents at Cambridge University Library and engravings at the Ashmolean, [*redacted*] felt compelled to work in film for the first time ( 5.7). She incorporated elements of ‘theatricality’, ‘exaggeration’, and ‘re-enactment’, and channelled her own ‘anger’ and ‘emotional intensity’. She felt ‘recalibrated’ by her experience, which for her has opened new professional and creative doors. Voracity was another inspiration internationally for the Ribe curatorial team: ‘an innovative, emotive idea that inspired a new concept for one of our rooms where we had not yet found the right angle; we’re now considering an artistic approach for this gallery’ ( 5.4).

Amongst other successes, in collaboration with historical cartoonist Hannah Sackett, Gaskill produced a comic, sold online and in the exhibition gift shop: A Most Certain, Strange and True Guide to Witchcraft ( 5.7 & 5.9). He also worked with storyteller Olivia Armstrong on a session delivered at the Ashmolean entitled Spellbound Stories ( 5.7), bringing accused seventeenth- century witch Anne Bodenham to ‘captivating’ new life.

Enhancing the awareness and interpretation of existing museum heritage, assisting with the production of new cultural artefacts, encouraging cultural tourism, stimulating the visitor economy, and in the process, through the popular dissemination of research previously targeted at an academic minority, delivering a powerful emotive stimulus, Gaskill’s work on Spellbound was both innovative and impactful. Its longer-term effects continue to resonate, not only in memory or print, but from Oxford to Denmark, both nationally and internationally.

Through a variety of projects and subsequent spin-offs, we have sought to contextualize and raise awareness of the East of England’s military heritage. In so doing, we have benefitted local society and the economy more broadly, recording, enhancing, and disseminating historical records, reaching out to the tourist industry and to other local businesses, and informing those now engaged in dramatizing historical reality.

Volunteers, Citizen Archaeology, Education, and Occupational Therapy

Eighth in the East directly engaged 15,969 people, with key beneficiaries involved in the educational programme, including theatrical performances, family days, and exhibitions (5737 visitors). Through Liddiard and UEA, a bespoke package of historical resources was developed and disseminated, alongside a programme of outreach, including museum displays, archaeological excavation, and memorial restoration. 375 schoolchildren took part (far in excess of the project target of 150), either through classroom/museum activities, or outreach projects ( 5.1, pp.69, 86).

For both educators and educated this was often a watershed moment in attitudes to history and heritage. The level of engagement amongst schoolchildren drew comment. As one museum curator put it: ‘The standard of work … was as good as any professional touring exhibition that we've hosted’ ( 5.1, p.86). At participating museums, 60% reported an increase in the awareness of their existence, and 40% increased school visits and raised footfall from younger age groups ( 5.1, p.42). At Bottisham Museum it was the innovation that struck a chord: ‘No one had thought about an education programme, doing formal lesson plans … People had studied the 8USAAF but not really with a view to teaching it to kids’ ( 5.1, p.90). Educational material was also placed online and made accessible via the project website and the Times Educational Supplement sites (at least 5,389 views and downloads, 5.2 and 5.1, p.88) . Of the project’s nine interns, all rated the training they received as effective, reported improved self-confidence, and that it had helped their future careers. On a practical level, one commented that the experience ‘allowed me to put into practice the skills I’ve learnt at university’, another that ‘the whole experience was valuable’ ( 5.1, p.100). All nine moved on to employment or full-time postgraduate study.

In terms of training, Eighth in the East directly engaged 120 volunteers to conduct archaeological surveys on 95 aviation sites ( 5.1, p.52), with 72% reporting that they had acquired new skills, 50% that they had subsequently used these skills elsewhere, and 97% rating their training ‘effective’ or better ( 5.1, p.58). Supplying local archaeology groups with the expertise with which to secure their futures, Liddiard’s training was cited here as especially decisive. In the successor legacy project HQ-East, occupational therapy was a central concern. In two excavations at Thorpe Abbotts, in collaboration with the American Veterans Archaeological Recovery Programme, training was provided to 19 British and American serving and former members of the armed forces, as well as to family members. Military personnel undertook 462 volunteering hours, 98 of these hours with observation by Occupational Therapists ( 5.4). The benefits for those who took part were significant, one medically discharged veteran stating that she had not ‘smiled as much as she did on the excavation for a long time since her injury’. Another participant reported that ‘these injured soldiers have spent a lot of time feeling ignored and forgotten … and to have you (Gregory) acknowledge her thoughts ... really helped with her confidence’ ( 5.3a). The Occupational Therapist observers confirmed the transformative effects on well-being, noting that those taking part found themselves not only using skills learned in the military for new purposes, but developing new capabilities, thanks in part to the ‘accepting and non-judgemental environment’ ( 5.4, 5.5).

Networking, Dissemination, and Service to Museums

The museums also benefitted, not least through the recruitment of new and younger volunteers. Thorpe Abbotts airfield museum, for example, reports an increased artefact collection, increased awareness, and significantly increased footfall ( 5.3a). Through the dissemination of its work, the project and its legacy organisations have become the centre of an expanding network of interest groups, acting as a connector and facilitator in ways not originally envisaged. Global reach is evidenced through social media. By July 2020 ( 5.6), posts on the legacy project HQ-East’s Twitter feed (followed by 4,677 individuals located in 89 different countries) had reached 6,048,685 people worldwide. A further 1,290,359 were reached via Facebook (1,126 followers); whilst 17,322 individuals follow the Instagram account. A survey of online viewers demonstrates the tangible benefits of this network, with 32% of respondents indicating that they have visited a regional museum as a result of their website use, and a further 44% reporting that the project had changed the way they think not only about the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in East Anglia but about twentieth-century heritage sites more generally ( 5.6). This has brought further benefits to a range of national and regional organisations, not just in heritage but for the local economy. The internationally important American Air Museum (a subsidiary of Imperial War Museum, Duxford, 2019 footfall 401,287, 5.6) uses the project’s site as a principal platform from which to share its collections with the public ( 5.3c). As reported by the American Air Museum’s Web Engagement Officer, without its own social media accounts, the Museum depends upon Liddiard and Gregory’s site as ‘the way its (29,000+) photos are shared regularly with target audiences around the world’. In turn, this has led ‘to corrections and improvements to the Imperial War Museum’s catalogue records’ ( 5.3c).

Local Business, the Visitor Economy, and Advice to Media

As a hub for a range of interest groups, our various projects have promoted historic tourism and facilitated the creation of business networks. In 2018, we hosted a corporate and educational event at Norwich Airport attended by representatives of 30 local businesses and enlivened by cockpit tours of one of the few still airworthy Spitfires (MH434, built in 1943). Described by Barclays Bank as ‘an exceptional event’ impossible without the project’s support, this brought Barclays ‘new business opportunities in the aviation and technology sectors’ ( 5.7a), not least with SaxonAir Charter, whose letter ( 5.7b) notes the event’s ‘superb’ organisation, and the unprecedented opportunities arising here for networking and new contacts. As a result of such enterprise, the not-for-profit business-led private company Visit East of England developed a ‘Friendly Invasion’ tourist package. This resulted in the award of GBP237,000 from the Discover England Fund, towards a GBP387,000 ‘Friendly Invasion’ campaign. By 2019, this campaign was able to estimate a likely future uplift of 40% in US visitors, and the development of high and medium cost tour packages ‘of a kind that had never sold before’ ( 5.8). On average, each American tourist spends GBP930 per visit to the UK, excluding flights ( 5.9), suggesting a significant boost to the visitor economy. It also brought our project into direct conjunction with what in due course will become an Apple TV Plus miniseries, ‘Masters of the Air’, intended as a third part to the Tom Hanks/Stephen Spielberg WWII series, ‘Band of Brothers’ and ‘The Pacific’. Gregory was closely involved in discussions here, including presentations of his research to executives from Playtone (Tom Hanks’ production company), to the scriptwriter, and to the author of the underpinning narrative (Don Miller). Five thousand copies of a publication produced by Visit East of England, drawing upon our project’s research, with a foreword by the Duke of Cambridge and Tom Hanks, were freely distributed to museums in the US, including the National WWII Museum in New Orleans and the National Mighty Eighth Museum in Savannah Georgia ( 5.8), and Tom Hanks is reported to have ‘turned his office into what looks like an Eighth Air Force museum, complete with model airplanes hanging from the ceiling’ ( 5.10). Planned outcomes have been seriously affected by COVID-19 with filming, originally scheduled to begin in 2020, twice postponed. In due course, nonetheless, the heritage central to Liddiard and Gregory’s work is to be broadcast internationally to an audience far larger than anything imaginable when our project was first conceived.

With or without Hollywood glitz, our project has benefitted a range of audiences in diverse ways. In the words of the independent evaluation report for Eighth in the East, it has ‘made an extremely positive difference to this history and the people of the East of England (and beyond) through training and education, participation and engagement’ ( 5.1, p.3). Inspiring, training, and informing a future generation of enthusiasts, it has helped preserve the memory of an extraordinary socio-historical phenomenon not just in terms of written or recorded testimony but as a built environment. In due course, such landscapes may seem to future generations as significant and as iconic as the medieval castle or the once similarly neglected monuments of the Industrial Age.

Our Magna Carta Project, through its new discoveries, high-profile exhibitions, media exposure, and contributions to public debate, has literally ‘made history’. With its print and digital outputs now established as a permanent enhancement of Magna Carta’s legacy, the project has informed and permanently altered perceptions of Magna Carta as a cultural, historical, and legal icon whilst bringing into focus the charter’s contemporary relevance to society and culture, in the UK and beyond. Impact arising can be quantified as follows:

The British Library Exhibition Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy ‘could not have been staged as it was, but for the input of Vincent and the UEA project’ (Head of Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts, British Library, 5.1). It won approval from all shades of opinion, left and right, populist and academic. The exhibition was described by the Telegraph (5 stars) as ‘rich and authoritative … tell(ing) this fascinating story with exceptional clarity’ (5.1), and elsewhere as simply ‘wonderful’, commending in particular ‘Vincent’s sharp analytical narrative of the events leading to Runnymede’ and his ‘investigations into continental parallels for the charter’ (Reviews in History 5.1). The Guardian judged it ‘ gripping ... (a) wondrous array of materials ... a call to stand up for your rights by any means necessary’. Its footfall (125,000 visitors, 115,000 tickets sold, against a target of 80,000) was almost 80% higher than for any ticketed exhibition previously staged at the Library ( 5.1), ensuring that the latest learning from the AHRC-funded research project achieved widespread exposure. This was reflected not only in the exhibition itself, but also in the exhibition catalogue (8,500 copies sold, 7,500 of them paperback), the British Library’s major public events programme, and the Library’s Magna Carta website ( bl.uk/magna-carta), all of which drew heavily on the project’s findings, with extensive contributions from PI Vincent, CIs Carpenter and Breay, and RA Lock. For 54,000 (53%) of the visitors this was their first visit to the British Library. In the 196 visitor surveys conducted, and 20 qualitative interviews (each of 25 minutes), the exhibition scored 9.16 out of 10 for enjoyment, 9.57 for ‘providing quality information to help explain the collections’, 9.56 for ‘providing opportunities to think and learn’, 9.54 for ‘bringing the collections of the Library to life’, and 9.51 for ‘inspiring you to find out more’. Comments from members of the public ( 5.1) included ‘a brilliant range of sources’, ‘really gave me a feel for the history behind Magna Carta’, ‘Five editions of the charter in 80 years … I hadn’t realized this’, ‘a privilege’, ‘I did look at it very, very differently’, ‘you become awed at how something so small had such a big impact’. As the BL’s Head of Manuscripts reports ( 5.1), collaboration between UEA and the BL supplies ‘ a model for the mutually beneficial integration of a research project and a major cultural programme, magnifying the impact of both’.

Public Debate and Advice to Parliament and the Law: The project was ‘central to the overwhelming success of the 800^th anniversary celebrations’ of Magna Carta in 2015 ([*] [*redacted text*], Chairman Magna Carta Trust, 5.9). More than this, amidst what could all too easily have become a celebration of myth rather than substance, the project offered repeated reminders that the past is a foreign place. Not only did people do differently then, but to various constituencies (Ireland, India, Jamaica or wherever else English ‘liberties’ have been employed as a means of distinguishing the rights of ‘subject peoples from those of native-born Englishmen) the triumphalist account of Magna Carta as a ‘passport to liberty’ must appear grossly over-simplified. Acknowledged for its scholarly nuancing of the record, the project’s advice was solicited by a variety of public figures, including Downing Street, members of the British royal family, and institutions and individuals both nationally and internationally. For example, [* redacted *] (Governor of the Bank of England) used materials supplied by Vincent for a keynote public lecture on Magna Carta and the economy (Lincoln Cathedral 2015), drawing parallels between economic outlooks in 1215 and 2015. [*redact*] himself reports that without Vincent’s ‘advice and the academic research programme from which it flowed, that lecture simply could not have happened’ ( 5.2). [*redacted text*] (Master of the Rolls) and [*] [*redacted*] (Chief Treasury Counsel) took advice from Vincent and other project members before staging a major Magna Carta debate (‘The Trial of the Barons’) in Westminster Hall. Flying the flag for UK PLC, project members toured four continents, with the British ambassador to Italy, for example, commenting that Vincent’s FCO-sponsored speech in Rome, in May 2019, was ‘informative, insightful … a great prompt for a lively discussion’ ( 5.7). [*redacted text*] [*red*] (former House of Lord librarian 5.4) reports that in the build up to the 2015 celebrations, Vincent’s Very Short Introduction to Magna Carta offered ‘a masterly yet accessible overview’, supplying ‘essential and informative reading to parliamentarians of all parties’. Vincent’s collection of essays, she writes, ‘underpinned our whole programme of exhibitions and events’. This included a display in Parliament’s Royal Gallery visited by 800 MPs and peers. In the process, she concludes, the UEA project not only made a substantial contribution to Parliament’s celebrations, generating 76 media articles with an estimated reach of 11,611,910, but through both the Westminster exhibition and its subsequent regional outreach (extending from Newcastle-upon-Tyne via Birmingham to Cardiff), ‘ informed and enhanced debate about the future of the UK’s democracy’. In the Australian Parliament, Vincent’s broadcast was described by the Clerk to the Senate ( 5.6) as ‘a triumph … a big part of the success of our Magna Carta celebrations’.

Teaching and Popular Perception: In 2013, Magna Carta became specifically incorporated within the UK National Curriculum at Key Stage 3 ( 5.10) and, following this, materials from the project website were freely distributed as teaching packs to schools across southern England. These materials are still used online in UK and US schools, as are short films that Vincent made for the Annenberg foundation, the American Bar Association, the British Library and interviews with Melvyn Bragg (still available via YouTube and BBC), with Reddit ( 5.10, estimated by Reddit as receiving 8000 reads, besides occasional visitors), and Russ Roberts (econtalk, 5.10, including posted comments such as ‘wonderful’, ‘fascinating’, and ‘cogent’). Books, articles, and teaching materials produced by the UEA project appear on the syllabuses of university courses in which Magna Carta is taught, around the world, from Brazil via Turkey to China. Vincent’s Bodleian book is judged ‘the standard listing for students’ ( 5.10), his Very Short Introduction to Magna Carta has been translated into Bulgarian and Chinese, and others of his essays were translated into French, Armenian, Chinese, and Italian, in edited collections specifically intended to offer a nuanced understanding of Magna Carta to international and non-Anglophone audiences.  The project’s findings are also more widely disseminated via popular works of history, including [*redacted*] bestselling 1215: The Year of Magna Carta. [*red*] himself writes ‘The Magna Carta Project website … was one of the principal sources on which I drew … elegant and richly populated, it presents world-class research and scholarship in a way that is accessible to all’ ( 5.5).

Legacy and Display: The anniversary celebrations also confirmed the need to rehouse and re-display Magna Carta, not only at the British Library but elsewhere. The new permanent exhibition in the British Library incorporates materials from the UEA project, including talking-heads videos by Vincent and Carpenter (upwards of 20,000 YouTube views, 2.5 million views via the BL site by 2018) ( 5.1). At Salisbury, Hereford, Lincoln, Canberra, Washington and elsewhere, Magna Carta was likewise redisplayed, with materials from the project integral to these efforts to explain and contextualise the charter. At Washington, for example, Vincent’s translation of the Latin charter into English is an integral part of the display. From Hereford, the Canon Chancellor reports that Vincent and the project were not only complementary to the charter’s tours of China, Portugal, and Italy, but ‘ of vital help to us’ ( 5.8). In Hereford, London, Lincoln, Salisbury, Washington, Canberra and all those many other places around the world where it is displayed, not only is Magna Carta better understood as a result of the project, but the charter’s legacy has been permanently enhanced. In the process, a regular stream of income has been generated, not least for those institutions such as Hereford Cathedral capitalizing upon Magna Carta as an object of popular fascination. As reported by the Chancellor of Hereford, the project ‘enabled us to achieve a far greater impact than we would have otherwise managed, driving up visitor numbers and helping us to make a financial success of things’ ( 5.8).

As a particular instance, consider the case of Sandwich Town Museum: Thanks to Vincent’s rediscovery of the Sandwich Magna Carta ( 5.3), the Kent Archives in Maidstone achieved unprecedented media attention ( time.com/3700712/magna-carta-scrapbook). In consequence, Vincent’s chief contact there, [*redacted text*] was reassigned from administration to direct engagement with the archives and the general public. The Archives have since enjoyed enhanced advocacy at County Council level, with consequent protection in terms of funding. An exhibition of the charter in Maidstone was visited by 4,956 members of the public. In turn, international media attention led to a bid from Sandwich Town Council for a permanent exhibition of the charter, and a new town Museum. GBP120,000 was granted from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Museum reopened in 2017 with Vincent as chief patron ( 5.3). Vincent’s discoveries, and the consequent publicity, gave the Museum a ‘centre piece’ around which their collection could be reimagined and rebuilt. It is open all year, and, according to the Mayor of Sandwich, ‘in a more accessible, interesting and informed manner … trace(s) the story outwards from the Sandwich charters to a much more nuanced appreciation both of Magna Carta’s significance, and of Sandwich’s place within a wider national and international past’. Visitor numbers have increased tenfold from 1500 to ‘ 16,000 visitors a year from all over the world … Families, school groups, and extra-curricular organisations that previously would not have been represented or interested’ ( 5.3). At a time of general retrenchment in local government expenditure, the Museum’s success, a direct consequence of the project’s discoveries, led to the employment of a full-time heritage professional, using Magna Carta itself as a means of reaching out to local schools and community youth groups. This is done through workshops, asking children to write and seal their own personal Magna Cartas, setting out terms that they consider relevant to the present day. In a part of Kent that has otherwise faced severe difficulties over the past 10 years, ‘all of this has had a positive impact on the people of Sandwich and surrounding villages … undoubtedly bringing large numbers of visitors and hence renewed prosperity to the local economy’ ( 5.3).