Impact case study database

We have used our leadership of novel interdisciplinary research to inform public attitudes to the chicken and demonstrate the impact of this globally significant primary food source on food security, zoonotic disease and environmental sustainability. We have created highly stimulating activities and materials to transform teaching practice in the UK, and targeted UN Sustainable Development Goals SDG4 (Quality Education) and SDG5 (Gender Equality).

In the UK we worked with the City of London Academy Southwark (CoLA), to develop a year of activities for Key Stage 3 pupils (11-14 years), [E1a] encompassing science, English and Art, and exploring global history, food politics and ethical consumption. Activities included an ancient DNA workshop, and artistic interpretations of the meat industry, culminating in the students creating a 9m-tall papier-mâché chicken (‘Dinnersaurus Rex’), displayed at the school’s Chicken Fest in 2015 and later at the Natural History Museum, Oxford in 2017 and viewed by approximately 40,000 visitors [E1b].

CoLA’s principal noted: ‘We’re trying to develop our interdisciplinary curriculum at the moment and the Chicken Fest has proven to be our catalyst...This is a school in one of the most deprived parts of London and it really benefits from this involvement, raising aspirations within our community… and in terms of our students looking at… a whole host of different areas they would never have considered, had we not got involved… [This] has inspired our students, enabled them to do… amazing things. It’s been remarkably successful’ [E1a]. Another teacher added that it also resulted in that cohort obtaining the school’s ‘highest ever exam results… [T]he sheer ambition of the project created a sense of excitement amongst the students in the school and they could see that hard work paid off’ [E1c].

We used the ‘Causing a Flap’ project to build on this trailblazing success and extend our UK reach by translating our original research findings into physical and online educational resources for mainstream Key Stages 1-4 pupils, home school and distance learners. Best and Maltby collaborated with educators during the development stage to trial, critique and advance the resources. Based on the feedback, they made the online packs editable, to allow adaptation to different education environments and needs. In December 2018, the suite of resources was made freely accessible via the TES website, a highly regarded UK teaching platform with global reach. By 31st December 2020, the resources had been downloaded 6,921 times [E2a], with peaks coinciding with the March and November 2020 Covid-19 lockdowns and the return to classrooms in September 2020. The resources have had international reach, with downloads across Europe, USA, Africa, Australasia and Asia [E2b]. They have consistently received 5/5 from user reviews, with positive comments on the engaging style and clarity of the content [E2c].

Internationally, we focused on Ethiopia, where our research had highlighted that the strong cultural and social significance of the chicken was unrecognised, and the GCRF project had identified a need for educational resources. In consultation with teachers and officials from the Ministry of Education of Ethiopia, we created physical pre-printed education resources based on our chicken research. These were designed to work with limited classroom space/internet access, expand the representation of women and girls (addressing SDG5), and include images drawn in the traditional Ethiopian style, alongside use of Ethiopian characters and names.

We exported more than 3,500 items, via Link Ethiopia, a charity aimed at transforming lives through improving educational opportunities in the country. They work in partnership with local communities to improve access to quality education for all students, encouraging mutual understanding and respect between different cultures. More than 3,000 students ( average class size 50) in 60 classes at 10 different schools have access to our resources, including reading booklets and posters [E3a]. Link Ethiopia said: ‘We know teaching aids and resources are scarce in the schools we support and it’s a real challenge for teachers to keep large classes of students engaged with only a blackboard, so we were pleased to support the Causing A Flap project…’ [E3a].

‘Often, donated English educational resources are difficult for Ethiopian children to relate to … and quickly become incomprehensible.’ [E3a] By contrast, the use of chickens increased and enhanced learning, as the resources contained ‘narratives and objects that are familiar to the children, to help them engage with what they’re learning.’ The resources have also increased teacher satisfaction: ‘[They] are so pleased to have adequate teaching materials which will help keep children engaged throughout lessons’ [E3a].

The relationships we created have led to ongoing education networks between the UK and Ethiopia, with Link Ethiopia using the developed resources in their work [E3b]. We also changed attitudes to educational resource development by showing how university research can provide multi-disciplinary resources to engage diverse educational bases [E1a].

We used our research to create a wide range of activities and events to engage with more than 100,000 people, including children, older people and vulnerable groups (via over 20,000 event attendees and 80,000 podcast downloads). We transformed perceptions and knowledge of the long, interconnected histories of humans and chickens and the role of chickens in future human and animal health, well-being and environmental sustainability. Later media coverage showed how the project contributed to changing perceptions into our relationship with chickens [E4].

Glastonbury Festival 2014: We hosted a stand in the Green Future Science Tent, which attracted 800 visitors from very diverse backgrounds (e.g. vegan caterers, backyard breeders, sustainable food trust workers and chicken vaccinators). Interactive mapping activities revealed that although most people knew chickens were not native to the UK, they had a wide range of ideas as to where they did originate [E5]. The event was very successful in demonstrating that our work in the past can help understand current cultural issues such as commercial meat and egg production [E5].

Being Human Festival 2014: At the Vindolanda Roman fort and museum, near Hadrian’s Wall, we worked with academic collaborators, partners Practical Poultry magazine, Equal Arts’ (a charity engaging older people and dementia sufferers), and their project HenPower (who use hen keeping to promote health and wellbeing and reduce loneliness), to explain our research to more than 100 visitors. Visitor comments demonstrated that we had enhanced public understanding of the chicken’s significance: ‘[We] explored lots of ideas about food production and animal welfare’. ‘Just starting with chickens led us to [discussing] world poverty, the mental wellbeing of old people’. ‘It makes you realise… how integral they’ve been to so much of human life’. ‘It has important implications for how we consider how chickens are fed, how they’re kept, [their] husbandry’. [E6].

Chicken Comedy Night 2015: We worked closely with comedian Steve Cross and TV personality Kate Humble to create a stand-up comedy event, which formed the climax of the Being Human Festival 2015 and was performed to a full house at the appropriately named Hen and Chickens Theatre Bar, London [E7].

Causing a Flap documentary filmed in 2018: Collaboration with Equal Arts, HenPower and Link Ethiopia allowed us to map our research findings about the ancient social and cultural significance of chickens to the present day, identifying circumstances in which chickens have transformed the lives of some of the most vulnerable members of society (including isolated elderly people, dementia sufferers, underprivileged children and those with learning difficulties). Their positive stories were recorded as a documentary in which participants told their own tales and experience of chicken keeping, and the ‘positive impact’ they had on their health and wellbeing [E8]. The video testimonials also highlighted the importance of chickens to Ethiopian women, linking to our educational resources above, and creating an ongoing path that is promoting positive perceptions of chickens and their importance in modern society.

Gastropod podcast 2018: Best was invited to talk on this critically acclaimed American podcast series, which explores the science and history of the food we eat today. She used the research to increase public awareness about the history of egg production and consumption, and the issues associated with it [E9a]. The episode was downloaded more than 80,000 times in the first six weeks [E9b].

Interactive exhibition at Fishbourne Roman Palace Museum 2017-2018: More than 50,000 people visited Fishbourne during our exhibition, including over 20,000 children on school visits [E10]. The curator noted that exhibition ‘feedback collected from visitors by survey was overwhelmingly positive and anecdotal feedback from our guides was similarly positive’. Additionally, most visitors (over 90%) indicated that they had learned something new [E10]. The curator added: ‘It was a powerful reminder of [the] value [of stored collections], both as an academic resource, but more importantly, as a way to use research to reach out to the public. It was, in every way, a huge success’ [E10].

In 1997, the facilities at Stonehenge were described as a ‘national disgrace’ in Parliament, and in 2009 the WHS Management Plan called them ‘grossly inadequate’, noting that, without an understanding of the history, origin and context of the monument, visitors could not fully comprehend its significance. In 2011, English Heritage (EH) published its objectives for a new visitor centre as part of the 2010-15 WHS Strategy for Interpretation, Learning and Participation ( English Heritage, 2011). The new centre opened in December 2013 with better interpretation of the stones, improved access to the surrounding landscape, and a coherent, accessible chronology to underpin new displays and provide a clear context for other presentations. BU provided key guidance, data, interpretations and artefacts, comprising:

• information for the ‘Wessex Timeline’, a new, large-scale infographic running the length of the visitor centre, presenting the new chronology of Stonehenge;

• digital plans for building full-size replicas of Neolithic houses;

• text, images, video, models, CGI reconstructions and physical artefacts for the exhibitions, all of which draw on the Wessex Timeline;

• updated content for the official Stonehenge website, guidebook, map, audio-tour, display cases, and information panels.

EH credited BU’s research with a key role in the new visitor centre, stating that, as well as enhancing understanding of the monument, it also underpinned approaches to presenting the Stonehenge site and managing the surrounding landscape [E1]. It confirmed that new insights gained from the SPACES and SRP projects have had ‘profound implications’. ‘The SRP… has been instrumental in redirecting attention of the public to the wider landscape… [while] the monuments and settlement at Durrington Walls… introduced a human scale and connection.’ This enabled the new interpretation to answer important questions about the people who built Stonehenge, where they lived and what their lives were like, presenting ‘a much more nuanced and intriguing narrative, which maintains attention on the wider archaeological landscape.’ [E1].

Visitors agree about the significance of BU research: responses to an independent evaluation of the visitor centre in 2014 confirmed 70% of 300 visitors surveyed about the new content [E2] strongly agreed they better understood the dates of the building of Stonehenge, its construction over time, the source of the stones, its place in the landscape, its relationship to the river and other structures and the changes in that landscape. Responses included: ‘[It was] the first time I had the link with the human settlements’ and ‘[I realised] how big the whole area is and the importance of the river’ [E2]. The survey also indicated improved knowledge of the new time sequence, with a further 88% of respondents strongly agreeing with the statement: ‘I have found out that the Stonehenge landscape changed over a 2,500 year-long prehistoric period and includes features from three different periods - before Stonehenge, the time of Stonehenge and after Stonehenge was built.’ [E2].

Throughout the reporting period, repeated, high-profile, national and international media coverage of BU’s research on Stonehenge has driven global public engagement with the monument and new visitor centre. BU research has been featured directly in outlets such as ABC Australia, BBC, Daily Mail, Washington Post and Sky News, with an estimated total global news reach of well in excess of 10,630,000 [E3a]. In 2015 Welham’s bluestone research featured in 383 outlets worldwide [E3b], while in 2018 Darvill appeared in a Discovery Channel documentary on the healing stones, with an estimated audience reach of 2,360,703 unique visitors [E3c]. In 2018-19 Welham’s research was part of an international exhibition: Stonehenge: Beyond the Mystery that began in Belgium (53,045 visitors) and went on to reach audiences in museums across the USA [E3d].

When the new visitor centre opened, visitor numbers immediately increased the following year (2014) by 8% to 1,346,177, and it became the UK’s third most visited paid-for tourist attraction [E4a]. In subsequent years this rise in visitors has continued, peaking at 1,604,248 in 2019 [E4b].

EH recognises that ‘the much-improved visitor experience has enabled us to reach a very significant proportion of British residents and overseas visitors’ and ‘resulted in an increase in the amount of time people spend at Stonehenge’ [E1]. The 2014 Visitor Survey indicates that, after a visit to the new visitor centre, 68% of respondents strongly agree they would like to explore the wider Stonehenge landscape whose importance our research has stressed [E2].

EH also notes that: ‘Visits [to Stonehenge] also have a very significant impact on the local economy of Wiltshire.’ [E1]. To put this in context, Historic England describes the heritage sector as ‘an important source of economic prosperity and growth’, estimating its value to the south west region alone to be GBP2,800,000,000 ( Historic England, 2019), while the specific financial benefits of world heritage sites to the UK (of which Stonehenge is the second most popular in Britain) is estimated at GBP85,000,000 per annum ( Heritage and the Economy, 2019, p.39).

Stonehenge also plays a significant economic role for EH as a whole, and thus, ‘The improved offer underpins the role the site plays in generating income for EH which supports the conservation and public access to hundreds of other sites in England.’ [E1]. This is confirmed by the 2014 Visitor Survey which shows that, after a visit to the new centre incorporating our work, 79% of respondents strongly agree they would like to visit other EH properties [E2].

BU’s agenda-setting research continues to feed into the future management and preservation of the Stonehenge landscape. EH acknowledges that the Stonehenge WHS Archaeological Research Framework produced by Darvill in 2005 ‘continues to frame enquiry’ [E2], and our body of work is a core component of the latest WHS Management Plan [E5]. One of the key priorities in the plan has been to ‘improve the interpretation and enhance the visitor experience of the wider landscape’. This has been underpinned by BU’s SPACES and SRP projects, which demonstrated the importance of taking a broader landscape-based view of the site.

Darvill sits on the A303 Scientific Committee, formed in 2017 to provide specialist advice to the A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down Heritage Monitoring and Advisory Group, comprising EH, Historic England, National Trust and Wiltshire Council [E6a]. Our understanding of the extent and distribution of archaeological features in the wider landscape has thus been instrumental in negotiations with Highways England on the course of the planned tunnel and rerouting of the road [E6a, E6b].

Darvill’s research into the potential healing properties of the Stonehenge bluestones in the past inspired an interest in how this could be used to promote mental wellbeing in the present. Collaboration with researchers at BU interested in marginalised communities, heritage NGOs and mental health charities led to the creation of ‘Human Henge’ (HH), a structured programme of therapeutic activities on the site to improve mental wellbeing. This 10-week programme of activities taking place both in the stone circle and wider landscape was delivered three times between 2016–18 for a total of 35 local participants with chronic mental health problems.

In a WEMWBS-based survey of participants, 79.3% reported a positive impact on their mental health, which increased throughout the programme and also continued a year later (88.2% confirming this) [R5]. Many credited the programme with providing increased optimism and confidence, inner strength and improved interaction with others. Participants specifically referred to feelings of connection with ancestors who had inhabited the site, reconnecting with their community, and engaging with the research: ‘[Darvill’s] knowledge [was] much appreciated.’ [E7].

For some, the programme also provided a better insight into their mental health issues, and improved strategies for managing them. ‘It’s broken down my social anxiety, my understanding of them has opened up… I think coming here and being with people, is breaking down the barriers… you can get trapped up in making the world so small.’ [R5]. ‘As someone who spent two years unable to go out, Human Henge has saved my life.’ [E8].

Participants noted a reconnection to place established through exploring their local area and landscape, one person reporting: ‘[HH] helped me connect with local people socially and local places with happy memories. Feeling more connected with Wiltshire and feeling like I have a place to be/belong in Wiltshire’ [R5]. The WHS agreed that the project ‘promotes the WHS as a whole, not just isolated monuments’ and ‘suggests ways in which people can harness the potential of the WHS landscape to manage their own wellbeing.’ [E9].

HH has demonstrated the contribution archaeological research can make to the wellbeing agenda, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 3. Its impacts have been widely shared by opinion and policy makers:

• The 2019 HH conference was attended by 80 researchers, practitioners and consultants working across the arts, heritage, wellbeing and inclusion agendas. It was opened by Alex Coulter, the Director of Arts Health South-West (part of National Alliance for Arts, Health and Wellbeing) and the Secretariat of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Arts, Health and Wellbeing (APPGAHW, chaired by Ed Vaizey MP).

• HH was featured as a case study in the 2019 APPGAHW Round Table on Heritage, Health and Wellbeing [E8].

• HH forms part of the evidence used by the Heritage Alliance in its 2020 report: ‘Heritage, Health and Wellbeing’, [E10]. This uses the evidence to make agenda-setting proposals for the heritage, health and care sectors, heritage commissioners, and five policy recommendations for UK government. These include promoting ‘the power of heritage in policy making’ with respect to these agendas, and recommending a ‘joint strategy to promote heritage, culture and the arts as significant non-clinical contributors to the health and wellbeing of the nation’ [E10].