Greendown School Pupils Working On Interpretation Project At Lydiard House16 May 2008 A group of Year 8 pupils from Greendown School in Swindon have been working with staff at Lydiard Park to update and improve the sound boxes in the State Rooms of Lydiard House. The final stage of their project takes place on Monday 19 May, when students will work with Rhys Beetham from Audioposts Ltd and Kate Nash, Lydiard Park Education Officer to record a new child-friendly audio commentary. These sound boxes provide visitors to Swindon's foremost historic house with additional interpretation and information about the life of the family and servants who lived at Lydiard Park. Visitors can press buttons on the sound boxes to hear different stories about the people who lived here in the past or to highlight particularly interesting features in each of the State Rooms. There is also a button giving child-friendly interpretation. Kate Nash, Education Officer at Lydiard House and Park, said: Given the recent restoration work in the park, we wanted to bring the audio commentaries up to date by reflecting on the importance of the Walled Garden, the lake and the Ice House to the family who lived there. We approached Greendown School to work with us to write and record a new script for the childrens buttons. It has been a very exciting process and the students have been very enthusiastic - the final stage of the project will take place on Monday, 19 May when we will be recording the new children's stories for the audio boxes. Councillor Nick Martin, Chair of the Lydiard Park Management Board, said: "This audio interpretation really helps to bring the past to life and is very popular with visitors of all ages. The launch of these new updated, audio guides is part of the summer programme of events at Lydiard House and Walled Garden, which includes interactive trails in every school holiday, a family Archaeology Day, theatre in the park show and a costume exhibition displaying stunning wedding dresses, specially created for TV and film productions. For more information on visiting Lydiard Park visit www.lydiardpark.org.uk. |
IRONING OUT INTERPRETATION AT BLAENAVON23 June 2008 As part of Cadw’s commitment to improving visitor services at its sites across Wales, visitors to Blaenavon Ironworks can now better appreciate the life and times of workers during the early years of the industrial revolution thanks to a raft of new interpretation facilities installed at the site. Following the incredible success of the BBC Wales living history series, Coal House, and unprecedented interest in this World Heritage Site, visitors to Blaenavon Ironworks will now have the chance to step inside the newly whitewashed and period furnished Stack Square ironworkers’ cottages. The latest audiopost interpretation technology is also now installed and there’s even a chance to dress up in period costume or exchange a truck token or two! Cadw, the Welsh Assembly Government’s historic environment service, recently took over direct management of the Blaenavon Ironworks and since March 2008 access to the site is free to all. As well as a guided tour of the site, the new audio posts provide dramatized bilingual information, offering a welcome and advice on how visitors can explore the site. Members of the public will now be able to visit Stack Square, the community of small terraced dwellings built for pioneer ironworkers as seen in the Coal House series. Two of the Engine Row cottages have been furnished as they might have appeared in 1790 and in 1841 and there’s even a chance to take a peek upstairs at the newly furnished bedroom. This will allow members of the public to see the cottages for themselves and learn more about them through a photographic exhibition. The truck shop, cottages and bedroom are fully furnished and ambient sound including background noises and dramatised voices, as well as effective ‘flickering flames’ are included in the cottage and truck shop interiors. School pupils can try out the clothing of the period with costumes available for dressing up in the bedroom. And in the truck shop there will be a chance to exchange truck tokens, a daily part of industrial life during iron making. The tokens were issued by the Ironmasters as payment of wages and could be exchanged at the company shop for goods. Site Operations Manager for Cadw, John Wallis said, “Blaenavon Ironworks is one of Europe’s best preserved 18th-century ironworks, and the new developments at the site will hopefully engage visitors to get a feel of what life was really like for the ironworkers during the Industrial revolution in south Wales valleys.” |
