Dig in to Heritage Week at 'Our Place, Your Place: Taunton'

Friday, 19 February 2010 12:09

The success of Taunton’s empty shop project, ‘Our Place, Your Place: Taunton’, continues with Heritage Week starting on Monday 22 February.

It includes talks on local history, researching family trees and guided walks, plus the chance to bring along and find out more about objects you have dug up. The highlight of the week will be on Thursday morning when the BBC will be broadcasting A History of the World from the shop and Mick Aston from the Channel 4’s Time Team will be on hand to answer people’s archaeological questions.

Calendar of talks and events for Heritage Week, 22 – 27 February:

Monday 22, 1.00 – 2.00pm Prehistory of the Somerset Levels

Richard Brunning, Somerset County Council (SCC) Heritage Service

Tuesday 23, 2.00 – 3.00pm Researching the family history

Esther Hoyle, SCC Heritage Service

Wednesday 24, 1.00 – 2.00pm Taunton Castle

Chris Webster, SCC Heritage Service

Thursday 25, 9.00 – 12.00am BBC Radio Somerset live broadcast

Digging up history - have you discovered an interesting archaeological object?

Anna Booth, Finds Liaison Officer SCC gives advice.

Friday 26, 1.00 – 2.00pm Roman Mosaics in Somerset

Bob Croft, SCC Heritage Service

Saturday 27 11am Take a walk with the family around the centre of Taunton

Susie Simmons, SCC Heritage Service

Project Lead, Jan Horrell, said: “Heritage Week is a fantastic opportunity for the people of Taunton to find out more about the history of where they live and get advice on all sorts of interesting things, from researching family history to digging up archeological finds.  We’ve had a great response from the public so far and want to encourage everyone to come along and get involved with what’s set to be an activity packed week.  As well as the talks and events the shop itself will have some great exhibitions including the Taunton Past Present and Future wall of comments and photographs from our many visitors.”

The aim of ‘Our Place, Your Place: Taunton’ is to bring residents together to learn about the town’s past, present and future - local people can learn about Taunton’s history as well as finding out about future regeneration plans. The project is located at 7/8 High Street, next to Past Times in what was previously Peter Briggs shoe shop.  Members of the public can visit the shop and get involved with activities until 20 March.

‘Our Place, Your Place: Taunton’ is part of the Museums, Libraries and Archives (MLA) Council Our Places project funded by the Transformation Fund. The two main partners involved in ‘Our Place, Your Place: Taunton’, Project Taunton, the team responsible for the regeneration of the town centre and Somerset County Council are supported by Taunton Deane Borough Council.  Associated partners include Thrive (a celebratory arts organisation for Somerset), Somerset Waterways Development Trust, and Transition Town Taunton.

To find out more about ‘Our Place, Your Place: Taunton’ visit www.ourplacetaunton.org.uk or contact Project Lead, Jan Horrell on 07825 978820 or JHorrell@somerset.gov.uk.

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