This is the last in a series taking a step back from heritage and past related themes which has mainly consisted of a lack of posts and an entry on a pond.
This feeling of being what I call ‘heritaged out’ has arisen from numerous factors
1) Getting this whole Pastorm event adventure in Tamworth together and trying to work out ways of getting people involved.
1) Heritage is fashionable. It has been for a number of years but is now everywhere, take a look at the television schedule,everyother television program has something to do with heritage, eg. national treasures,ancient murders, Who do you think you are, antiques programmes. Heritage is now part of marketing, products are sold on their oldness and genuineness. Products are sold on the stories they tell.
In Tamworth itself with the Staffordshire hoard coming to town, the place has gone Anglo Saxon mad. From festivals, books, everyone wants a piece of some Anglo Saxon action. My natural and infantile reaction to all this is to react against it. The same thing happened with my dinosaur fixation when Jurassic Park came out and everyone went dinomad. I was about 10 then, hopefully I’ve learnt to take things differently now!
What could happen as with all fashionable things, is that a backlash could begin, it’s a world of boom and bust after all. Maybe the next riots will be gangs of metal detectors looking for objects to destroy in rage. Country house and local church destruction. paintbombing of Antique fairs. Even I’m not convinced but for an amusing take on what could happen, take a look at hobby mans video, metal desecrating, genius!
