Boston Townscape Heritage Project – Engagement

Client: Boston Borough Council

Project cost: £1.8 million

About the project: Heritage Lincolnshire and Boston Borough Council are working together to deliver the Boston Townscape Heritage Project funded through a partnership between National Lottery Heritage Fund and Boston Borough Council. This project will rejuvenate and restore the town’s historic centre as well as improve facilities for local people and boost the local economy.

As part of engaging the community we work on various projects such as:

The Boston Youth Ambassadors Programme we are working with Lincolnshire Community Volunteer Services (LCVS) to provide opportunities for young people aged 16 to 25 to improve personal, professional and creative development. Offering access to CV building workshops, career advice, work-based skills training, traditional building skills, as well as opportunities to get involved in heritage and arts events.

The Boston Heritage Skills Festival 2020 hosted various events to engage the public with their local heritage through understanding traditional building techniques, materials and learning how to protect and maintain historic buildings. The Boston Skills Festivals 2020 hosted a range of events including an Earth Building Masterclass, Introduction to Building Recording, Unearthing Boston’s Heritage Tours, Building Materials of Boston Talk, and a day long talk on Maintaining, Sustaining and the Retrofitting of Historic Buildings.

Boston’s Hanse Day taking place every May in partnership with the Boston Hanse Group. Hanse Day offers a wide range of medieval demonstrations and activities that celebrate Boston’s heritage as part of the Hanseatic League.

Boston Summer School 2021

An exciting opportunity for young people aged 16–25, from in and around Boston to get involved in. The team ran a series of workshops over the Summer Break of 2020 where they were to create a heritage trail within Boston’s historic Town Centre.

The aim was to hear more about what Boston’s heritage means to young people in the area and translate this into a heritage trail to be enjoyed by locals and tourists alike.

This project was funded by Lincolnshire Community and Voluntary Services (LCVS) and Boston Big Local.

Historic Boston (UK) Trump Cards we have worked with Boston Big Local and Boston Preservation Trust to create the Historic Boston (UK) Trump Cards, which are the first of their kind. We aim to engage the community with their local heritage in a fun and interactive way. It is a great way for all ages to come together to play a game and learn more about the rich built environment in their town.

We were regulars at the Boston Market talking about the project throughout 2021 especially to promote the Boston Townscape Heritage Bytes Festival which was held on 31st July 2021

: June 2021

The Boston Townscape Heritage Bytes Festival – 31st July 2021

On the 31^st of July, Heritage Lincolnshire hosted the Boston Townscape Heritage Bytes festival, but what did that actually mean?

The day saw Heritage Lincolnshire staff and volunteers in Boston, bring aspects of its historic core to the attention of passers-by. In addition they provided online activity in the form of a social media event and a virtual fair.

There were videos about an aspect of Boston’s heritage, such as the one created below. The idea was to create all the fun of being at a festival, on the computer screen. Updates came thick and fast on the day, but people had the benefit of being able to dip in and out as they chose and could watch after the event had past.

To give you an example, here is a hastily put together piece about the long history of Boston’s fishing fleet.

Enjoy!

Heritage Festival November 2021

Throughout November 2021, events took place for people to enjoy free of charge as part of the National Lottery Heritage Funding to promote Conservation and Crafts of Boston.

The Conservation and Craft Day was held at the stunning Guildhall and Fydell House in Boston on Saturday 20th November 2021. They were joined by a range of conservation/arts crafts people for everyone to come along and talk to, get creative and even try their hand at wood carving, mosaic making, clay sculpting and spinning yarn. People were able to learn more about conservation such as traditional roofing, stone masonry, lime pointing and more.
There were live demonstrations of medieval cookery and people were able take home a range of recipes to try at home.

Lime Pointing 22.11.2021

: Theory first!

: Now time to give it a go!

Wet Felting Workshop 24.11.2021

Tours of the Boston Stump, Fydell House & The Boston Guildhall 27.11.2021

: Fydell House Tour

: Boston Stump Tour

: Boston Guildhall Tour

Heritage Trail Workshop with Boston College UK

On 27th January 2022 we held a Heritage trail workshop with the Travel and Tourism class at Boston College UK

The workshop students covered, marketing, target audiences, research techniques, phone photography and more .

The workshop was led by Director Angela at Push Creativity Studio, Lincolnshire

CPD Talks Programme

In February 2022, a free CPD online Talks Programme was delivered for people to find out more about how to maintain and use their historic buildings.

We received a huge response to these talks with over 150 people tuning in online.

Heritage Festival November 2022

Throughout September, October and November, events took place for people to enjoy free of charge as part of the National Lottery Heritage Funding to promote Conservation and Crafts of Boston.

Here are some fabulous photos from our Collagraph Ink Printing workshop at Fydell House on 08.09.2022, the first event of the 2022 Boston Heritage Skills Festival. Everyone made some fantastic prints while trying not to get ink everywhere!

Thank you to Sinclair Ashman for leading the workshop and showing us how many different materials can be used to make gorgeous art!