Hi list members,
Anyone with an interest in urban public spaces generally, or public parks in particular, might like to know about the Whitworth Park project which I co-direct with Melanie Giles and Hannah Cobb. It's a community project funded by the HLF but research is also an integral aspect. We are currently mid way through the second season of excavation focusing on late Victorian and Edwardian park features. Our waterlogged deposits from the boating lake (filled in during the 1950s) are currently giving up some fantastic finds which will shed light on daily activities in the Park. In particular we've got some great toys to add to our research on childhood and public parks (the subject of a PhD by Ruth Colton, also at University of Manchester).
For those interested in hearing more about the project and our approach there are two short articles in Journal of Victorian Culture:
There is one article on project as a whole:
http://myblogs.informa.com/jvc/2013/03/26/%E2%80%98parklife%E2%80%99-past-and-present-the-whitworth-park-community-archaeology-and-history-project/
And another linked one on the school workshops:
http://myblogs.informa.com/jvc/2013/03/26/open-air-learning-schools-education-and-the-whitworth-park-community-archaeology-and-history-project/
For current news our own project blog is:
http://whitworthparklife.wordpress.com/the-blog/
Tomorrow we have a live Twitter event planned and I'll send a separate email about that.
Although we won't have time to reply in the next week or so we would be very interested to hear about other research projects focusing on the archaeology and material culture of urban public parks.
All best wishes
Sian
Professor Sian Jones
Archaeology
School of Arts, Languages and Cultures
Mansfield Cooper Building, Rm 3.17
University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester
M13 9PL, UK
Tel: +44 (0)161 275 3329
Email: [log in to unmask]
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