Welcome to my blog. I am a former local journalist who now works in PR and a Conservative and community activist in Woking and Horsell. This blog will keep updated on local issues as well as my interests and quirky news stories.
Cannon from the Mary Rose
I struggle to understand how something as important The Mary Rose is housed in an exhibition only big enough to hold six percent of the artefacts that were brought to the surface with it. It’s depressing because it wouldn’t happen in the United States – where warships from only 30 years ago are kept as floating museums, nor in other parts of the UK that understand better the real function of national identity.
Identity is not a basis for nationalism – it isn’t a reason to think that you are better than everyone else. It is not a celebration of discredited moral values and practices nor an advertisement to return to them. Nor is it the quasi-worship of historical artefacts or the unhealthy focus on a particular part or event of history for the sake of nostalgia.
It is a self-awareness based on the narrative of history shored up by the tangible and concrete. It is the appreciation of context and an understanding of the relationship between the past, present and the people. It is not necessarily concerned with the future – that is the nation’s to decide.
My concern is not necessarily that the Mary Rose artefacts are largely hidden from view. It is the attitude within government that belies this; that English history – and the British history that frames it – is not important enough to warrant investment and the message that sends to people young and old.
We need to feed the vacuum of the English identity with positive and interesting stories. If we don’t, we hand the advantage to those who would define Englishness in an entirely different way.
Update 12/10: I’ve just watched the Newsnight edition with the focus on the emerging English Defence League. It is precisely these kinds of people who will fill a void if we are not prepared to invest in our heritage. Heritage shouldn’t be about large country houses and lofty art collections, it should be about the lives of ordinary people as our ancestors lived them. In Tudor Britain, people were farmers, labourers or craftsmen or else they were retained military personnel.
The records that survive are largely written by clergy, lawmakers or nobility and don’t paint a balanced picture of life. The Mary Rose artefacts can be a small part of cutting through this barrier.
