Image credit: English Heritage
Good to see the new information boards inside Pevensey castle, nicely positioned and well researched as we might have expected from English Heritage, both visually accessible and with the information pointing to the delights inside the castle, all well versed.
Local people have questioned though, why a lobbying campaign for better signage and more profile for the castle has taken English Heritage ten years to acknowledge.
Many years and much lobbying and campaigning has gone into the task of arguing the case for better profile for the castle.
Seven years elapsed before English Heritage accepted that there was a business case to be made for the Castle Cottage Tea Rooms. Brought back to economic life The Tea Rooms are now successful.
At one point English Heritage ‘lost’ the sound business case being put by a local entrepreneur to see the Castle Cottage Tea Rooms brought back to economic life.
Finally we got a result and the Castle Cottage Tea Rooms opened again. Now the business has successfully transferred to a second owner The business case for the tea rooms was always sound.
There are a number of references to the Bayeux Tapestry on the information boards, the embroidered cloth nearly 70 metres (230 ft) long and 50 centimetres (20 in) tall, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England, culminating in the Battle of Hastings.
Only a cynic would suggest that the reason English Heritage is at long last seeing that more profile is provided for Pevensey castle is because they know that the Bayeux Tapestry is coming to this country in 2021, on loan from France,
With or without Brexit the charity knows that up to £10 million is to be found by the Government of this country for educational purposes, to promote the year long visit of the world famous Tapestry to this country.
Why has ten years elapsed before English Heritage heard the call for more more signage for the castle, which played a well profiled part in the coming of the Normans in 1066?
If English Heritage gets their hands on a large part of the £10 million, perhaps they would like to pull their finger out of the moat a bit more and see that little Pevensey gets the proper profile we have so long deserved in the last ten years.
The Bayeux Tapestry being here in the country for a year is very big business indeed and potentially lucrative to a number of organisations.
There could be tangible benefits for Pevensey. Our panel on the Bayeux Tapestry is an almost 1,000 year old billboard. For visitor destination profiling, this does not get much better as a promotional tool.
Two years to plan the arrival of the Bayeux Tapestry in this country.
Establishing a connection with local people, and local organisations and stakeholders concerned with the visitor profile of Pevensey would not go amiss at this stage.
Simon Montgomery
