I am rather excited about the new Heritage Highlights project. The first one, Landmark Listings, went down well, and I think this one will be just as good. Last time, we used the National Heritage List for England to show that historic buildings and monuments have connections with iconic events in the history of England. This time, we want to show that buildings and monuments can also provide answers to intriguing questions, such as ‘are the statues of soldiers on war memorials based on real people?‘ or ‘ what was proclaimed the eight wonder of the world on completion in 1843, but ‘an entire failure’ just a decade later?’.
We’ve come up with 52 questions and answers which we hope will encourage you to look at historic sites in your town, provide inspiration for an essay, or just be really interesting. We will be asking the questions first on Twitter and Google+ and it will be great to see if you can get the answers before we tell you.
I am often asked, ‘why do we protect historic sites?’. The answer is not a quick one to give, but I think in large part it is because these sites hold the knowledge and wisdom of our forefathers that can help us to improve and enrich our lives today. You don’t have to live in a tourist attraction, like Lavenham or Wells, to enjoy them. Every town has its old buildings or historic monuments. When you walk down your high street, if you look above the modern shop fronts, you are more than likely to see something interesting to investigate, and if it’s listed, the National Heritage List for England will answer any questions you have.
You may find answers to questions you didn’t even know you wanted to ask, about things where you live that you have never noticed before. Where I live, in Ely, what visitors notice straight away is the cathedral, what they don’t notice, even though they will almost certainly walk past it, is the evidence of the Norman castle. The National Heritage List for England is such a great mine of information, and it’s very under-used for research. We are working hard to improve it and update it every day, so have a look for yourself.
I hope you enjoy new Landmark Listings. Do let us know if you can add more information to our answers, or if you have better answers than we do, and also let us know in the comments below if you have a really good question that you want us to answer. Enjoy!
Tony Calladine, Head of Designation at English Heritage.
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Dear sir/madam,
Re secret war time radio stations possible location
I have just read an article on the BBC news website about the secret war time radio station in Norwich. The article stated that Historic England thinks that there are 20 station is, yet to be discovered.
I think I might know where one is. Based in Chichester West Sussex.
From the late seventies to the mid 80s I worked in a local psychiatric hospital Graylingwell.
During my time there some the older nurses spoke of a secret tunnel that was used during the war time as a radio station. They said that the tunnel started below one of the brick potting sheds in the hospital grounds.
In the past I visited the potting shed to investigate. And found a fairly ornate spiral staircase. Leading down to a basement room. That on one wall had big and very thick wooden doors that were securely padlocked. Unfortunately I could never find any person who was willing to either unlock the door or explain why they were there. This I believe is the entrance to the “secret” tunnel.
It was also rumoured that apart from being used during the war time The tunnel had been previously used as a discreet entrance to the then county asylum. Previously during world war the asylum had also been used as a hospital for injured troops, which is fairly well documented.
Many years ago I also attempted to search the local council records over tunnel but was un successful.
Graylingwell hospital has long been closed and is currently being developed as a housing estate. However the area where the potting shed is located has yet to be developed and the last time I visited the area (a few months ago) The “potting shed” appeared to be intact.
Whilst I do not have any further information I will be more than willing to assist in any further investigation of this potential lead. Namely to satisfy my own curiosity.
Your sincerely
Russell S Tullett
Thank you, Russell- this is fascinating! We’re collating all responses we received and sending them to the research department. A team there has been interested in this area for a long time so this information is incredibly helpful. We have no current plans to get out in the field and investigate these leads but information like this is exactly what we need to begin researching the area. Are you able to send us an email at communications@HistoricEngland.org.uk so we have a contact email address for you? My colleagues may well want to get in touch for more details- sounds very intriguing.
Thanks,