21 of Feb 2008
General Manager Georgia Butters called on Councillors, businesses and development agencies to support visitor operations and research at Flag Fen at the 25th Anniversary Reception. Read the full text of her speech below.
Georgia Butters & Julian Richards at Flag Fen
“So what of Flag Fen today?
In the last two years we have had unprecedented success with project funding for the site. Thanks to our Fundraising Officer Sharon Shortland whose post is funded by the Esmee Fairbairn foundation until September 2008, we have received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, WREN, Biffa Award and Barbara Whatmore Foundation to name but a few and to add to regular support from Anglian Water and the Peter Boizot Foundation.
“These funds have supported the employment of a Learning Officer and a Park Manager. Through the Learning Officer post we have developed a completely new education programme. The Programme focuses on Celtic life, our environment and citizenship and has provided inspirational activities for over 4000 school children. It has worked with Frog Life to support disadvantaged youngsters and with Peterborough Regional College to support teenagers with learning difficulties to develop skills for employment.
Our events programme has supported wide public access to the site, and developed new audiences resulting in the most bodies on site in one day ever!
“Our Park Manager has worked with teams of adults with learning difficulties and local unemployed people to develop conservation, gardening and maintenance skills and in so doing create new paths across the site to meet access requirements, new hedging for the Bronze Age Settlement and new natural fencing around our boundaries. As part of this project over 1000 new hedging plants and trees have been planted.
“On the archaeology side we are in the final phase of writing up the last 9 years of excavations here which will result in a new publication and additional displays on site and we have trained a new volunteer team to catalogue our collection whilst seeking specialist help with conservation and storage.
“Can you see a theme developing here? We are an organisation that embraces partnerships and one which is completely reliant on volunteer support. In 2007 30 volunteers gave over 5000 hours of their time, or 625 days to simply ensure that Flag Fen remains open to the public. And quite by accident we have discovered that by working with volunteers we support the elderly to live independently, we assist young people to get valuable work and life experience, we help volunteers who have taken a knock in life to get their confidence back and we offer unemployed volunteers a route back into employment.
But all of this is under threat from a lack of public transport and lack of funding for professional staff to co-ordinate the efforts of this team. In fact in 2007 we lost 1/3rd of applicants for volunteer places because there is no bus service to this site.
Of our staff only I am funded by core revenue income. All of my 3 staff are entirely project funded. In fact in order to secure the team from 2009 onwards we need £150,000 per year, but we raise only £80,000 through admissions and associated activities. In fact in 2007 only £1000 of core revenue income stood between us and closure.
“So what of the future?
With support from the Heritage Lottery Fund we have completed a programme of review and planning resulting in our vision for the future. Flag Fen will become a vibrant centre for archaeological research, public exploration and social enterprise. We intend to work with a wide variety of partners to protect, discover and display this unique heritage, to develop new research facilities, to support traditional skills, to attract national and international star exhibitions, to inspire young and old alike and to harness the valuable contributions of a local population that can be proud of its heritage.
“We want to begin in our 25th Anniversary Season by planning for a complete redisplay of the monument and artefacts including a partial reconstruction of the ritual causeway. The first 25 of these posts will be placed over the coming season by volunteers trained in ancient woodworking techniques. We are also acutely aware that time is running out to actually explore the monument here. Unsympathetic development, drainage and climate change are all doing their best to dry out waterlogged archaeology. As the waterlogging is the only thing protecting the monument we believe we have only 20 years left in which to explore it fully. And so in our 25th Season we will agree the next 10 years of research to ensure that as much of the site is recorded before it is too late. Along with this we will finalise planning for a research centre on site that will provide developers and researchers with state of the art wetland archaeology facilities. But all of this needs a professional staff that has secure, sustained funding.
The first stage of securing this funding starts tonight -
In your packs you will find tickets for a Grand Draw. The first prize will be a solid silver pendant created by award winning designer Jacqueline Gruber Styger to celebrate our 25th year. The design is based on the Flag Fen scabbard found here on site and made in 3rd Century BC. Later in the year this design will be turned into a Flag Fen range of pewter jewellery by St. Justins of Cornwall and sold at outlets nationwide.
“Secondly this year sees the launch of our Archaeology in the UK training for construction engineers and developers. Anglian Water have already trialled this days training course with very positive results and we hope to generate much needed revenue funding. The course details are in your pack but in brief it enables participants to plan effectively for archaeology that might be found on a construction site, hopefully minimising risk to the budget and timetable when archaeology is found.
Thirdly we are developing corporate hire and training facilities and have entered into partnership with a local company to provide professional development and team building training here on site.
Finally tonight we launch our Corporate Membership Scheme giving national and local businesses the opportunity to invest in our future and celebrate our past. This scheme will provide benefits for members such as use of our meeting facilities whilst also providing much needed unrestricted funds to support staff at Flag Fen. I am delighted that Anglian Water could join us tonight as our first Premier Corporate Member.
So to conclude: The Trust has a tremendous opportunity to become a world class heritage centre and force for positive development in local lives. This can only be achieved with the drive and vision of our Trustees and significant financial commitment from those organisations who are promoting the development of Peterborough as a City for the 21st Century. Together with a professional management team and dedicated support workers we can secure the survival of this internationally significant monument beneath our feet whilst supporting the growth and development of a skilled local population.
We have the vision…..we now need your support to deliver it.”
www.flagfen.com
