Opinion: How Can We Better Exploit Guildford’s Heritage?

Published on: 7 Oct, 2024
Updated on: 9 Oct, 2024

Guildford’s Norman Castle surrounded by grounds laid out in Victorian times.

By Gavin Morgan

Founder of the Guildford Heritage Forum

What is the future of Guildford’s Heritage Service? We got a rare glimpse at a recent borough council meeting. It revealed the challenges the council faces but also some positive ideas.

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee met on September 30 where Cllr James Walsh asked some questions of the lead councillor for Heritage, Catherine Houston. He said: “I know that Guildford is brimming with history but its heritage has not been fully exploited over the years?

“I think there is a lot here that is not joined up and sold. Can you give the committee an indication of the ideas that you and the Executive have about moving this forward.”

It was a good question.

The Guildhall in Guildford High Street with its iconic clock.

Guildford Borough Council owns some great historic buildings such as the castle, the museum, 17th century Guildford House and the town hall with its famous clock. However, for the last 20 years the Heritage Service has struggled to find a way forward.

Whilst other towns have benefitted from lottery money, luck has not smiled on Guildford perhaps our image as a wealthy, affluent town has not helped despite the precarious state of our council’s finances.

There have been two very ambitious lottery bids which both failed costing the town £hundreds of thousands.

Since Covid money has been tighter than ever so the future of the heritage service has seemed uncertain for some time. Heritage is not an important social service but it is a key part of the town’s identity.

At the meeting, the challenges facing the council were made clear. Councillor Houston compared the heritage service to the Rubik’s Cube or game of Jenga. “You twist one way and there’s another problem or you pull that one out and everything falls down – everything is so connected”.

Kelvin Mills the council officer who is head of Commercial and Community Services, spoke of rationalisation and “the sad loss” of the Victorian Schoolroom which provided unique lessons to around 40,000 children over 20 years – an achievement of wich the council can be proud.

Children experiencing a Victorian education in 2018

Cllr Houston gave a good account of all the work being carried out by small, overstretched heritage team including exhibitions, newsletters, digitisation of the collections and more. Everyone spoke warmly about the “beautiful old listed buildings” and their educational value in teaching children “the history of where they came from”.

It was good to hear the councillor for Heritage express her desire that the remaining four key sites should benefit the town for many years to come. The question, of course, is how.

Guildford House in the High Street serves as an art gallery and our tourist information centre.

Kelvin Mills highlighted the need to manage sites in a joined up way. Currently Guildford House, the Museum and Guildhall operate very differently but there is a great opportunity to link them up more.

Guildford is perhaps unique in that the council owns four sites strategically situated in an historic town with a pedestrianised High Street and a beautiful Victorian Park surrounding a Norman Castle. It is perfect for events as Heritage Open Days shows each year. On top of that the High Street and heritage can support each other – the High Street desperately needs attractions that can help it compete with the internet and heritage needs visitors.

Guildford Museum in Quarry Street.

Linking the museum, castle, Guildhall and Guildford house together, as Kelvin Mills, mentioned could really strengthen the towns heritage offering. Imagine if they were four elements of a town tour that visitors paid for and which explored the towns story. This would not be difficult to do and next year’s Heritage Open Days could be used to pilot such an idea.

Catherine Houston mentioned the many voluntary groups in the town and also Heritage Open Days. I have helped run Heritage Open Days for the last few years and we have used it to test ideas that could be a permanent feature in the town.

We created a children’s guide and a trail round the castle grounds with QR codes providing an audio history of the castle. Local games company, HistoricVR, created reconstructions of the medieval castle and have allowed the town to make use of them. Heritage Open Days also demonstrated that we can bring the High Street alive with reenactors and vehicles.

Christmas at the Castle

Before Covid the Heritage Service ran three heritage events a year – Heritage Open Days, Christmas at the Castle and Alice Day. There is no reason why we could not get back to that.

Kelvin Mills also mentioned making more use of volunteers. Guildford already has the Friends of the Museum and the Town Guides. Godalming Museum has designed its staff structure around its volunteers. A professional curator provides direction whilst a paid volunteer manager leads an army of very effective volunteers.

I believe the time has perhaps come for all heritage groups around the town to come together.

The key to moving Guildford’s heritage forward is to play to the towns strengths and take small positive steps forward. There are plenty of opportunities that need little more than the existing financial, staff and volunteer resources can provide. And perhaps there are small grants or sponsorship opportunities that could enable the service to do even more.

All in all, there were many positive ideas voiced at the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. I liked what I heard. I liked the positive, objective and friendly approach councillors took and I would like key community groups to be able to work with councillors and the Heritage Service. We need to be patient and realistic but we have plenty of opportunities and a variety of skills to share.