Exploring Hull's history via an historic church
Heritage360 worked with Hull Minster to produce an online collections management tool, a mobile-device tour and on-site touchscreens, in addition to 3D replicas of key archaeological finds from recent excavations.
The parish church of Holy Trinity in the centre of Hull was at the heart of Hull's City of Culture year in 2017. This transformative year saw Hull reinvent itself, with new energy and optimism drawing visitors from around the world, the impact of which is ongoing. Holy Trinity's status was changed to that of a minster church as recognition of the growing role and importance of the church in the life of the city and region and the church.
The church received around 220,000 visitors in 2018, compared with c.14,000 in 2015. Hull Minster was awarded HLF funding to help it put in place some of the policies and practices necessary for future sustainability. We won the tender to supply heritage curation services, assessing the collections which the church holds, creating a catalogue framework for a volunteers to continue and advising on conservation, display and preservation needs and strategies.
Hull Minster has a small but dedicated team of history volunteers who have been working on the building and its history for some time. Part of our work is to provide training and develop their sklls so that the church has a robust and sustainable plan for maintaining and continuing the collections recording and care into the future. A key element of this wider plan is establishing or developing relationships with other heritage providers in the city, many of whom hold material either on loan from the church, or pertinent to it, so they and the church can work in partnership and support each other through signposting, sharing of collections data and mutual co-operation.
2021 - Back to Life
Further funding from Highways England and NLHF have seen the completion of the 'Trinity Rooms' as part of the https://hullminster.org/backtolife project, creating a cafe and meeting/interpretation space on the south side of the Minster. Heritage360 worked with the Minster to create interpretation displays, including 3D replicas of key obects, interactive touchscreens and volunteer co-design to present the archaeological discoveries from the excavations of the churchyard and Castle Street burial grounds necessary to facilitate the highways work.
