This Finnish partner has brought the skills and experiences of a multi-faceted organisation to the Raphael partnership. Kuru College of Forestry have had a very productive five year association with the promoter which has included working together in the COMMETT, ERASMUS, LEONARDO da Vinci, TEMPUS and Objective 5B programmes and initiatives. The work to date has been in the design and delivery of vocational training in forestry, environmental management and heritage management for Finnish students and staff coming to the UK and their British counterparts going to Finland. The training periods have ranged from 6 weeks to 6 months. Work in Eastern and Central Europe has been in relation to the design of training for Estonia, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Kuru have been very positive about making international links and broadening
their sphere of operations to include craft and heritage subjects as well as
forestry and boreal ecology. They are also somewhat unusual in their willingness
to work with private sector trainers and SME's. Kuru College was the founder of
an SME organisation called Pirkkaveisto Oy in 1996. This SME acts to employ and
assist those trainees who have completed courses in traditional loghouse
building at Kuru. As well as giving the initial training Kuru College was able
to assist on pricing and marketing of log houses. In June 1995 the Hirsikuru
project started, this involved bringing three Communes together through the 5B
programme to look at the niche that log houses enjoyed. The project led directly
to the formation of Pirkkaveisto Oy which now has 18 shareholders being 9 log
house builders, 6 sawmills, 2 wooden boat builders, 2 timber dryers and 1
specialist joiner.
Finland has a wealth of historical wooden architecture including the worlds largest wooden church as well as ancient houses, mills, farms and fortifications. As well as building new houses using traditional techniques and tools, Pirkkaveisto Oy have undertaken work to renovate and repair ancient structures and bring to the Raphael partnership the most skilled craft workers as well as knowledge and experience of tar production for traditional methods of timber preservation and an ability to look at ancient structures and plan and execute their reproduction and repair.
Both Kuru College and Pirkkaveisto Oy are backed by the massive resources of Tampere Polytechnic - Kuru College is effectively a part of this well-respected educational institution which has specialist skills which will have already proved to be of great interest and use to this transnational project, namely .....
Environmental design
Visual arts
Information technology
Building construction
Forestry
The Polytechnic is in the city of Tampere which has been a centre of trade, transport and commerce since the 13th century and after Helsinki is recognised as Finland's cultural centre and 'theatre city' . "
During the summer of 1997 Libby Urquhart of Grampus worked closely with
Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir on the excavation of an early Christian church from
the Viking era. The original building had been of turf with timber supports. The
use of timber in ancient buildings in Iceland is not well documented because
much archaeological work still remains to be done but it seems clear that the
source of supply was diverse. It seems unlikely that anything more than the
smallest roof timbers could be of Icelandic origin with larger timbers being
either driftwood or importation's from Scandinavia and Northern Britain.
Minjasafn Austurlands are part of the national Ministry for Museums and are
active archaeologists. They bring to the Raphael project the opportunity for
interactive learning through participation in archaeological digs in the East of
Iceland; it will be possible for the project team to look at the farmstead
layout (longhouse, etc.) at Geirsstaffir in Hróarstunga. Another specialised
area is in burial customs - this Raphael project team are interested in the way
wood was used in tombs and graves. Minjasafn Austurlands are also interested in
building structures and want to build reconstruction settlements in con unction
with the Árbćr Museum at Reykjavik as well as reconstruction the Geirsstaffir
church.
The Minjasafn Austurlands have, through recent researches, made more concrete
the link between British (and Irish) and Icelandic customs, religion and
architecture. This Raphael project has given a marvellous opportunity to
investigate these pan-European links further.
Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir was instrumental in receiving Grampus staff, i.e.,
Libby Urquart during the Summer of 1997. Both these heritage managers are active
participants in Raphael.
Dübener Heide Naturpark - Germany.
This Nature Park is in the former DDR and was only formed in 1982. It is administered and managed by a Trust and relies heavily on volunteer workers, the input of local people, including schoolchildren and donations from local businesses. The promoter already works with them on Leonardo da Vinci programmes and has had some 55 students and staff on placement undergoing training in art, heritage management and practical environmental skills. Amongst the Park's most notable activities is an initiative to manage 'head' willows in traditional medieval ways (pollarding, etc.) and reconstruction of old watermills and windmills. The famous artist Wolfgang Koppe is involved in visual interpretation with the partners and it is hoped that he will work also on this Raphael project.
Culture, heritage and history are areas of interest and the influence of Scandinavian peoples who came up the Elbe River and then the Danube is a current study topic. With the involvement of local people of all ages, they want to re-construct Saxon settlements as part of a youth employment/ tourism/ heritage initiative in the small town of Authausen. they have craftsmen available and receive trainees from Grampus each Summer. One important part of Raphael would be the transferring of Grampus skills in working with schoolchildren through the 'Adventure Education' initiative. Another important fact about this Park is that it is the most Western enclave of the European beaver and the staff are keen to combine cultural and natural heritage to give a more complete and innovative visitor experience.
This partner is a Governmental body and brings sound scientific skills and
efficient working methodologies to the partnership. They are a well-respected
wood technology and research institution in Florence who are working (amongst
other things) on wooden Etruscan settlement reconstruction in Northern Italy.
They are able to focus on the Nordic impact on the Etruscan, Villanovian and
Terramare cultures and their skills in the archaeology of wood and
paleobiological experience will be of vital importance. A delegation of Grampus
staff in August 1997 were privileged to see the work that the Institute are
doing on 1.5 million year old timber which were buried in a mud-slide near the
(now) town of Terni, before the advent of Homo Sapiens!
Under the Leonardo da Vinci programme the Institute placed a young researcher (Riccardo Spinelli) with Grampus for a month in 1997 as a precursor to this Raphael application and have established good working relations.
The Institute also has Danish, French, Greek, Austrian, German and Eastern European partners, they are experienced in transnational projects, i.e., Fourth Framework, Phare and Leonardo da Vinci and are able to access an enormous network for dissemination.
Another important role for them within this project is in the providing of advice on traditional felling and timber extraction, locating historically suitable timbers and the technology of timber stresses, health and safety, etc. also timber preservation with traditional materials such as tar -on this subject they will work closely with Kuru. They will also be working on excavated timbers to date them and identify species and source.
This partner was originally brought to the attention of Grampus by the British Government and a scheme called 'Enterprise Europe'. This scheme seeks to identify entrepreneurs in Eastern Europe and give them opportunities to form working partnerships with EU Member States. Zuzana Kmetova is an MSc. graduate of Zvolen Technical University and a specialist forester and heritage manager. On the Danube plain Slovakia has Scandinavian wooden churches and also early Celtic sites.
The Sloyaks have some very valuable experience of dismantling and reconstructing ancient wooden buildings; Grampus staff visited the national collection of wooden buildings at Dolný Kubin and the mountain village at Vilcolinec (UNESCO site) as well as ancient churches at Hervartov and Hronsek. As traditional craftsmen have become scarce, the country desperately needs to secure skills in reconstruction, renovation and preservation of ancient wooden buildings. Many of their craft workers earn so little for their efforts that traditional trades are dying out and younger people are going to work in the larger industrial cities. Kvacianska dolina, the ancient wooden mill at Oblazy is a marvel of ancient wooden architecture and will form a study centre for Raphael partners.
The horselogging school near Muráń teaches traditional timber extraction
and use of simple iron tools. The school is almost unique and in terms of
teaching traditional timber extraction with animals (horse and oxen), as
practised by 8th century settlers, is an important part of the project - the
Italian partner will be working closely with this institution. The country has
some marvellous 14th, 15th, 16th & 17th Century log houses and they would
add a different (more recent) dimension to the project since the original skills
in building with wood came from the North.
Slovakia has so much to offer that the plenary session is planned for the Slovak ancient town of Levoça - which has Europe's finest (and oldest) wooden alter piece as well as ready access to a wealth of ancient wooden architecture.
This innovative and justifiably famous centre is a major player in the project because of their existing facilities and expertise. The promoter was guided to them by the Danish Tourist Board in 1996 after a successful brief collaboration with the Viking centre at Frederikssund on Zealand where Grampus students had spent a week assisting with environmental management. the Ribe centre will be a central part of this projects operation when sample work in reconstruction of Viking longhouses and farmsteads occurs as a training mechanism at their settlement. The Danes will disseminate their wide range of skills and experiences to others, these skills have been learned through the building of a complete reconstruction settlement.
The tourism management experiences of the Vikingcenter are also critical, they are wellversed in techniques employed to bring culture, history and archaeology to life for ordinary people, including visitors from all over the world, They run pageants, role plays, festivals and events which incorporate the wearing of accurate representations of 7th to] Oth century dress, the preparation of food in traditional ways and the ceremonies for marriage, death and invocation of the gods, all as practised by the Vikings and 'exported' all over Europe and as far as North America. The fact that Ribe is in the heart of the Viking 'homeland' makes it the critical centre of this project from which the cultural and architectural influences that we want to investigate, originated.
Grampus students have already learned some important working practices and techniques and there is an on-going Leonardo da Vinci programme involving these two organisations, which involves the placement of trainers, vocational trainees and young workers. The current placements are in environmental management and Raphael will make it possible for culture, heritage, carpentry, art and drama to be offered to a wider, multi-disciplinary partnership.
The Vikingecenter are also able to draw on existing links with Swedish and Norwegian heritage partners who will advise this Raphael project as associates rather than full partners.
This is a 'company limited by guarantee' which is a none-profit making body.
The Directors have a very long association with transnational schemes. They
began working together in 1993 and the basic theory behind their business
activities was that they
involved themselves in anything to do with trees, timber, heritage and the environment. This included contracting, consulting or training and could involve forestry and arboriculture but was also concerned with the use of trees/timber for reconstructing ancient settlements, forest art and culture, medicines from trees and plants or the setting up of timber related businesses, etc. Grampus Heritage & Training Limited was formed because the Directors were doing more and more non-profit making and charitable work.
One particular project of relevance to this application was a study (under 'Eureka Euroenvirons') to look at innovative uses of small diameter produce from woodlands. This originally focused on coastal erosion control but has developed to investigate use for fuel, temporary shelters, play houses for children, vinegar production, temporary roading and equestrian jumps.
Since 1995 they have been very active in the Leonardo da Vinci programme for 'Education, Youth & training' and have sent almost 350 young people and 30 staff on placements to partner organisations in Ireland, Iceland, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Greece, France and the Netherlands. As well as working in these countries they are involved in other schemes (Phare, TACIS, Eureka, Interreg 11, LEADER II, Fourth Framework, ODA, Enterprise Europe, etc.) with partners in Italy, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Cyprus, South Africa, etc. In addition to their international work, they work on national and regional initiatives which involve European structural funds., i.e.,, EAGGF, ERDF and ESK This work is in Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Northern and Eastern England and always involves trees and often heritage.
Martin Clark (a Grampus Director) lectures on the BA (Hons) Heritage Management programme at Cumbria College of Art & Design where he delivers the module, 'Managing a Heritage Project'. He is a curriculum developer who has written programmes to M.Sc. level for UK and European Universities and colleges.
Grampus will have a co-ordinating and managing role in this Raphael project but will also bring skills in heritage project management, interpretation, advice and skills in forest management and the historical use of wood. The skills of the promoters as teachers are important, as well as lecturing in heritage management, they offer training in landscape design, soil science, silviculture, environmental management, business development and erosion control studies.
Their work has included purpose designed courses to encourage tourism in
depressed rural areas, i.e., the 'Eco-tourism Training Initiative' for North
West Cumbria and practical training that addresses very particular needs, i.e.,
the 'Use of Forest Residues for Coastal Erosion Control', County Sligo and
County Mayo in Ireland.
Grampus are providing the project director for PARABOW as well as a craft worker and trainer. From their Cumbrian base they offer access to the areas settled by Danish and Norwegian Vikings in the 8th and 9th centuries. Within 10 km. of their office are three of Europe's most remarkable 'hog-back' gravestones carved to represent longhouses and a source of inspiration for this project.
The promoters have established working relationships with all the other partners through a variety of EU initiatives and have been the driving force behind the establishment of this projects 'multiactor' partnership.
This private sector forestry and environmental company established in Ireland a year ago but built on the experiences of its Directors which extend to 5 years of working on various land use projects. These have included the renovation of holy wells, rejuvenation of derelict ancient oak woodlands, management of spawning streams for salmon and trout, coastal erosion control and the delivering of practical skills training to young Irish people and visitors from Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, Slovakia, Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.
Amongst their heritage and culture clients, Clark Mactavish include the Government Office of Public Works, various County Council Departments, Connemara and Killarney National Parks. They also work closely with Coillte Teoranta, the Forest Service, Crann and the Tree Council, all these bodies have an interest in traditional woodlands and the use of native timbers. In Northern Ireland they work with the Woodland Trust who are the UK's largest woodland charity, Clark Mactavish advise them on none-timber values of trees and woods, public access, eco-tourism, environmental management and natural heritage.
Clark Mactavish bring to this Raphael project the opportunity for students, craft workers and managers from all the partners, to come and study the oak woodlands which the Vikings and Celts were familiar with in the early medieval period. At Tranlaeur in County Mayo they manage a working heritage woodland with adjacent study and accommodation facilities.
Partners of Clark Mactavish and part of their network in Ireland are the
furniture college at Letterfrack who have an interest in reproducing ancient
furniture and artefacts from Irish timber using traditional tools and the Clare
Coppice Project who are becoming wellknown in Europe and North America as
builders of traditional, reproduction 'crannogs'. The skills of this network
will also be available to the partnership as well as the considerable expertise
of Clark Mactavish.
This is a brief description of the partnership; its strength is in the diversity of skills it brings to Raphael and PARABOW, these can be summarised as …
We believe that it would not have been possible to construct a more professional, dynamic and entrepreneurial team to take the study, preservation and reconstruction of ancient timber buildings forward into the 21st century. (Martin Clark writes …) The creation of PARABOW was the result of various factors coming together over a period of almost 20 years. 1 have tried to analyse when the first spark was struck and 1 think it must have in 1981 when, as a Forestry Contracts Manager with an SME in East Anglia in the United Kingdom, 1 visited the reconstructed Saxon settlement at Snettisham, 1 remember wondering where the coppice woodland products had come from and who had the skills to build as the Saxons had- Ten years later, as a Senior Lecturer at the UK's National School of Forestry, Newton Rigg, 1 took a group of third year forestry students to Bedes World Anglo Saxon Reconstruction at Jarrow in the North East of England. The reason for taking the forestry students to Bedes World was because changes in the UK forest industry had been dramatic due to the withdrawal of various fiscal incentives and this and many other factors such as the UK's very high population, pressure for land, demand for public involvement in forestry, etc., had led to a need for diversification.
The Saxon settlement was built of (raw) wood and 1 wanted my students to appreciate that new markets were emerging for forest and woodland products. 1 think all the students were interested and some had done some traditional woodland craft work and coppicing and these in particular could see the link emerging between culture, history, crafts and modern day forestry. |
In my final year at Newton Rigg, 1 wrote the UK's first international BSc. in
Forestry
which brought together Newton Rigg, the University of Central Lancashire, Kuru
College of Forestry and Tampere Polxtechnic (the latter two institutions are in
Finland). Part of the modular curriculum was a final year thesis / dissertation
and 1 wanted to give the students a broad range of potential topics (as well as
vetting their own choices). After visiting Bedes World again, 1 set one title as
'The Construction of a Pre-medieval Wooden Settlement'. A student called Jane
Pearson from Keswick in Cumbria selected the topic and did an excellent job of
planning in very fine detail the construction of a Viking settlement in Cumbria
(a county with a rich Viking tradition). By the time Jane Pearson had graduated,
1 had left Newton Rigg and was working independently as a consultant and
contractor I was supplying Bedes World with hazel, ash beams, honeysuckle (for
bindings), oak bark (for tanning) and charcoal on a regular basis and also
advising them on the management of the newly planted woodland on the site. In
conjunction with a company from Appleby in Cumbria called 'Landata', 1
approached Jane Pearson and asked if she would like to be involved in a project
funded by the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) to
reconstruct a Viking settlement at Ormeside near Appleby. We spent a period of
some 5 weeks planning the settlement and mapping the selected site and we gained
a lot of support from Eden District Council (the Local Authority district) and a
number of other tourist development bodies. The Ormeside project did not come to
fruition because residents of the village decided that they did not want
visitors on the scale suggested and it was very difficult to explain to them
that the Viking culture we wanted to portray was not one of violent rape and
pillage but rather peaceful and pastoral living and trade.
It was now 1995 and 1 began to look around for other mechanisms to carry forward the ambition of reconstructing ancient wooden buildings. An application was made to the 'Leonardo da Vinci' (Education, Youth and Training) programme of the European Commission and we were delighted to be successful. In the first year of the project, 127 young people travelled to EU destinations to complete training in forestry and environmental management. One group of 28 youngsters went to Denmark and did practical environmental work on the sand dunes of North Zealand. On a visit to see the trainees, Grampus Directors were taken to the Viking settlement at Frederikssund - this was within walking distance of the trainees' base and they were all very interested in it. They went to a dramatic presentation one evening and the people managing the site were so pleased to receive such a large group of British visitors that they arranged for interested trainees to do a few days practical work on the site - it turned out that they were all interested. Another very important factor in laying the foundation stones for PARABOW was the input of Cumbria College of Art & Design in the United Kingdom. 1 went to deliver a module of study there entitled 'Managing a Heritage Project'. 1 was given a course outline and a list of objectives and performance criteria for the BSc. (Hons) Heritage Management students who 1 would be working with but 1 was then allowed to deliver the module in the way 1 thought best. 1 ended up talking about how the 'man-inthe-street' perceived heritage and culture, how people outside the mainstream of the heritage industry and how people from other professions had so much to offer and how to bring cultural appreciation to the public. My lectures focused on Europe and different funding opportunities, practical management rather than intensively academic discussion and the visits that we made together with the students were to local cultural sites, many of which were comparatively undeveloped and certainly not 'honey-pot' sites attracting thousands of tourists. We went to Bedes World (1 knew this site well now) and wrestled with the question of cultural integrity and historical accuracy versus the day visitor perception of a 'good day out' . The concept of 'living' and 'participatory' archaeology was now very much alive in me and 1 think in my students. Throughout the Leonardo da Vinci programme, Grampus has made very extensive contacts and it was through these contacts and people / organisations they worked with that the PARABOW partnership began to emerge. This was strengthened and bolstered by some of my ex-students from Cumbria College of Art & Design and some international colleagues who had emerged as 'prime movers'. One very important potential partner, the Ribe Viking Centre was 'tested out' through a Leonardo da Vincl placement and through a forestry partner in Iceland, contact was made with the East Iceland Heritage Museum and Libby Urquhart was able to visit them to assess their willingness to participate. Through Enterprise Europe, the Slovakian forestry entrepreneur, Zuzana Kmetova was able to come to the UK and Ireland for a 10 week period; Zuzana played a critical role in pulling all the PARABOW thoughts together and crystallising the exciting potential input of Slovakia, a centre of Celtic culture in particular but also a crossroads for all the trading and warring tribes of Europe. The German partner, Dubener Heide Naturpark undertook Leonardo work with Clark Mactavish and Grampus in the fields of forestry and environmental management but very importantly extended the activities of Grampus laterally by offering placements for disabled and able bodied artists these placements were extremely successful and have impacted directly on the ethos of PARABOW. Other contacts were made through activities in the Fourth Framework, Interreg 11, LEADER 11 and Eureka Programmes of the EU.
For their vocational training work in Europe, Grampus and Clark Mactavish shared the UK National Prize 'Celebrating Europe 1998' which was given as part of the UK Presidency of the European Union. The prize recognised the broad spread of operations and particularly these organisations ability to involve different professions in projects to achieve common goals.
Grampus and Clark Mactavish staff brought their partners from Germany the Netherlands and Finland to London to share in their 'Celebrating Europe' success - the award was presented by Tony Male the Director of the Central Bareau for Educational Visits and Exchanges |
One critical factor for myself as author of the Raphael bid 'PARABOW and the
team assembled in Grampus was to draw people together not only from different
countries but from different professional disciplines because 1 had seen through
my teaching how rewarding this approach could be. The construction of the
partnership involved a
deliberate objective of selecting Foresters, Wood Scientists, Carpenters,
Heritage Managers, Environmentalists, Conservation Managers, Archaeologists,
Cultural Tourism Managers, Teachers, Instructors, Demonstrators and IT
specialists who were willing and able to remove traditional interdisciplinary
barriers and work together as a 'multi-actor' partnership.
PARABOW was born in August 1997, it took two months to write and was submitted to the Raphael Technical Assistance office in October 1997. The positive result announced as 1997 drew to a close was the best Christmas present imaginable for Grampus and the partners who had contributed to PARABOW's construction.