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Oral histories, communities and identity

Oral histories allow us to better understand the thoughts, feelings and motivations of ordinary people in a way that ‘official’ historical documents cannot. We can:

• advise on ‘best practice’ in the development of oral history projects
• deliver oral history training for groups or businesses
• organise and capture oral histories for specific projects
• advise on ethics, cataloguing and data storage of recorded interviews
• provide a platform to showcase projects and outcomes
• advise on online or hard copy publications and exhibitions of projects

Conservation science

This theme focuses on landscape change and preserving our ecological heritage. We have ongoing collaborations with Fishbourne Roman Palace and Cumberland House Natural History Museum.

At Fishbourne we aim to build an understanding of how landscapes and land use have evolved over the past 2,000 years, and how people relate to landscapes and perceive these changes.

With Cumberland House Natural History Museum, we are digitising and cataloguing botanical specimens within the Portsmouth Museums herbarium collection (PMH), to make them available to the wider research community, citizen scientists and amateur naturalists.

Valuing heritage

In today’s evolving world, celebrating the past, promoting and valuing heritage engenders people’s engagement with heritage, and heritage can contribute to both social, business and economic development and growth.

The aspirations of this theme relate to the conservation and preservation of heritage assets and culture.

They accord to circular economy, sustainability and low carbon optimisation for the productivity of culture and heritage assets and in capturing the value of these along with the economics of their uniqueness.

Central to this is a focus on wellbeing, inclusive growth and accessibility.

Community heritage

The main focus of this theme is community outreach to help share and connect our heritage research with a wider audience.

This work includes efforts around identifying, collecting and preserving heritage collections which may comprise objects, archival material and oral histories.

We also aim to identify appropriate funding opportunities and enable the creation of strong funding bids in partnership with community and heritage organisations. Our aspirations are to build and strengthen relationships with stakeholders in Portsmouth and beyond, as well as to support and develop local heritage capacity.

Connected heritage

Digital heritage is an emerging multidisciplinary field that combines the expertise of heritage management, museum studies, history, archaeology, conservation, preservation and current digital and emerging technologies.

Digital heritage conducts research on the impact and application of digital technologies in a cultural heritage context.

It seeks to create novel approaches and opportunities for understanding and experiencing the past, ensuring that cultural heritage remains relevant and accessible in the digital age.

Local built and maritime heritage

Portsmouth’s local built heritage derives from maritime heritage and shapes people’s heritage. 

As a hub of naval architecture and maritime culture within Britain’s invasion coast, the city connected global naval bases and dockyards whose communities blended and returned, like Bermuda’s 1950 dockyard apprentices.

This theme focuses on the community’s intimate engagement with and vision of its built heritage through the Portsea Heritage Project, Growing Portsea and Treadgold’s stories, building resilience and intergenerational connections.