GUIDING PRE 1789 BATTLEFIELDS

PRECIS There is very little commercially successful battlefield tourism to pre 1789 battlefields. This is specifically a problem for battlefield tourism in Britain because most of our battlefield heritage is pre 1789. Heritage tourism is a major reason for tourists to visit Britain and a significant part of the UK economy. There are no significant major differences in guiding pre 1789 battlefields to more modern battlefields. There are degrees of difference in the surviving topography, historic information and archaeology on which to tell the story of the battle. There appear to be few fundamental differences in the types of visit to battlefields pre and post 1789. There are, of course, fewer people visiting to the graves of relatives, but there is often a Remembrances element to visits to pre 1789 battlefields. British Battlefield history encompasses the story of many internationally known historic and literary figures. There are significant weaknesses in how Britains battlefields are managed as a tourist destination, when using the integrated destination management model. Although Britain has plentiful heritage tourism assets and an infrastructure that supports tourism, there are many obstacles. There is no strategy for managing battlefield tourism. British destinations are promoted by regions rather than historic theme. There are relatively few created battlefield heritage assets such as interpretation centres. There is no significant inward or internal tourist industry promoting battlefield tourism. The BCMH, Battlefields Trust and GBG could help to develop and support Britain as a Battlefield Tourism destination. All three bodies could lobby for a national strategy with government and industry bodies. Their members could play significant roles. The Battlefields Trust in developing battlefield interpretation and presentation. The Guild of Battlefield Guides in providing a body of resources capable of leading tours and the BCMHs members can promote awareness of battlefields through popular history.

PRESENTATION This presentation, from the point of view of a battlefield guide is intended as an introduction to the following four presentations on British Battlefields. It is also intended to provoke discussion about the roles that the British Commission for Military History, the Battlefields Trust and the Guild of Battlefield Guides, and their members may have co-operatign for a common good. As you have heard from Chris Scott, there is a commercial dimension to the Guild of Battlefield Guides International, a trade body. The overwhelming commercial reality for battlefield guides is that it is very difficult to make money touring to pre 1789 battlefields. This matters to British military historians because Britain has a lot of battlefields, but almost all, by any definition date from before 1789.

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According to English Heritage, heritage tourism is an industry worth 12.4bn a year to the UK employing 195,000 people. Taking into account indirect economic benefits, heritage tourism is responsible for 21bn of UK GDP annually. Heritage tourism employs 195,000 people in the UK.1 Very little of this is made up of visits to battlefields. There are less than ten battlefield centres in the UK of which only the English Heritage site at Battle Abbey, the Leicester County Council owned Bosworth centre and the Floddon and Bannockburn sites in Scotland contribute any significant revenues. Why is it that there is no significant pre 1789 battlefield tour industry? Is it a function of the experienced delivered by the guide? Is there intrinsically something less appealing about earlier warfare or is it the result of the way that the resources are managed as tourist destinations?

Is it possible to guide pre 1789 Battlefields?

The Guild of Battlefield Guides requires competent guides to demonstrate the following responsibilities:Knowledge: the relevant military history (When? Where? Why? Who? What? How? Impact?) - the Battlefield from the 3 key perspectives, with historical, topographical and archaeological material placed in context to enable appropriate conclusions to be drawn Presentation: Communication skills and style - the ability to convey information effectively and to vary presentation methods to make it easily received and understood by each audience. Duty of Care: Customer care - as regarding conduct of tours on the groundnot administration, (the prerogative of the operator), but issues which affect learning and enjoyment.2 These are applicable to all battles and battlefields throughout time. However, the Guide seeking to lead a party around a pre 1789 battlefield faces some challenges compared with more modern battlefields. These are summarised in table 1 Its a blinding glimpse of the obvious that there is far less information about these battles and less of the historic battlefield to see when you visit it. However, in practice this tends to affect the way that the battle is presented rather than whether the battlefield can be visited at all. 1. The limitations of the touring day restrict the amount of information that can be delivered. Visitors need time to reflect and explore. It would be impossible to pass on more than a fraction of the information on any single C20th battle. At a stand on a 20th century battlefield the guide may be bringing the past to life with a gripping first hand account, selected from dozens of possible accounts, after pointing out the troop locations on the ground. On a

2.

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3.

medieval battlefield the time may be spent reconstructing the topography or the evidence that leads to the historic interpretation. In the absence of a museum or visitor centre able to provide background information, the tour may include participation by a re-enactor and be supported by visual aids. .

Table 1 Comparison of Guide task for pre and post 1789 Battlefields. Guiding Post 1789 Pre 1789 Responsibility Knowledge Often overwhelming volume of Limited information to information to research and assimilate. Guide must assimilate. understand hypotheses and alternative theories Relevant military The basic facts are generally Often sparse information history known even if conflicting with many questions When?, Where? sources and volume of unanswered. Guide can Why? Who? information makes precision outline alternative theories What? How? difficult. with appropriate caveats. Impact? Historical Generally known and Rarely documented in any Perspective of supported by memorials and detail. Guide can caveat Battlefield documents photographic and their interpretation as cinematic evidence. hypotheses? Topographic Often supported by Greater changes in perspective of contemporary maps that can be landscape and less Battlefield directly related to modern documentation. Guide may mapping. Changes to the need to find fragment of landscape will be documented historic landscape and use and may be supported by visual aids. contemporary images. Archaeological Remains of fieldworks, Sparse archaeological perspective of significant buildings, graves evidence. Guide may use Battlefield and battle detritus. artefacts or reconstructions Presentation Focus on selectivity for audience: Extensive scene setting: - Topography - Art of Warfare Managing uncertainty and presenting hypotheses Vast majority of battlefields are outside established tourist areas.

Customer Care

Vast majority of battlefield visits take place to established tourist destinations.

From the guides point of view, it is possible to research, design and deliver a battlefield tour for pre 1789 battlefields. The emphasis may be different, but the tour can be historic and entertaining.

Why might people be less interested in pre 1789 battlefields?

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There has not been very much market research on who visits battlefields and why. In autumn 2006 The Royal British Legion commissioned research about British attitudes to visits to battlefields, memorials and war cemeteries. This revealed some interesting facts about peoples attitudes:Table 2 Summary of Royal British Legion survey data From a survey of 1000 Britons part of an omnibus survey 2006

Proportion who have visited a battlefield or memorial overseas.

28%

Do you plan to visit in the future Definitely Possible Unlikely Never

5% 22% 31% 41%

Military History and Family History Men Military History Family History 34% 30% Women 11% 40%

No difference between income levels, socioeconomic groups or age.

As you can see, about one in three British men is interested in military history as is one in ten British women. A substantial proportion of the public should have an interest in battlefields. Furthermore, a substantial minority have visited battlefields overseas and similar proportions expect to make a visit in the future. The difference between the responses to the questions about interest in family history versus military history illustrates distinction between pilgrimages and battlefield tours that emerged after the Great Wariii Diagrams 1 &2 show models for categorising types of visitors to battlefields and are based on work published in The Darker Side of Tourism. iv These propose dimensions to categorise battlefield visitors by their interests.

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Diagram 1 Personal Identity (Family History) and Battlefields

Intensity of experience High

Grieving for close relative or comrade

Obsessive activist

Genealogist Curiosity About ancestor National Pilgrimage -ANZAC & Gallipoli -Poppy Day Local Historical festival Low Imaginative curiosity

Local Historian

Private

Public

The hypothesis is that the Pilgrimage motivation for a battlefield visit is ultimately derived from the individuals response to death on the battlefield. These range from grieving for the death of a comrade or relative through to public expressions of Remembrance and commemoration. The positioning of types of visitor is not based on any research data, but is a way to categorise the different types of visitor experience. It is rare to find people who can identify relatives who fell in pre 1789 battles. These battlefields will not attract people making a personal grave visit, which must include many of the visitors to the battlefields of the C20th. However, there are people who make a major emotional commitment to the cause of individual historic figures. Thus, the stone marking what was thought to be the site of King Richard IIIs death is decorated with tributes of white roses. Some pre 1789 attract the kind of public ceremony usually associated with C20th battlefields. For example, the open air service for the dead at Towton and the Mass for the dead at St Albans held in February 2011 and the regular service of remembrance at Tewksbury Abbey.

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Diagram 2 Military History and Battlefields

Intensity Obsessive wannabe Professional Soldier

High

Returning veteran

Historian Re-enactor Airsoft/paintballer

Imaginative curiosity Low Private

National Curriculum School visit

Public

There is plenty of evidence for the disproportionate interested of the public in post 1789 military history. The proportion of shelf space in book shops, or time dedicated to history on TV all points to this. There is no intrinsic reason why old battlefields should hold less interest for consumers of military history, or why some campaigns or wars hold more interest than others. John Keegan in The Battle for History: ReFighting World War Two has documented the phenomena. It may be that people identify more closely with the recent past. In theory, educational visits are driven by the national curriculum. Including The nature of trench warfare in Key stage 3 and War Poets in several English syllabi has done much to justify the volume of schools travel to the battlefields of the Great War. The English Civil War is less popular as an out of the classroom experience. Military visitors undertaking realities of war tours, battlefield studies and staff rides prefer to visit battlefields where the weapons and tactics can be most easily related to modern warfare. However, some organisations recognise the value in studying earlier eras. A recent RAF Staff ride included Agincourt as a study in leadership and the current Chief of the Defence Staff when Commander Land forces took his headquarters staff to the battlefield of Roundway Down. Financial constraints may force more British military staff rides to look at British destinations. Under both models it would be logical for there to be less interest in battles which took place longer ago. There are fewer personal direct connections with participants in older battlefields. There is a lower level of interest in older military history. Copyright Frank Baldwin 2011

But this does not explain the whole picture. The level of interest in some battlefields has not declined as the veterans faded away. In particular the number of tourist visitors to Gallipoli and the Western Front has increased, and not decayed with time. Some older battlefields retain their status as a destination. For example Bannockburn, Culloden, Waterloo and Gettysburg retain their interest and support heritage tourism.
Formatted: Heading 2

What characteristics support long term heritage tourist interest in battlefields?

The models used by business strategists may provide some clues. Diagram 3 is from a paper by Larry Dwyer and Chulwon Kim on Destination Competitiveness v

The right hand side are the results, in terms of competitiveness and socioeconomic measures of success.

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The Endowed Resources are those inherited and contrasted with those created for tourism. Natural resources include mountains, lakes, beaches, rivers, climate etc. For battlefield touring they are the battlefields themselves, together with the non battlefield countryside and the climate. Cultural Resources normally include the culture, traditions and cuisine of the destination. For battlefields this might also include the historic ambiance of the period of military history. Created Resources include tourism infrastructure, special events, and the range of available activities, entertainment and shopping. For battlefield touring these include anniversary events, re-enactors, and archaeological excavations. Supporting Resources are the generic factors that support tourism, for example, general infrastructure, and accessibility of destination, quality of service hospitality and market ties. Situational Conditions are forces in the wider external environment that impact upon destination competitiveness. Situational conditions relate to economic, social, cultural, demographic, environmental, political, legal, governmental, regulatory, technological, and competitive trends and events that impact on the way firms and other organisations in the destination do business, and present both opportunities and threats to their operations. Destination Management factors are those that can enhance the appeal of the core resources and attractors, strengthen the quality and effectiveness of the supporting factors and resources and best adapt to the constraints imposed by the situational conditions. These include activities undertaken by the public sector such as the development of national tourism strategies, marketing by the NTO, national and regional manpower programmes, environmental protection, Legislation etc. Included among the activities of the private sector might be tourism/hospitality industry associations, industry involvement in and funding of destination marketing programs, industry training programmes, industry adoption of green tourism operations and so on. Demand Conditions. This category comprises three main elements of tourism: demand-awareness, perception and preferences. Awareness can be generated by various means including destination marketing activities. The image projected can influence perceptions and hence affect visitation. Actual visitation will depend on the match between tourist preferences and perceived destination product offerings. vi Britains pre 1789 battlefields have many of the ingredients to be a successful destination. The problem is that they are not joined up. Our natural resources are 50- 100 well defined battlefields ands sieges in the United Kingdom which would meet the English Heritage Battlefield Panel listing criteria. The location must be known, the landscape sufficiently preserved to interpret the topography and the conflict being significant enough to be described as a battle. In

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addition there are perhaps 400-500 others which dont meet the criteria, but could form part of a tour. Negative factors must include the climate, which is not always predictable or pleasant for a days battlefield walking. Britains Heritage Relevant heritage assets are immense, from the Royal Family and our nobility through to Shakespeare and the Magna Carta. We have a wealth of historic memorials and buildings that play their part in our battlefield history. They range from the iron aged forts of ancient conflicts through to the archaeological finds and excavations of our battlefields. The monumental evidence of battles, such as churches like Battle Abbey and Shrewsbury are direct connections to these battles. There are surviving parts of city walls and castles from sieges as well as the preserved damaged buildings from the Civil Wars to the Blitz. The UK has good supporting resources for battlefield tourism. Its a major tourist destination and well served within the limitations of the UK economy and culture. A battlefield tour is a created resource. Guides tell a story, based on the research, analysis and communication skills of military historians. They can use the topography, supported by museums and interpretation centres and monuments to create an experience that consumers value. Britain is home to many re-enactment and living history groups and stages many commemorative events. The Battlefields Trust alone has numerous scheduled annual walks and English Heritage offers a series of Battlefield hikes. How many of these are packaged or promoted for tourists? Who is promoting battlefield tourism? Destination management is practically non-existent. Government policy is to regard Culture and heritage as a luxury that can be sacrificed and not as an economic resource. Its positioning within the Department of Culture, Media and Sport as opposed to the DTI lends weight to this. While English Heritage has a strategy for battlefield preservation, there is no strategy for the use of battlefields for heritage purposes, beyond commissioning a series of walks. English Heritages cultural heritage data does not appear to include information about battlefields, unless they are within English Heritage property. Managing inbound battlefield tourism is further hampered by the fragmentation of tourist effort down to regions. Thus Kent has appropriated the term 1066 country, which excludes Fulford and Stamford Bridge. So what can be done? The Battlefields Trust could be in a position to promote and support battlefield tourism, as a sustainable use of battlefields. However, it is an under funded charity, with conflicting demands on its time and resources for battlefield preservation and interpretation. The Guild of Battlefield Guides International could take a more active role. It is a young organisation which has grown rapidly. It is a British dominated international organisation with a focus on outbound tourism. It too may have a role in adding its voice to developing a coherent policy for British Battlefield Tourism.

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The other major link is between demand and resources. Military historians play a key role in creating the demand to visit Battlefields. How many battlefield visitors were inspired to visit battlefields by reading military history or by seeing Richard Holmes on TV striding across some battlefield? Perhaps the best example of the influence of military historians on battlefield tourism is the phenomenal success of Stephen Ambrose in chronicling the exploits of Easy Companys Band of Brothers and of Stephen Spielberg in televising them. The Easy Company battlefield tour is very popular. One of the key sites is outside Bastogne where a wood contains the remains of slit trenches occupied by Easy Company. A few hundred yards away is a monument paid for by the actor Tom Hanks and erected in memory of the men of Easy Company who lost their lives. These are battlefield resources created by popular military history and commemorating the work as much as the men. This is where the British Commission for Military History can help to win the battle to attract customers for battlefield tourism for pre 1789 battlefields. If every British military historian picked a British battle and wrote about it we can inspire more people to visit these battlefields.

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NOTE: The views expressed in this paper are those of Frank Baldwin MBA. They do not represent those of the Guild of Battlefield Guides International. Frank Baldwin is a professional battlefield guide, leading his first tour in 1987 to the battlefields of the Seven Years War. He has worked full time in the industry since 2006 when he joined Poppy Travel, the travel arm of the Royal British Legion. He has held a range of management roles in Poppy Travel including marketing and operations and played a significant role in launching their service for Schools and Young people. He is currently responsible for managing their Armed Forces Business, which, until the MOD cutbacks in February 2010, was the largest operator of adult battlefield tours in the United Kingdom. Frank is on the Council of the Guild of Battlefield Guides and is responsible for the Guilds education programme. He holds badge number 08 awarded in 2005. He contributed a chapter on Battlefield Touring for The Dark Side of Tourism edited by Professor Phillip Stone, published in 2008. He founded the London and South East Branch of the Battlefields Trust in 2001. He has been Chairman of the whole Battlefields Trust since March 2009. He has given talks and lead walks on a range of pre 1789 battlefields including Hastings 1066, The Siege of Rochester 11??, and 214, Barnet 1471, the Dutch battle of the Medway 1666 and the Seven Years War battlefields of Germany. He is currently organising the Battlefield Trusts overseas conference and battlefield tour to Flanders which will include many pre 1789 battlefields.
1

Economic impact of heritage tourism, Oxford Economics, 2009. This includes museums and green heritage sites as well as visits to the built historic environment Guild of Battlefield Guides Validation Handbook revised 2006

iii

Name Upon Name: The Great War and Remembrance, in Roy Porter (ed), Myths of the English (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992

Based on the model proposed in The Dark Side of Tourism Larry Dwyer; Chulwon Kim: Destination Competitiveness: Determinants and Indicators; Current Issues in Tourism Volume 6, Issue 5, 2003, Pages 369 - 414 vi Larry Dwyer; Chulwon Kim: Destination Competitiveness: Determinants and Indicators; Current Issues in Tourism Volume 6, Issue 5, 2003, Pages 378 - 380
v

iv

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