Andrew Bibby
The views expressed in this post are those of the contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of all members of the Gritstone co-operative.
There’s something very sad about an elderly Interpretation Board.
I took a walk the other day along the route of the old canal into Halifax town centre, now a footpath and cycleway and (despite the relics of nineteenth century industry all around) a remarkably green and pleasant stroll. There was something about the way the route had been built which very firmly said Manpower Services Commission to me. Certainly the state of the interpretation boards, hard to read but still in place, suggested a venture dating back to those days of employment creation in the 1980s.
There is no public agency, to the best of my knowledge, charged with the responsibility of looking after old countryside interpretation boards, whether of MSC vintage or otherwise. Perhaps the idea is to let nature take over. The wood of the frame will gradually rot away and the little gobbets of popular education about geological strata or moorland birds will eventually powder away into dust. (Plastic boards may be more problematic, of course).
My ruminations on the lifecycle of interpretation boards got me thinking more generally, though, about this increasingly prevalent aspect of our countryside. You probably have to be prepared to put on some serious hiking boots to guarantee that one won’t be there, waiting for you expectantly and very keen to inform you about exactly what you need to know first before you can properly enjoy your walk.
The theory, of course, is that people – especially those less confident about venturing into the countryside – appreciate being welcomed with a little educational hand-holding. It’s certainly the theory followed by grant-funders. Stick in a budget line for a few interpretation boards and your National Lottery Heritage Fund grant bid will definitely stand a better chance of success. (Admission: I write this as someone who has written successful NLHF bids in the past…)
But I don’t know whether I accept this theory any more. There’s too often something just a little patronising about the whole idea behind interpreting the landscape for us. If people want to see what a merlin looks like, maybe we just encourage them to come with a bird book (or use a smartphone app). If people want to know about, let’s say, the effect of leadmining in the Yorkshire Dales on the landscape, let them buy a book from an outdoor publisher like Gritstone.
A popular movement to chop down all our existing interpretation boards, modelled on the way Puritans took to removing stained glass in churches? Well, perhaps I wouldn’t go quite that far. But a campaign to encourage older interpretation boards to accept voluntary euthanasia might definitely be in order. And a moratorium on any new boards? Well, why not?
Header image: “Derelict Board” © Chiz Dakin/galleries.peakimages.co.uk
