ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to examine the notion of ‘sense of place’ through the ways in which a place relates to and promotes its own past. ‘Heritage’ is often seen as something that imbues a town, district or region with a ‘sense of identity’ that somewhat dispiritingly is often boiled down to a promotional tool for the garnering of visitors. British roads for instance, are now bedecked with signs welcoming travellers to heritage high spots such as ‘Robin Hood country’. Such is the desperation of some places to find a marketable identity that they even promote themselves as the settings for television fictions. This search for a ‘selling point’ encapsulated in a slogan is superficial of course, because every place, however that term may be defined, is too complex to be reduced to a single sentence. Indeed, the search for something unique in a place is ultimately self-deluding. If we believed every bit of tourist sloganeering then we would presume that the whole country is surrounded by impressive beaches, every corner of the countryside has something to marvel at and every community offers the warmest welcome you could ever wish to receive. At such a level, there must surely be very little difference between for example, one sweeping range of hills and another.
