ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how a community in Northern England is consciously using cultural heritage to engender a sense of place. Castleford, West Yorkshire (Figure 7.1), is a small town in the throws of deindustrialization. Although known primarily as a coal-mining town, Castleford was also home to a range of other industries, most of which have now closed. The loss of these industries, together with the aftermath of the 1984-5 miners’ strike, has shaken community cohesion and pride. The strong social ties that tightly bind communities centred on specific industries, and in particular coal mining, are well documented (see Richards 1997; Crang 2001; Hutton 2005 for coal; and also Bruno 1999; Nadel-Klein 2003; Stenning 2005 for other industries). However, mass job losses and unemployment have threatened the stability of these ties. During the miners’ strike1 the Thatcher Conservative Government targeted and attacked the social and cultural bedrock that underpinned the identity of mining communities. With the closure of industries, many of the industrial buildings, pits, machinery, high-density terraced housing and the ‘back-to-backs’2 that were supplied to mine and other workers were torn down and redeveloped – the slate, so to speak, was wiped clean. The authorized heritage discourse cannot readily recognize that Castleford has any ‘heritage’ left, as memory alone is untrustworthy without the material evidence. However, many residents of Castleford who, in a range of ways, are self-consciously creating a new heritage and range of memories linked to existing memory and experience, do not accept this. This chapter examines the ways in which heritage is understood and actively used in Castleford to redefine community identity and cohesion.
