Heritage, but not as we know it?

The Migrant, Heritage HQ’s first exhibition created by artists M+R, opened in St Marie’s on Saturday 19th March.

Neil Musson and Jono Retallick are the project’s Heritage Architects – tasked with bringing stories of the borough’s past industries and trades to life in a new way.

Neil and Jono have gathered family stories, exploring where people came from and what work they did, across generations in the Widnes area. These family histories have been recorded by local people in the form of core samples which will go on display in the exhibition

After talking about the exhibition to a couple of Heritage HQ volunteers, one of them commented that a good way of summing it up was ‘heritage, but not as we know it’; a different way of recording and sharing what we know about the past. It’s a bit Star Trek, but it might be right. Come along and see what you think…

You can visit the display any day of the week up until 2nd April (except for Mother’s Day on 27th March).

Matthew (from St Marie’s Heritage Group) created the core sample shown in the photograph below. The different colours represent stages in his journey to St Marie’s. This includes (starting on the right) purple & white for St Luke’s RC Primary School, red & black for Frodsham JFC, orange & black for the University of York, green & white for Halton Community Radio, purple, blue and white for Halton & St Helens VCA and (lastly) blue for St Marie’s.