
Heritage
Our Heritage projects worked to revive, record and archive stories and skills of traditional crafts, industries, lifestyles, routes and Scheduled Monuments within the Chilterns.

Woodlanders Lives and Landscapes
Woodlanders’ Lives and Landscapes encouraged and trained volunteers to research and investigate how people made a living in Chilterns woodlands and went about their daily lives.
Volunteers researched and presented a series of personal stories in book and video form called ‘In Their Own Words’ which described work in traditional Chilterns’ industries of the 19th and 20th centuries. The stories came from three important collections of oral history interviews recorded onto reel to reel and cassette tapes between the 1950s and the 1980s, which had remained hidden in public and private archives.
All the research carried out by our volunteers has been made publicly available on the Bucks Family History Website and Buckinghamshire Archives.
Celebrating Crafts
This project aimed to engage local people in heritage activities; showcasing and reviving traditional Chilterns crafts and skills. Throughout the scheme we ran a series of craft workshops and demos, such as lacemaking, strawplaiting, chair caning and tambour beading.
In addition, our Chilterns Women conference was an inspiring day celebrating the women who excelled in some of the traditional crafts, skills and work found in the Chilterns National Landscape. From weavers and sculptors, to historians and policy makers, we hosted a range of experts who presented and demonstrated their traditional craft. Read the programme!
“The straw-plaiting workshop has really changed the way will be working with and caring for straw objects in our collection in future. Having detailed knowledge of the material and the way these objects are made will enable us to store them more safely, catalogue them more accurately, and tell their stories in a more well-rounded interesting way.” Emma Treleaven, Collections Manager Amersham Museum

Hidden Hands
A six month exhibition entitled ‘Hidden Hands’ was curated by Woodlanders Lives and Landscapes volunteers in partnership with Wycombe Museum and Bucks New University. The exhibition presented the hidden work of women in the Chiltern’s villages who formed a crucial part of the economy in the 19th and 20th Centuries. The research from the exhibition was also made into a book of the same name, which was part of the Chilterns Stories collection.


The Mystery of Grim's Ditch
Grim’s Ditch stretches through the Chilterns and across Southern England. It encompasses a number of prehistoric banks and ditch linear earth works of different dates, and some areas are a Scheduled Monument. In partnership with Buckinghamshire Council, we aimed to connect people to the history of their landscape and uncover some of the secrets surrounding it.
We engaged with two local Young Archaeologists Clubs, offering visits and presentations, and facilitating artwork and creative writing around the subject. These groups and New Shoots undertook a Geophysical survey of an area where there is a ‘gap’ in the ditch – and they found the ditch! Our project lead also visited schools to educate them about the history of the ditch.
- Discover the area, and our new walking trail through our new virtual tour or downloadable walking route
- Order our original book about Grim’s Ditch here
People and Mills of the Wye
The River Wye was historically an important part of the Chilterns landscape, providing a source of food, water, transport and eventually power for the local communities. This project aimed to connect the local urban community with their local chalk stream, to help increase understanding and protection of the river. As part of this project, 9 new interpretation panels were installed along the Wye and volunteers researched the Wye’s habitat, wildlife, heritage and history. Chiltern Rangers and Wycombe Museum also held River Wye related events, such as paper making, making dyes from natural materials and learning more about coppicing and charcoal, all activities which would have historically happened along the River Wye.


Routes to the Past
This project used volunteers to analyse LiDAR information, summarising what is known about 81 historic routes of the Chilterns, which have been plotted on an interactive map. In addition, four new ‘Routes to the Past’ circular walks have been developed. Each trail has four waymarkers with unique stories to tell.
This project also arranged a day for groups of students from local schools to combine art with nature along natural routeways. The students undertook kick sampling surveys on the River Wye, cleared hedgerows of litter, planted wildflowers and created artwork with Chiltern Rangers’ artist in residence, Dan Wilson.
