Back in May, Rye Town Council put Kulturminnefondet (The Norwegian Cultural Heritage Fund) in touch with us to help facilitate a visit to Rye with most of their employees. Kulturminnefondet is a governmental organisation directly subject to the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment. Their mission is to help preserve and protect the cultural heritage of Norway and each year they arrange an overseas visit seeking inspiration from other countries to see how they manage and preserve their heritage.
They chose Rye after some considerable research and wanted to see the town model and the Story of Rye, to hear about how we “do” Heritage in this country, to have a guided walk of the town and to visit the nature reserve at Rye Harbour. We were very pleased to welcome them and to put them in touch with the right people.
On the June 19 their party of 17 started the day with a tour of the Heritage Centre and heard how charities and volunteers in this country are the lifeblood of the heritage sector, often operating independently and battling for limited funding opportunities. They watched the Story of Rye and were amazed at what had been achieved to regenerate the town model over the last five years by a small group of people with minimal resources.
I had arranged with our colourful Town Crier, Paul Goring, to meet them afterwards and escort them on an informative tour of the town. Before they left us they were treated to a bellowing welcome cry from Paul and presented us with some traditional gifts representing their culture and a very generous donation to our funds.
After the tour they made their way down to Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. The Discovery Centre manager Gesine Garz had this to say: “The Norwegian delegation visited Rye Harbour Nature Reserve and the Discovery Centre on Thursday, June 19. They went for a guided reserve walk with our ranger Matt and our visitor experience manager Arthur, who spoke to them about the multitude of species present in the reserve and the way we incorporate local history into our offer and interpretation. After their walk, we welcomed them into the Discovery Centre for refreshments and a chat about the commercial operation of the Centre and our education programme.”
The group were very enthusiastic about Rye and Rye Harbour and even left us some lovely presents from their Norwegian hometown of Røros.
I understand that some of them even disrobed and took a dip in the sea, they were after all visiting on one of the hottest days, quite a contrast from their home region, being one of the coldest parts of Norway!
They ended their busy day with a visit to the famous Mermaid Inn to soak up even more of our rich and varied history. Judith Blincow tells me they were a pleasure to host and she was relieved not to mistake them for Germans as she had recently done with another group…
If anyone fancies sponsoring us we’d love to reciprocate with a quick trip to Norway, I don’t think our government would accept the expenses claim!
Image Credits: Arthur Sloman .