LOCAL MARITIME AND SOCIAL HERITAGE AND ITS ROLE IN INCLUSIVITY
‘Supporting Heritage, Creating Opportunity, Embracing Social Responsibility’
In this project, we believe that the combination of the fabric, the culture, and the stories of the community have important heritage value. These are some of the elements that we want to protect, share, and celebrate ensuring that more people can benefit and help shape the heritage value.
The shed and the boat form the fabric along with the many other sheds and boats on Gallows Point. The people who work them with their unique skills and knowledge complete the fabric handing down traditions and customs associated with their life and trade. A place where people continue to go well after retirement often working into their 80s. The tangible aspects of Heritage.
Culture is the customs, beliefs, and traditions that have been handed down with an understanding built up over many years of the natural environment - particularly the tides, banks and channels of the Menai Strait. It has included over the years, religious and ideological beliefs, work practices and customs, all fusing with the world and local maritime folklore.
Do these questions tempt you to find out more?
Why ought a boat not be launched on a Friday?
Why is there a coin placed under the mast?
Does a frog’s leg bone stripped by ants and immersed in a ‘slow flowing stream’ really help your boat go faster?
Why are the planks for the Centre Plate box the size they are?
The stories are endless. Many are based on just a grain of truth, others a definitive recording of a historical event or incident.
‘I know she leaks. She’s done that since we launched her in 1952! I’ll fix it again for you.'
‘She was either burnt after being irrevocably damaged in ’58 or lost in the storm of ‘63’.
‘No, she wasn’t.'
‘How do you know – you weren’t even born?’
‘We’ve found her. She’s actually a henhouse in Barmouth!’