Forres Conservation & Heritage Scheme Heritage Workshops

Last week we kicked off our community engagement sessions with 3 Heritage Workshops

 Keep an eye on our Facebook page for future community engagement and wider consultation.

The 3 events were held in the Falconer Museum and we welcomed Forres business owners, representatives from community groups, charities, schools and local councillors.

The purpose of the workshops was to start exploring and sparking ideas of what a Forres “Heritage Quarter” could look like.

What is Heritage Quarter?

A “heritage quarter” focusses on the HISTORICAL UNIQUENESS of an area.

This usually centres activity on a cluster of buildings and aims to develop a unique SENSE of PLACE.  It can attract visitors to the area, making it easy to recognise, to learn about and engage with our heritage.

  Online promotion, trails, signs, easily accessible information for all ages are some of the tools that can be used.

What could a “Forres Heritage Quarter” look like?

We are so lucky in Forres to have lots of amazing historic assets in and around the conservation area. There are so many options and opportunities on what it would cover, what it could include and what themes could be developed.

It doesn’t even have to be called the “Forres Heritage Quarter”, it could have a more creative, unique name!  All suggestions welcome!

Our evening started with a welcome and introduction from our chair, George Alexander.

Followed by an overview of the Falconer Museum collection from heritage consultant, Helen Avenell.  The full findings from Helen’s work will be available on the blog very soon so watch this space!

At the workshops we explored the topics of:

1.       Enterprise: how could we generate income from the “heritage quarter”?

2.       Tourism: how could we encourage tourists and visitors to the area, what could we offer?

3.       Community:  how could we encourage the community to get involved, grow skills and knowledge?

4.       Education & Learning: how could we make it easier for all ages to engage and get involved?

There were some really positive discussions and brilliant suggestions and ideas put forward from all groups and workshops.  It was great to see everyone so engaged and excited about creating a Heritage Quarter!

Thank you to all participants for their time and support, we will be pulling all the ideas together and then sharing with the wider community to gather their feedback before preparing a Development Plan.  

A special thank you to our excellent facilitators: Helen Avenell, June Burnett, Gemma Cruickshank, Yvonne Joss, Stacey Toner, Sandra Maclennan, George Alexander & Michelle Gillibrand.