Rochester, in England, has a problem. Medway Council currently has no tourism department. IE training finds ways to increase visits.
Rochester, a picturesque jewel in south-east England, has a problem.
In April 2024 Medway Council tourism department closed as a cost cutting measure. Businesses must now be responsible for increasing visits to our towns.
Mid 2024, Medway Council launched Round 3 of ‘Shared Prosperity Funding’, aimed at ‘levelling up’ deprived areas following the Covid-19 pandemic. It was divided into three application ‘strands’, and Mrs Baker’s Medway Theatre Company Ltd, of which I am a director, applied under the ‘Pride in Place’ segment.
I argued that:
- Low pay also leads to only hobbyists coming forward to do the job – for pocket-money rather than for proper reward.
- Medway Arts Tours prove that it is possible to charge visitors an appropriate fee and to pay above minimum wage.
- Both youth and diversity need to be reflected by our costumed guides telling stories of our dockside towns.
We were awarded £17,851. Of this, £9,833 purchased the TourTalk 100 system – protecting guide voices and limiting sound bleed. The rest was used for upskilling local people with the Interpret Europe’s Certified Interpretive Guide (CIG) and Module for Live Interpretation (MLI) training – in a first for IE training delivered in the UK.
We aimed for 15 places but ended up with seven people on the course. The course was an intense 7- day period, running from 3-9 March 2025.
The IE trainers did a magnificent job combining the CIG course with the MLI module. Participants produced a range of real characters – giving insight into difficult or challenging topics, with interpretive talks on their choice of phenomenon. Characters included: a 17th century statesman (played by a person of colour) with a backstory about his fortune coming from the slave trade; a champion female swimmer c.1900; from 1871 a chimney sweep – too tall to go up chimneys and a professional mourner; an 18th century ‘lady of the night’; a ‘gong-scourer’ cleaning Rochester Castle and a lady milliner, making fashionable ‘cloche’ hats in her shop in Rochester High Street in 1920.
All participants are now eagerly completing their ‘homework’, in order to obtain the final certification. In the month since training, three participants have delivered paid work, and another two have work lined up.
Thanks to the involvement of Interpret Europe, international awareness of Medway is reaching a global audience. International visitors are booking Medway Arts Tours as a result of online PR about the IE training of our guides. Visitors are also reaping the benefits of interpretive talks devised using IE methodology.
Here is just one of the reviews we have received since we started road-testing these new offers:
“From the moment we arrived we realised we were in for a treat. For fear of spoiling the magic, I won’t go into too much detail. Suffice to say we would totally recommend this guided tour. A must for everyone. Our guides were passionate about Rochester and its famous inhabitants. Entertaining, knowledgeable and engaging. Thank you all so much for making our visit so special.” Lisa, UK 16 March 2025.
The next round of shared prosperity funding has been launched in Medway – so watch this space!
If you are in the UK, you can book Medway Arts Tours on https://www.getyourguide.com/rochester-uk-l4661/
Kate Mechedou was Creative Director of Past Pleasures Ltd until 2020. Kate is now director of Mrs Baker’s Medway Theatre Company Ltd, producing historically inspired performances, and Medway Arts Tours. Kate is a co-director of Medway Play Lab CIC and helped to write Medway Cultural Strategy. She can be contacted at: kate.mbmtc@gmail.com.
To cite this article: Tomljanović, Ileana (2024) ‘A heritage with moustaches‘ in Interpret Europe Newsletter 4-2024, pg.13-14.
Available online: https://interpret-europe.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Newsletter-2024_4.pdf
