Conservation Management Plan - Tamworth Borough Council

A colourful cut away 3D orientation drawing/intro panel (like Sutton House, Hackney) could be used to welcome
visitors. It could also be made available to as a self guided trail leaflet, which could also be downloaded from a
website in advance to aid visitor orientation.
Consultation indicated that visitors would welcome more costumed interpreters, and this might be achieved
through recruiting and training an expanded team of volunteers for living history events.
Policies that relate to these issues:
E1; E2; E3; E6; E8
2.3.36 Intrusive elements and impediments to understanding
Intrusive elements for each room and/or element of the castle are mentioned in the gazetteer entries. The most
intrusive elements occur on the ground floor where the shop/cafe occupies one of the main ground floor rooms
on the south range. The staff kitchen/rest room block is a major intrusion. Likewise the toilets, but there have to be
toilets within the castle and this is probably the least intrusive place for them, although it does act as a block to a
potential circulation route around the medieval ground floor service rooms.
The chair, table and costume store room, in ground floor cellar range. These spaces seem to be currently managed
for the benefit of staff, rather than for the benefit of visitors.
Elsewhere elements are minor but do affect the atmosphere of the building, for example the cream emulsion paint
on the walls of the main dining room on the first floor, in the north range.
Policies that relate to these issues:
A3; C5; E2; E3; E4
2.3.37 Problems of presentation in a multi-phase site/multi-function site
The presentation of Tamworth Castle is challenging for a number of reasons.
The historic furnished room settings act as backdrops for small living history tableaux which tell aspects of the life
of the castle, from medieval, Tudor and Victorian eras. The main hall is also used for a number of different purposes,
such as school visits; weddings and functions. This means that much conventional interpretive media that might be
used to draw visitors’ attention to items of interest are not installed for lack of space and to retain the sense of an
‘authentic’ room set interior.
However much of the interior decor is not as original as it might seem as many elements such as door cases, doors,
fireplaces and panelling were introduced in the 18 th and 19 th century to create an antiquarian interior. This is not
immediately clear to visitors and is an interesting part of the story of the castle and the people who owned it.
Rooms are displayed at specific phases, but may include an eclectic mix of props, for example a replica 13 th century
pottery aquamanile and modern stools from North Africa in a purportedly 17 th century room setting.
This is a particular problem where spaces may carry significance for more than one period such as the Great Hall.
There is a lack of funding to refresh the interpretation, and repair elements such as the peppers ghost talking heads
which have ceased to work.
It has to be presented not only as an ancient monument with a coherent narrative, but also as the town museum for
Tamworth. This makes the presentation challenging. Whilst most rooms are displayed as room sets at a specific date
in the history of the castle, this cannot be presented in a coherent chronological narrative because of the layout and
carrying capacity issues.
Further, half way round the linear sequence of historic rooms the visitor is presented with the Tamworth Story, a
modern social history museum display about Tamworth as a whole. They then move back into historic room set
mode, exploring the narrative of the castle itself. This is confusing, although it is clear that the well interpreted
Tamworth Story remains one of the most popular aspects of the visit, despite its relative age.
Tamworth Castle Conservation Management Plan www.marionblockley.co.uk
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