The Town and parishes of the Wayland Partnership have long been interested in protecting and conserving their heritage assets and the most important of these are the 18 mediaeval churches which support the spiritual life of the communities. At the time of our initial community consultation, there was great interest in researching, not just the architecture of the individual buildings but also the history of the villages and the communities for which the churches have been the cultural and spiritual centres for hundreds of years.

At the first ever MTI workshop in Cambridge, where the focus was on heritage, we met with William Wall of the Local Heritage initiative, and the seed of an idea began to grow.

We contacted the Bishop of Norwich, the Rural Dean, who was also at that time the Priest in charge of three of the parishes, the other local clergy and the PCCs to put forward the idea of a research project which would meet the heritage interests of the communities but would also have a benefit to the Developing Tourism project which is at the core of the regeneration of the area.

Although some of the village PCCs were a little anxious about the management of the project there was general agreement that it should go forward and with the agreement also of the Partners, a bid was made to the local heritage initiative for around £20,000 of funding of which a significant part of the match funding would be the time given by the community.

The project which was launched in November 2002 was intended to be a year long project ending in December 2003. The project experienced a major setback, however, when the Norfolk Records Office decided to close to the general public in order to move to new premises, but the community was not daunted. The work continued under the leadership of the newly appointed Events and Tourism Officer, using a range of alternative resources, including the human resources within the villages, the tombstones, records still held in the parishes, the Norfolk Museums Service, the clergy and so on.

During the period of the project the town of Watton worked with Radio Norfolk on the National 'Voices’ project which established a relationship with the BBC team that has brought many benefits, not the least of which was the offer to create audio tours of the churches. Working with the local communities, a CD has been recorded for each of the 18 churches with heritage information and reminiscences which capture the spirit of the churches as nothing else could.

The practical outcomes of the project are a wonderful guide for the 18 churches and the audio tours. The real benefit has been to the teams of individuals who have research and learned and gained confidence throughout the experience, ably led by Bronwen and Kevin, keen local historians, supported by Jenny with her artistic skills by the Partnership staff team, notably first Gina and then Claire, the Events and Tourism Officers.

The Heritage project was completed in March 2004. Now it is time for Phase 2 - the Tourism Project - to take over; thirty of the volunteers have been trained as tour guides as a part of the project and they will lead their first tours on April 24th.