Hidden Heritage: Underlying Ideologies at Three Welsh Heritage Sites

Abstract

Heritage sites are powerful venues for disseminating and perpetuating local ideologies regarding the contemporary political and economic climate of a nation as well as ideas concerning the best way to move the local area into the future. Such is the case with slate industrial heritage sites in North Wales. By exploring site presentations in addition to interpretations by site staff at each location, I claim that heritage sites in North Wales implicitly represent three variations of the most prominent ideologies in the local area. The underlying narratives at Penrhyn Castle, funded by a British heritage institution, symbolically maintain historical class divisions and speak to the maintenance of Wales under the British government. The National Slate Museum, a site funded by the Welsh National Assembly's heritage committee, represents complete independence from the United Kingdom linguistically, culturally, economically, and politically. Llechwedd Slate Caverns, a privately owned and independently funded si...