Remembrance

Abstract

This chapter examines Hull’s distant-water fishery in transition from active industry to maritime heritage, placing it as the final yet ongoing episode in the history of the industry. It draws upon theories of place memory, heritage dissonance, Smith’s Authorised Heritage Discourse and Robertson’s concept of Heritage from Below to deliver an account of how one community’s feelings of disinheritance led to community protest and alternative expressions of heritage. It reveals a messiness of remembering, where heritage is contested between elite and grassroots organisations, between civic and community needs and between and within communities themselves. From previous chapters, the understanding gained of the extreme nature, place-based attachments, close knit networks and rapid contraction of Hull’s fishery offers a deeper insight into the processes of heritage and why remembrance became of such community importance. Amidst tangible successes and losses, the chapter also suggests that the struggle for remembrance itself has unintentionally become a form of intangible heritage, keeping the past meaningful and alive in a way that a fixed representation may not have achieved. Ultimately, the outcome is one of reclaimed identity and belonging through an ongoing conversation with the past.