Visualising a lost industrial past
Land of Iron
Client: North York Moors National Park
Location: North Yorkshire
Timescale: 2017-19
Conserving the heritage and wildlife of a post-industrial landscape returned to nature
Land of Iron tells the fascinating story of a period of trailblazing industrial growth and exploitation in the North York Moors. With support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the project has conserved some of the few remaining structures and the wildlife that has reclaimed them, ensuring history and habitats are never forgotten.
Core delivered Land of Iron interpretation across the national park, including an interactive exhibition at the Moors National Park Centre and a suite of high-quality outdoor interpretation at numerous sites around the region.
Outdoor interpretation and furniture features sculptural interventions and subtle no-tech interactives. Cast iron topographic map tables help visitors orient themselves within the landscape, while Corten panel silhouettes reimpose historic structures back onto key viewpoints. The fabric of this industrial heritage is reflected in the manufacture of interpretive structures, with panel posts made from reclaimed railway tracks and outdoor furniture forged from cast iron and heavy-duty oak.
At the Moors National Park Centre, we developed hands-on, tactile, digital and scenic displays to engage family audiences and encourage wider exploration of the national park. The exhibition includes an immersive mine shaft experience and four-wall digital media animation, depicting the rise and fall of the ironstone mining industry, set over lightbox graphics that form a glowing iron ore seam.
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A key outcome of this project was to help visitors understand and envisage an industrial landscape that has all but vanished from what we see today. We achieved this by creating outdoor interpretation that lets people visualise the region’s lost industrial heritage and appreciate its rich natural biodiversity.
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