If we’d be able to run this year’s History Festival as planned, it would have been called the ‘Mayflower International History Festival’ and been part of Plymouth’s Mayflower 400 commemorative programme.
Things have obviously ended up being quite different, but in honour of what should have been, we’re ending our 2020 online event with a weekend that explores the Mayflower’s journey and its legacy. The content we have scheduled for the next two days includes a live Q&A, insights into the extensive research that’s been carried out, links to lots of information and videos, and storytelling. We hope you find something to enjoy or which provokes thought.
Mayflower 400 is a unique opportunity to showcase Plymouth’s exceptional heritage and celebrate the many organisations and people who help make this such a vibrant place to live and visit. While the pandemic has disrupted the plans that had been so carefully put in place, a lot of hard work is now taking place behind the scenes to move as much activity as possible to later in the year and 2021, from headline events through to smaller projects commissioned through the Mayflower Community Sparks Fund.
More information about the revised programme will be released as soon as it’s confirmed through the Mayflower website, Facebook page and Twitter feed. In the shorter term, as restrictions are eased, keep an eye out for projects that are already underway or completed, such as the new Mayflower Trail markers around the Barbican and improvements to the public realm outside the historic Prysten House.
Try the Mayflower Trails Self-Guided Tour App, which turns your mobile device into a personal GPS tour guide and connects with the trail markers around the Barbican.
Discover more about the Dutch city of Leiden, where many of the Mayflower passengers lived before embarking on their voyage to North America.
Find out more about the Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire communities where the story of many of the Mayflower’s passengers is grounded.
We hope we’ll see you again at 11am for a brilliant Live Q&A between Dr Kathryn Gray, Associate Professor (Reader) in Early American Literature at the University of Plymouth, and Jo Loosemore, Curator of the ‘Mayflower 400: Legend and Legacy’ exhibition for The Box.
Plymouth History Festival 