The National Trust has launched the new HistoryScapes storytelling app to provide a “time travel experience” across three of its properties.
HistoryScapes, a partnership with the University of Exeter, brings National Trust estate histories to life through the eyes of ordinary people – a carpenter, a mill worker and a broom maker.
Shannon Hogan, archaeologist for the National Trust, said: “There are many documents and archives representing landowners and the wealthy families who created and lived in some of the trust’s most lavish houses and estates, but far less is known about the people who laboured in these places and kept them going.
“It is their stories that we are connecting with through HistoryScapes, drawing on historical research, and imagining both their inner thoughts and the conversations they had as part of their day-to-day lives.”
She added: “We hope that visitors will enjoy immersing themselves in these stories as they make their way around the estates, following in the footsteps of these fascinating historic characters, learning more about them and their surroundings that survive today.”
The free app takes users on GPS-triggered trails at National Trust properties to connect visitors to landscape heritage, the organisation said in a press release.
Each trail has eight stops hooked to a historic map, and is led by a historical figure, inspired by research into them.
At Saltram house in Devon, guests can interact with carpenter Henry Stockman as he walks around the estate, checks up on his workmen and shares stories of the past.
GPS-triggered trails at National Trust sites
At the Quarry Bank cotton mill in Cheshire, visitors will meet teenage apprentice Frank Scott, and at the Devil’s Punch Bowl in Surrey, they will get to explore alongside broom squire George Mayes.
HistoryScapes’ trail director, David Rosenthal from the University of Exeter, said: “Together we’ve created what might be called digital monuments to an element of heritage that is easily overlooked.”
HistoryScapes’ project lead, Fabrizio Nevola from the University of Exeter, said the initiative “is based on our ongoing research on how well-researched public history can be delivered on smartphones, with a simple yet immersive time-travel experience enabled by this ubiquitous technology“.
The HistoryScapes app is available until the end of 2025.
Images courtesy of National Trust
