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Marion Blockley | Archaeologist | Interpretive Planner | Heritage Management
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Welcome to Marion Blockley Heritage Management

Hi, I am a heritage consultant and archaeologist who has worked for more than 40 years in the sector. For much of this time I have combined research and conservation with community engagement, activity planning and interpretation.

 

I have a particular interest in helping World Heritage Communities to tell their stories and to care for and act as ambassadors for their World Heritage Sites.

 

For nearly 30 years I have lived and worked in the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site.

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(photography by Dave Bagnall  - image of me with coracle)

News

News

Nov 2019 Hosted 18 Delegates from Norwegian World Heritage Sites

Along with Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust and Telford & Wrekin Destination Management Team I was invited to host a visit by 18 delegates from the World Heritage City of Notodden and Rjukan near Oslo. They were on a study tour to look at international best practice in World Heritage Site Management. 


2015  Invited to speak at an international seminar on World Heritage Sites in Lithuania

Vilnius University and the Lithuanian National Commission for Unesco invited me to be a keynote speaker at an international seminar ‘World Heritage Challenges in Lithuania: Revisiting Vilnius historic centre (1994) and Kernave Archaeological Site (2004)’.


 2012  Study visit to Sweden

The Group for Education in Museums granted me a bursary to undertake a study visit to Sweden to look at examples of best practice in heritage education and interpretation. I visited Skansen Open Air Museum, the Vasa, the royal burial grounds at Gamla Uppsala and the Gustavianum, Uppsala, as well as various museums across Stockholm.

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2011 visit to Swedish Women Entrepreneurs

I was lucky to be selected to travel with a group of women entrepreneurs from the West Midlands to exchange expertise with their counterparts in Vastra Gotaland, the West Midlands of Sweden. Highlights included the remarkable Gota Canal, designed by Thomas Telford, the fortress at Karlsborg and Rorstrand Europe’s second oldest porcelain factory, and now a vibrant centre for creative businesses, designers and training.
 

Media Appearances

Various interviews on radio (Five Live Drive Time, Radio One, Radio Shropshire) regarding flooding of the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site 2020

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Appeared with Dan Snow on BBC 2 Show on the Staffordshire Hoard.

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Making History Radio Four, Staffordshire Hoard

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Making History Radio Four, on the demise of Time Team with Tony Robinson and Professor Barry Cunliffe.
 

Experience

  • Heritage Fund Committee Member Midlands and East of England 2019 onwards
     

  • Heritage Lottery Fund Committee Member West Midlands 2013-2019
     

  • Chair, Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site Steering Group
     

  • Member, Historic Environment Advisory Group National Trust
     

  • Expert Advisor/ROSS to Heritage Lottery Fund
     

  • Director of the Ironbridge Institute and Senior Lecturer in Heritage Management University of Birmingham 1992-2000
     

  • Former Council Member Institute of Field Archaeologists
     

  • Former member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) UK World Heritage Sites Committee and Cultural Tourism Committee.
     

  • Joint Editor of English Heritage/Routledge book Heritage Interpretation (2005)
     

  • Past editor of the periodical Interpretation for the Association for Heritage Interpretation
     

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