Dott 07

Dott 07’s Mapping the Necklace takes place in The Durham Necklace Park. Durham’s Necklace Park - now part of the City’s Masterplan - arose from the public’s strongly expressed desire to have greater access to the riverside and heritage sites in the surrounding area. What is exciting and remarkable about this project is that for the first time in Durham City’s history, the public is encouraged to explore and feel real ownership of their environment. And it is being done by arrangements amongst communities, agencies and landowners, who are willing to create the Necklace Park in such a fragile environment because it is “ephemeral”: a shifting set of paths and places, no fences, no concrete, no roads being built, just a series of arrangements to access, explore and play.

Realising this public dream is not without its challenges, and that is the role of the Necklace Park’s highly dedicated professional management team. Firstly, though the pathways are public, most of the land itself is owned by private landlords, which means access involves a mixture of door-knocking, deal making and diplomacy. Next, pathway accessibility, information and crossings have had to be funded for necessary improvement. Finally, communicating far and wide this concept of open – but very careful – access is almost a full time job in itself!

Dott 07’s Mapping the Necklace project is an example of a growing number of highly successful community-based projects which have increased the Necklace Park’s visibility and popularity. Dott’s specially set-up Mapping the Necklace Team worked for four months to encourage both local and regional residents and visitors from around the world to “map the Necklace”, and the tip of this iceberg of furious activity was the May Bank Holiday Weekend, May 5-7.

Put simply, mappers were invited to do almost anything they wanted to do in the park (as long as they did not leave a mark) and make a record of their experiences on film, camera or paper.



Mapping the Necklace can be...

• Recording a journey by you, by others, by wildlife

• Recording a trail you want others to follow... from wildlife to garlic to abandoned mines

• Recording an activity, a performance, a sport that uses the Necklace Park as a venue

• Recording the Park’s geography, either physical, cultural, current or historic

• Recording sounds, sights, stories and music

What is the point of Mapping the Necklace?

Mapping communicates information in a unique, personal and creative way. It is an exciting way of gathering knowledge about the Necklace Park but from the users’ point of view. The feedback from the Mapping weekend and the four months of public mapping build-up that preceded it has had an enormous impact on the Necklace Park management team and their mission. From a marketing perspective, it was hugely successful in terms of the public interest it generated. From February to the present day, over 800 mappers including local residents and online visitors across the globe, have donned their real-life and virtual walking boots to do their thing.

‘As people realise what the Necklace Park is about, it makes it more possible to do things like get funding – to get arts and other projects off the ground. It brings a visibility to the land and the pathways’ Susan Williamson, Senior Producer, Mapping the Necklace

The Mapping project also provided priceless information to the Park management team about how the park is perceived, areas of special interest and some of the things that are possible in the park for potential users. Apart from generating public interest in the park, the various interesting, innovative and unusual things that the mappers did are currently being made into 20 short films to be displayed at the Dott 07 Festival. In some cases the films are about groups, in some cases they are about individuals but it is all a fun, moving and interesting insight into how the public come to love, ‘own’ and enjoy their rivers and pathways in a low-impact way.

How can I get involved?

Mapping the Necklace continues in an informal way. Anyone can map the Necklace! If you’d like to get involved, log onto the website. You will be able to ‘meet’ other mappers and you can also add comments about your own mapping experiences. There has been so much interest in the ‘Park’ that funding, programmes, groups and action plans are developing quickly to take the Necklace Park forward. By getting involved, you will be taking part in a large scale community project that promises to influence how the public experience Durham from now into the future. Exciting stuff!

If you would like to know more about the work of the Necklace Park management team, please visit the Durham Necklace Park website where you will also get information about up and coming events organised in and around the Necklace Park.

If you would like further information about the Necklace Park or Mapping the Necklace please email Claire or Becky or you can contact the Necklace Park team directly on 0191 383 3041.

Further information:

Mapping the Necklace has been carried out by Cornerstone Strategies/The Chambers, the consultants who have been fundamental to the creation of the Necklace Park over the past three years as part of their four year appointment as Durham Visioning experts, They have worked closely with the Durham Necklace Park management team in their role as venue managers during the Dott project and sought to ensure that Dott’s Mapping project brought real benefit to the Necklace Park. The Durham Necklace Park project in now a strategic priority within the Durham 2020 Vision.

Mapping the Necklace formed part of North East England's world-class festival and events programme.