Technology usually associated with indoor museum tours and satellite navigation systems will help visitors to a coastal headland in Devon discover tales of shipwrecks and smuggling as they explore the area’s hidden coves and rocky outcrops.
The new technology will be tested over the winter by school children and other groups before being made available to the public early next year at Mortehoe Heritage centre. As visitors explore the 200 acre headland, the story of the area’s brutal history of wrecking and smuggling will unfold.
The ‘mediascape’ technology has been used by Bristol company, Interactive Places, to design and create a compelling story for the Trust. Following the six month trial at Morte Point, the technology could be rolled out to more National Trust sites in the future.
Jemma Lowin, warden for the National Trust at Morte Point, said:
'The dramatic geology of the headland together with the area’s chequered history make this the perfect site for testing the new mediascape technology.
Visitors have to make decisions within the story, thereby tailoring their own adventure and making it a bit like starring in your own film.'
The storyteller, Sarah, is a fictional character who lives amongst real historical figures in Mortehoe in 1809. Her story, based around the area’s highly-feared wreckers and smugglers known locally as the ‘Mortemen’, will take visitors on a journey around the point. In the 1800s, on dark stormy nights, the Mortemen were said to have tied lanterns to the tails of their mules. The mules walked around the edge of Morte Point, luring passing vessels into a supposed safe harbour, only to have their boats smashed upon the rocks.
The wreckers would then race down to the waters edge to tackle any sailors struggling to reach the shore before plundering the boats. The bounty hunting was finally brought to an end when a lighthouse was built at nearby Bull Point in 1879.
In 1914 a coastguard’s lookout was built at Morte Point’s highest point, giving far-reaching views over the approaches of the Bristol Channel to help warn of danger from any threat of invasion.
It was also used as a training ground by 22,500 men for the invasion into Europe in the Second World War. Nearby Woolacombe became the temporary headquarters for American forces and Morte Point was used for target practice by anti-tank guns and seaborne artillery. Grass-covered craters are now the only evidence of this turbulent time.
Jemma added:
'When you look at the beautiful scenery today it’s hard to imagine Morte Point’s violent past.'
Last weekend marked 100 years of National Trust stewardship of Morte Point, which has spectacular views across to Lundy Island and the Wales coastline.
Today management of the grassland and heathland habitats are carried out by a combination of sheepgrazing and sympathetic cutting and burning to control the bracken and gorse to maintain the landscape as much as it was 100 years ago. The seas around the point are part of a Voluntary Marine Conservation Area which stretches from Croyde to Combe Martin. If proposals in the Marine Bill, currently before Parliament, are accepted it could one day become a fully protected area, adding to the success of the country’s first Marine Nature Reserve around Lundy Island.
James McQuaid, Learning Advisor at the National Trust, said: 'Where possible we want to use technology to engage with a wider audience, particularly younger people and families who like new and interesting ways of finding out about things.
By using the mediascapes technology, we want to continue to make this site a ‘must see’ for visitors to the area, and hopefully, as with the past 100 years, Morte Point will continue to attract thousands of visitors for centuries to come.'
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