A Tale of Three Castles: Gothic and Heritage Management

Abstract

In this chapter I will be thinking about Gothic in relation to heritage management, taking for my case studies three castles from different economic sectors. In the first section I will be looking at Warwick Castle, which is owned and managed by the entertainments company Merlin. In the second section, I will be turning my attention to forms of Gothic tourism at Alnwick Castle, which is owned by the Percy family, and is the centrepiece of the family estates and businesses. In the third section I will be returning to Berry Pomeroy Castle, not only because it is managed by English Heritage, the largest of the heritage organizations in England, and, at the time of writing, a state-funded body, but also because it has ghost traditions to manage.¹ I will be considering the way these castles are presented and interpreted, looking at the different kinds of visitor experience they offer, and thinking about the relationship of each with the discourses and tropes of the Gothic.