Radio 1 Big Weekend helped put us on map says hall’s new director
FOR YEARS it has been one of the region’s best-kept secrets.
And taking up her new post the same weekend 60,000 people were flocking to Radio 1’s Big Weekend may have been a baptism of fire.
But Susan Hopkinson, the new director at Burton Constable Hall, which hosted the event last month, believes it has helped put the spectacular Elizabethan architectural gem, set in parkland near Hull, on the map.
Mrs Hopkinson took over as the director of the Burton Constable Foundation, which owns and runs the hall, following the retirement of Dr David Connell.
Her responsibility covers the hall, its extensive collections of fine and decorative art and furniture and Capability Brown landscape. Mrs Hopkinson previously worked at Normanby Hall in North Lincolnshire, where she was museum manager, and then its director for nine years.
Around half the tickets for the Big Weekend went to local people, some of whom had never visited before.
She said: “Clearly having the Radio 1 Big Weekend onsite on my first weekend in post was quite a baptism of fire. I don’t think I could have joined at a more exciting time, with the legacy of the Big Weekend and the huge profileraising it involves. It certainly has put us on the map, even for local people, who don’t realise we are here.”
Visitor figures – which will exclude the 60,000 who went to the Big Weekend – nearly doubled last year to 30,000 and should rise again this year.
Mrs Hopkinson said Dr Connell had left a lasting legacy “both in terms of his curatorial knowledge and expertise embodied in the high standards for care of the collections and research, and his passion for stewardship of the grounds and landscapes surrounding the house”.
He had also driven the huge Heritage Lottery Fund restoration of the stables to improve visitor facilities. In September, the hall will again host the Cornucopia music and arts festival.