Heritage Trust inspires children to explore Gibraltar’s past

A group of 10 children spent a week exploring Gibraltar’s heritage during the Heritage Trust’s summer camp, learning about historic sites while connecting the stories they heard with their own family histories. 

The camp is the second summer programme organised by the Heritage Trust, alongside another held during the mid-term break. 

The chief executive officer at the Heritage Trust, Claire Montado, said the aim was to encourage young people to engage with Gibraltar’s history and understand what makes the Rock unique. 

Mrs Montado said: “Our aim is to expose young people to our heritage, tell them the stories and try to excite them about the past and the people that lived in the past, the stories about the past and the things that surround us every day, what makes us a people, what makes us unique.” 

Throughout the week, the children visited the 100-Ton Gun, the Alameda Gardens, the Old Naval Hospital, St Joseph’s School at South Barracks and South Jumper’s Bastion, home to GBC. 

Mrs Montado said the children were eager to learn and often surprised organisers with the facts they remembered. 

“And I think it's very interesting to hear the questions they come up with and also, afterwards, the facts and stories that they remember and try to apply to their own lives,” she said. 

She added that the experience also encouraged conversations at home, with children comparing what they had learnt during the workshops with stories told by their grandparents. 

“So, I think it works at many levels to help children to connect to their past, but also to connect with their families as well.” 

As part of the camp, each child created a miniature museum inside a box, adding a new item every day based on what they had seen during their visits. 

“At the beginning of the week they had a blank box and, every day, they've been making something to add into the museum related to what they've seen,” Mrs Montado said. 

“So, they made a small model of the 100-Ton Gun, they've found willow pattern pottery in the cemetery, clay pipes, old coins that have been found along the way.” 

The children also created miniature monuments inspired by the busts of the Duke of Wellington and General Sir George Augustus Eliott in the Alameda Gardens, as well as stained-glass designs based on the windows in Central Hall. 

“So, at the end of the day of the week, they'll all have a mini museum to take home.” 

Mrs Montado said one of the biggest challenges for children was understanding the scale of history. 

“I think it's difficult for them to relate to the distances in time between things.” 

“For them, when you're seven or eight years old, you only know eight years' worth of your life and to think of something that was 100, 200, 300 years old is kind of mind-blowing for them, so I think that's been interesting for them.” 

During the workshop, the children enthusiastically shared what they had learnt, noting that the Alameda Gardens is 210 years old and identifying that they were taking part in activities near Witham’s Cemetery.