Meet the Researcher: My Journey to Kington and This Project

Hello, I'm Rebecca Burns and I am delighted to be beginning this research together with the community of Kington.

I wanted to write this post early in the project because I think it matters that you know something about who I am, what brought me here, and why this place and this research question mean so much to me personally. Research is shaped by the person doing it, and thought you might be interested in my 'why'.

How I Came to Herefordshire

I first came to Herefordshire over a decade ago because of love and stayed, and now I also love the town, the landscape, and the people. There's something about the hills, the footpaths, the deep sense of accumulated history in the fields and hedgerows and local stories, that felt immediately like somewhere I could belong.

Over the years, what began as a personal fascination with place, folklore, and the ways communities carry knowledge about where they live gradually became something more focused. I found myself asking questions I couldn't answer through personal reflection alone.

Why do some places hold such strong meaning for people?

How is that meaning passed on, or lost?

What happens to a community's sense of self when the stories attached to its places stop being told?

Those questions have led me to my PhD.

My Background and Research

My background brings together academic research, creative practice, and community work.

I've spent years exploring how stories, traditions, and everyday rituals shape our sense of connection to place and to each other, not as abstract ideas, but as lived, practical things that matter to real people in real communities.

At the University of Worcester, I now have the privilege of pursuing those questions through rigorous research.

My PhD sits at the intersection of oral history, creative practice, and place-based studies, and it asks a specific question:

Can a set of oracle cards, made from the stories and memories of Kington residents, help people develop a deeper, more sustained connection to their local landscape?

It's a question that only Kington can help me answer.

Why Kington

I chose to base this project in Kington because it's a place I know and care about, and because I believe that the most meaningful research happens when a researcher is genuinely embedded in the community they are working with.

That embeddedness brings real advantages, such as established trust, contextual knowledge, and an understanding of the rhythms and relationships of local life. But it also brings responsibilities.

As both a researcher and a local resident, I'm committed to handling everything shared with me with care, rigour, and respect.

Your stories are not data points; they're expressions of knowledge and experience that deserve to be treated accordingly.

What I Hope We Can Build Together

I hope that by the end of this project, Kington will have something lasting, a set of oracle cards that carries the genuine knowledge and memory of its residents, and a body of research that demonstrates why that kind of community knowledge matters and how creative formats can help keep it alive.

But more than the outputs, I hope the process itself will be worthwhile. Every conversation, every story shared, every moment of connection between people and the places they love, that's what this research is really made of.

If you'd like to get involved, I'd love to hear from you. Here's how you can join us

I'm supervised by Dr John Cussans and Desdemona McCannon at the University of Worcester, and this research has been submitted for ethical approval to the University's Education, Culture and Society Research Ethics Panel.