The life and legacy of Philip Astley, father of the modern circus

Thomason, Carmel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1782-7920 (2018) The life and legacy of Philip Astley, father of the modern circus. Staffordshire University.

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Abstract

The Philip Astley Project was a multi-partner initiative funded by Heritage Lottery and led by Staffordshire University to research and raise awareness of Newcastle-under-Lyme’s historical link to circus, by bringing the past to life in an engaging and accessible way, raising pride in the town’s heritage. A baseline survey revealed 11% of people in Newcastle-under-Lyme had heard of Philip Astley and fewer knew of his connection to the region where he grew up. The 250th anniversary of circus, celebrated nationally in 2018 under the banner of Circus250, provided a timely moment to raise awareness of Astley’s family connections to Newcastle-under-Lyme, which the research has traced over 100s of years. Born in 1742, Astley spent his early life in Newcastle-under-Lyme and is recognised internationally as the ‘father of the modern-day circus’. Academic and Project lead, Dr Carmel Thomason used a participatory research process to embed co-ownership and co-production, working with a group of volunteers from The Brampton Museum and Art Gallery to research primary sources from several archives in the UK and France – including Window Tax Assessments, Apprenticeship Records, Parish Records, Wills, archived letters, newspaper cuttings, playbills – and contemporary published secondary sources to develop a body of work, revealing new insights into the life of Philip Astley, his family history, details of his home and lifestyle, his contribution to military horse training, and the role of Astley’s theatrical performances in shaping recreational life of the period. This research was presented for wide public engagement. These co-created new research insights were compiled into a 17-page Resource Pack for a general audience , which enabled people to understand Astley in the social and political context of his time. The Resource Pack also provides the first comprehensive list of archives holding of relevant materials about Astley to benefit future researchers. A printed edition of the pack was distributed at an event on 28 Nov 2018 and a copy is held in an Astley Archive at The Brampton Museum. It is available electronically via the Philip Astley Project website. An additional activity-based, educational pack for younger children was developed and is available to download via the website. The research was curated into an exhibition at the Brampton Museum: "Philip Astley: His Life and Legacy”. The exhibition included additional loan material from museums including the V & A Museum and Chetham’s Library, brought together archive materials relating to Astley for the first time, including drawings, engravings and prints of Astley’s riding school and amphitheatres, and a recreation of Astley’s Amphitheatre based on a painting from 1806.