‘Wants more capital than labour’: visiting the Harmony Hall site from 1839–2022

SUMMARY: Visiting, or observing a site in its surrounding environment, is a key point of archaeological and heritage assessment and research. This paper examines historic and contemporary site visits to Robert Owen’s 1830s agricultural community at Harmony Hall. The site was described in letters, in articles, and in visual culture throughout the nineteenth century, after which the site became overgrown. The site itself is telling of some of the reasons behind the community’s early problems, and the reasons behind its ultimate transformation from a community to a school. Today, both the agricultural community and the school are gone. This paper explores the site in the past and today, situating Harmony Hall within its historic and contemporary landscape. Drawing on place-based approaches to heritage sites, experience, and interpretation, this paper outlines the interpretive value in critical ‘visiting’ as a method for assessing sites with a complicated histories like Harmony Hall.