Our new logo
As anyone who has been through a branding – or rebranding – process will know it can be a path strewn with obstacles. The biggest of which can be getting a sizeable group of individuals to agree!
We found Basing House presented a real challenge, simply because it has been so many things – a castle, a grand house, a battle site, an historic park - over so many centuries.
Deciding on a logo that would best represent the site and stimulate interest in it was by no means an easy process. After mulling a large number of ideas during many months of debate, and consultation with colleagues and the wider public, we recently settled on the logo that appears here; a simple, but we hope attractive, image of a musketeer from the Civil War (the period for which Basing House is best known) together with the site name.
For those who are interested, our musketeer is based on an engraving in a series by Jacob De Gheyn for his drill manual “The Exercise Of Armes”, first published in The Hague in 1607.
A lucky find!
The musketeer in our logo is using a “musket rest” - needed because 17th century muskets were long and very heavy so it was probably impossible to take aim with any accuracy without the use of a rest.
17th century musket rest found September 2009
Having made the final decision on the logo you can imagine our surprise when only a few days later, during the ground preparations for one of the first new paths, the object in this picture was unearthed – now identified* as the fork from a 17th century musket rest!
A rather nice and totally serendipitous tie in with our new branding, then, and yet another small piece of evidence testifying to the bloody events at Basing House in the 1640′s.
* Our thanks to Dr.Geoff Egan of Museum of London Archaeology
www.basinghouse.org.uk
