Student Spotlight: Peterborough College Journalist Reviews New Mary, Queen of Scots Exhibition at Peterborough Cathedral

Level 3 Journalism Students at Peterborough College stepped outside the classroom to gain real-world industry experience.

Below, Skye Robbins-Coley shares their firsthand report, media coverage and exclusive interview from the New Mary, Queen of Scots exhibition at Peterborough Cathedral:

In Peterborough Cathedral, there is currently an exhibition on Mary, Queen of Scots. As the Journalism team, we went to take a look and see what it has to offer. We took cameras, microphones and equipment. We listened to an amazing speech about the exhibit and what the cathedral has for the future.

Jack Pishhorn, who is the Chief Operating Officer for the Cathedral, gave a speech about how they plan to improve the Cathedral and what events they have upcoming that we are very eager to see. The Cathedral is a very important part of Peterborough history; it helps us all see what happened before our time. The Cathedral has an amazing team who do their best to keep the Cathedral alive and to honour all the history it has seen in its time. John White, who is the curator of this exhibit, also gave an amazing speech on Mary, Queen of Scots and what she means to the Cathedral’s history; you can tell how proud they are and how much they truly care about the history. 

The exhibit had lots of details, and lots of artefacts that belonged to Mary herself. I loved learning about her, her past, her family, places she travelled to and where her story sadly ended. Walking around the exhibit filled me with pride over the fact that this is a community, and how much time and effort that they put into it. Everywhere you looked, there was a fact about her, her life, what she did, what she wanted to do, her childhood, everything that shaped her into who she was. The creators made it such an enjoyable experience; I highly recommend it if you love history or just want to learn about Peterborough history. We were lucky enough to not only experience it but write about it and seize the moment, and it’s an honour to be able to capture the Cathedral for what it is. 

We had the privilege of interviewing the curator of the exhibit, John White, and asking him questions about the making of it and how hard it was to accomplish. “I think the entrance point can be exciting for people who see it for the first time; the big statue is quite impressive” This was John’s response when we asked him what the most exciting part was. John was more than happy to answer any questions we threw his way; he made us feel very comfortable, and he answered every question perfectly. John went into detail about artefacts that were around the exhibition and gave us fun facts on her funeral, her memorial and what part she was buried in. When asked what he wants people to take away from this exhibition, John stated that “I hope they learn about Mary more than they probably did before”, I think that this shows how much dedication he put into this, and how much history means to him. Interviewing John White was a major stepping stone in my journalism story. 

I want to thank everyone for this opportunity. The exhibition was truly eye-opening, and it makes you realise how much history Peterborough holds. Everyone was so kind and very professional.

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Thank you to our Level 3 Journalism student, Skye Robbins-Coley, and the rest Journalism cohort for their fantastic hard work covering this exhibition.